Hakobune: Obelisk
Polar Seas Recordings
As a scan of his Discogs details reveals, Takahiro Yorifuji has produced a staggering number of Hakobune releases since 2007. U-Cover, Hibernate, Rural Colours, Nomadic Kids Republic, Dronarivm, White Paddy Mountain, and Inner Islands constitute a mere sampling of the labels on which his recordings have appeared, most of them solo but some collaborations with figures such as Celer, Dirk Serries, Chihei Hatakeyama, and Pleq. Following up his most recent outing, Parhelion, on Constellation Tatsu is Obelisk for Brad Deschamps' Toronto-based Polar Seas Recordings.
In classic Hakobune fashion, Yorifuji, who hails from a small town in Hyogo, Japan and currently calls Tokyo home, assembled multiple layers of guitars to generate the three ambient dronescapes, two of them nearly thirteen minutes apiece and the third tipping the scales at sixteen. The typical Hakobune setting, on this release at least, is a vaporous affair, a huge, billowing cloud with polished surfaces that are more sleek and metallic than satiny soft. At various moments, gauzy whistling tones subtly extricate themselves from the mass, which otherwise mutedly roars without pause for minutes on end.
The central track, “The First Star,” is aptly titled in evoking the rapture one might experience gazing upon the heavens on a particularly clear summer's night and contemplating how distant from the earth its bright star clusters actually are. Yorifuji dials the intensity level down slightly for the closing title track, which unspools in slow, peaceful manner and lulls the listener into entrancement with hazy tonal washes that waver as gently as a warm breeze. Needless to say, headphones or high volume are recommended for the under- and overtones that emerge in these settings to be adequately heard.April 2018