About this album

The music on this album was recorded in a confused Japan, facing up to radioactive fallout from the Fukushima nuclear power plants, after the March 11, 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the giant tsunami it spawned.

Is there anything I can possibly do? Everybody was asking themselves this question. At this time more than ever, I just sought to get close to the hearts of everyone, and continued performing.

A year earlier, my daughter was born. She was born the natural way, without any medical intervention. It took a very long time, but that was the time mother and child needed. When I finally held my daughter in my arms, I knew:“She is nature itself”. I knew that human beings are not different from nature. People are nature.

This means that destroying nature is destroying people. Just as I became convinced that we must stop this folly of mankind, the Fukushima disaster happened: the worst possible destruction of nature, radioactive contamination, the self-destruction of mankind.

Some of the tracks on this album refer to the earthquake and nuclear disaster, and it is against this backdrop that all of the music, all sound was recorded. It is hard to imagine a bright future at a time like this, but even now, this very moment is becoming part of the past, and whether we like it or not, the future is being woven.

However, we are born with the power to weave this life, and we have the power to create the future. In this I put my trust, and I’m going to keep on weaving sounds.

by Sohichiroh Shigematsu