VA: Circles
flau

To celebrate ten years of operations, the Tokyo-based label flau asked a number of artists to contribute to its waltz-themed compilation Circles. The results are predictably stirring, but how could they be otherwise when the waltz is the foundation? No other form captivates as affectingly for the way it conveys both carefree light-heartedness and sweet sadness. At the same time as its lilting triplet rhythm is drawing the body to the dance floor, its oft-plaintive melodies are tugging at the heartstrings.

As one would expect, Japanese artists are represented on the release, but contributions also come from European, South American, and Australian artists. Many of the settings are sparsely arranged, but that in no way diminishes their effectiveness. Nothing's lost in Danny Norbury's “Waltz for Nowhere,” for instance, by limiting the arrangement to piano and cello, especially when the graceful string melodies are rendered so touchingly by Norbury. Piano and strings also dominate Kanazu Tomoyuki's “Wordswaltz,” though this time the music's affect is as much rooted in a gorgeous melodic line as the performance itself.

Not all of the pieces orient themselves around piano and strings. The fingerpicking of acoustic guitars and the syncopated ting of a bell lend Ensemble 0's “Soñando 8” a propulsion that feels more rooted in 6/8 than 3/4 time, and though he customarily produces harder-edged music as a member of Oiseaux-Tempête, Frédéric D. Oberland dials the intensity down for the haunting electric guitar meditation “Aurore.” If there's an outlier, it's MayMay's “Long Ago Waltz” for presenting a rather elaborately arranged reverie that at times sounds like a cross between a tropical South American troupe and the Icelandic outfit Múm.

July 2018