Articles
2009 Artists' Picks
Lymbyc Systym

Albums
Cory Allen
aus
The Bird Ensemble
Canaille
Catlin & Machinefabriek
Greg Davis
Loren Dent
Dirac
Drafted By Minotaurs
Flica
Sarah Goldfarb & JHK
Gown
John Hollenbeck
Viviane Houle
I/DEX
Akira Kosemura
Andrew McKenna Lee
Le Lendemain
LRAD
Lymbyc Systym
Melorman
Muskox
The Mercury Program
Nikasaya
Northerner
nörz
Noveller / Aidan Baker
Redshape
Marina Rosenfeld
Stripmall Architecture
Sturqen
Wes Willenbring
The Tony Wilson Sextet
Julia Wolfe
Peter Wright
Zelienople

Compilations / Mixes
Blackoperator
Glimpse Four:Twenty 03
Kod.eX
Portland Stories

EPs
Molnbär Av John
Tommi Bass & B.B.S.C.
Julian Beau
Colours-Volume 5
Dalot
Echologist
Simon James French
Geiom & Shortstuff
General Elektriks
Geskia
Ernest Gonzales
Gradient
Jacksonville
Joker
Ann Laplantine
Loko
Machinefabriek
Stefano Pilia
Damian Valles

Nikasaya: One Summerheim
Someone Good

Nikasaya, which unites the talents of Hiroshima-based songwriter Nikaido Kazumi and Tenniscoats member Saya, recorded its second album both inside and outside Guggenheim House, Kobe Shioya in the summer of 2009. A melodically and vocally rich delight, One Summerheim is a sparsely arranged charmer which places vocals at the forefront and augments them with piano, acoustic guitar (Tenniscoats' Ueno Takashi on “Siroi Ohisama”), flute, hand drum, harmonium (played by Lawrence English on “Yubara”), and field recordings (a train moving through the background of “Ufun Taxi”).

Though there's clearly a uniformity of sound to the recording, the songs stylistically range from joyous chants to dirges. “Siroi Ohisama” and “Bokura'n Niwa” exude the air of playful elementary school chants, with Nikasaya's vocal melodies backed by the music teacher's piano playing; “Yuka,” by contrast, is a mournful interlude of wordless vocalizing, while “Gumaou” presents its haunting vocal folk melodies in both call-and-response and harmony forms. “Cream Pan” marries the urgency of a G-man feel and the overhead hum of an airplane, while “Buun” (an extension of “Cream Pan”) adds the roar of a train and the thrum of cicada to its sound mass. Settings such as “Ramadan,” “Dantsuku,” and “Cream Pan” could make Meredith Monk envious, so engaging and playful are the weaves of their vocal arrangements. One Summerheim admittedly won't be to everyone's taste but listeners with an appetite for Japanese vocal interplay and heartwarming songs stand to be charmed.

January 2010