Ryonkt: North Small Town
Hibernate

Sapporo-based Ryo Nakata adds to his Ryonkt discography with North Small Town, an eighteen-minute three-inch release that evokes in four untitled parts the unending plains of some unnamed locale. Admirers of his previous releases on labels such as The Land Of and Experimedia will find more to admire on the Hibernate disc, which one could say distills Ryonkt's ambient-drone style into its most succinct presentation to date. Throughout the four meditative settings, crystalline guitar figures melt into gauzy, shimmering washes (a field recording of shuffling noises helps bring the fourth to a close), with all of it suggesting the small town in question is as peaceful and soothing as small towns often are. At a mere 100 copies, the release likely won't last long so grab a copy while you can.

July 2010