Opitope — Hau

Hau is the debut of Japanese duo Tomoyoshi Date and Chihei Hatakeyama, who call themselves Opitope. Chehei released his solo debut album last year on the Kranky label, which I have yet to hear. Hau's music was created using acoustic and electric guitars, bass, piano, vibraphone and electronics. Though the natural instruments are processed and augmented with electronics, the sound of the album is not at all pixellated. There is a naturalist approach to the album which is at once subtle and remarkably complex.

The track titles reflect the detailed beauty of this music. The title of the first track, A White Cloth Falling from the Snow Branches, sounds almost ludicrously difficult to represent in sound. It also sounds dangerously close to a New Age title. The music steers well wide of any such cheesiness, however. It perfectly evokes the title by providing a calming piece of music, which flutters and flows like...well, you get the point. The duo describes this album as a depiction in sound of a trip from north to south. It also deals with overlapping images of the changes of seasons, which represent a never ending cycle. For this reason, elements of sound which appear at the beginning of Hau reappear in different form toward the end.

The instruments can all be easily identified; the guitars, partly acoustic, partly electric are picked at, while the organ plays warm, extended tones. Voices, which sound sourced from field recordings, drift in and out of the mix. The electronics are used in an unobtrusive manner, and do not sound out of place. Hau as a whole is almost unrelentingly upbeat, however it avoids sentimentality. It's not upbeat in a fast or bouncy way. It's a remarkably warm album, which takes its time to tell an imaginary tale. It's also an unexpectedly accessible work. It's easy to imagine people enjoying this who aren't remotely interested in ambient music (which I will call this for lack of a better term). Devotees of such music will be impressed as well, because it's a detailed and brilliantly performed work. Hau deserves to be regarded as a landmark recording, let's hope it gets the recognition it deserves.

In what has become a standard from Spekk, the packaging of this disc is nice as well. It comes in an over-size digipak sleeve graced with a watercolor painting by Shinji Miyazawa. Do yourself a favor and pick this up.