This is the first collaborative full-length release by Japan’s Opitope, the duo of Chihei Hatakeyama (Kranky, Room40) and Tomoyoshi Date (FlyRec), and Asuna (spekk, Headz). Listeners familiar with Opitope’s majestic 2007 release “Hau,” or any of the more recent output by Asuna, Hatakeyama or Date, will find much to love here. Across the albums’ nine tracks, gossamer webs of treated sound (made from all manner of plaintive piano, rubbed strings, delicately picked guitars and evocative accordian, vibraphone and sampling) hover, resonate, ebb and disperse. Paradoxical as it may seem, there is a painstaking effortlessness to this music. In some ways, “Sunroom” feels like a perfect followup to “Hau,” with one critical distinction. Where that previous release, as with Asuna’s wonderful “THIS” double disc and much of Hatakeyama’s recent solo work, focused principally on textures and abstraction, here an added emphasis is placed on songcraft. Ultimately, we might best situate these recordings alongside Date’s 2008 masterpiece “Human Being,” as there is, to be sure, a similar playfulness, deftness of juxtaposition, accessibility, and sincere reverence to be found in the radiant compositions of “Sunroom.” Throughout the album’s duration, the masterful, capable hands of Date, Hatakeyama and Asuna, craft miniature, effervescent gems of songs which swell and bloom like the changing of seasons or the passage of time in memory. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
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