HAIOKA - "PERCEPTUAL IMAGE"

The artist Shintaro Haioka - who goes by HAIOKA, presents us with a deeply felt tone-poem love letter to Tokyo. Over a palate of mutated beats, heavily processed synth patterns, HAIOKA’s piano lines sound devastating in their simplicity. Massive reverb tails and major processing create giant rifts across the bright skyline - a moment of pause over the snaking, bustling cityscape. According to the press release, “Inspired by traditional Ukiyo-e art -- a style that roughly translates to "pictures of the floating world"-- Haioka offers a distinctively Japanese take on modern electronic music, and one that rationalises the past with the future, and his nation with the world. He supplements his digital compositions with live koto and guitar and the result is airy and deliberate, delicate and decisive.”