The music on this wonderfully understated and flowing album combines much of the best parts of Yokota’s pallet. The jumpy, cutup fragments of sound, the moody atmospheres and pinpoint editing, and combines them with the slow Morricone like guitar playing of Rothko’s Mark Beazley. Caroline Ross who appears on only about half of the tracks provides the perfect human complement to the landscapes provided.

The first track Deep In Mist is a case in point where a house like drum loop is combined with melancholic distant piano chords and a lonely sounding vocal from Ross. Instantly affecting and containing far more soul (for want of a better description) than Yokota’s solo work. Minimal bass and guitar augment the song in parts with little electronic touches drifting in and out of the mix.

Waters edge has the hand of Yokota all over it featuring his trademark vocal cutup loops and inch perfect rhythms. As he has done in the past he integrates piano into the digitalis like a hand to glove.
Path fades into Forest is another moody ambient song that focuses more on the guitar sounds but also has some house beats fading in and out in a manner that would in less accomplished hands sound forced. But everything is perfectly paced and the piece fades out to beautiful flute and guitar drones.
Brook and Burn is my favourite song on the album, its a perfect combination of ambient soundscapes melancholic guitar picking and heartbreaking vocals from Caroline Ross. Glitchy textures begin the song with repeated guitar motifs played forward of a more distorted guitar chord. The use of space and texture is what makes this album and this song in particular special. Discordant drums and electronics build into the song after three minutes but the vocals of Ross remain the songs lynchpin.

Clear space has harmonica drones and multi tracked vocals from Ross amid laid back simple beats and guitar melodies. The title of the album seems very appropriate with tracks like these. I imagine balmy late evenings with old friend on balconies, talking the night away.
The title track of the album uses an interesting combination of looped guitar and concrete elements, water droplets, what sounds like someone trying to open a door but they have the wrong keys and more minimal electronic sounds. It’s an interesting and atmospheric approach that like so much of this album is shrouded in melancholy and feeling.

Distant sounds of Summer is a rare album indeed, one that is able to take so many elements from different corners of contemporary music and fuse them into a style of music that is far more than the sum of it’s parts. I guess I would have liked to have had more of the vocals from Caroline Ross who’s voice deserves all the exposure it can get, but that minor gripe aside this in an album that will stay with me long after the summer has faded into the distance.