040: marucoporoporo - Cycle Of Love
By my quick reckoning, it was the 2013 release of Cuushe's incredible Butterfly Case LP that first led me to discover the Japanese record label FLAU. Based in Tokyo, the label has been hand-delivering beautiful music since 2006, curating a signature sound that shimmers through each and every release they put their name through. Enchanting and golden, like dappled sunlight upon water (and if that sounds like poetic nonsense then hit play on any record in their catalogue and watch the light in the room change).
Still going strong to this day, FLAU recently release the debut album from marucoporoporo, a songwriter based in Ama, Aichi Prefecture, in Central Japan. Fusing half-submerged vocals with exploratory stretches of soft ambient, Conceive the Sea is a miraculous piece of music, a dizzying escape from the hustle and bustle of every day life.
A beautiful weaving of shapes, colours, and varying textures, where similar music could simply wash over you, here it feels like a journey you're pitched right into the heart of; like waking up in a world you recognise but can't quite understand. The albums written introduction describes the work here as "ambient reveries with echoes of gossamer folksong" and it seems illogical to try and find a better way to define it than that.
In places it's delicate and strikingly pretty, but there's always a shadow looming, a short moment of grey mist lingering in the periphery, never allowing the listener to feel completely sure of their surroundings. And it's that ambiguity that will keep you coming back for more, sneaking back into this world, where time does quite make sense the way that it should.
Conceive the Sea is out now, via FLAU
~
three / six / five is a daily music-sharing project from gold flake paint; read more about the idea here
If you enjoy this content please consider a paid subscription ~ or buy GFP a cup of coffee via ko-fi
E m b r a c e
S i n c e r i t y
