Ashan: Far Drift Afield
Inner Islands

Kenji Kihara: Scenes of Scapes
Inner Islands

How fitting that Far Drift Afield, Sean Conrad's eleventh Ashan release, should have been mastered at “The Gentle Ways.” This cassette release from Inner Islands' overseer soothes in the best way imaginable, and its title is especially apt: Far Drift Afield is hardly hermetic material designed for indoor spaces. Instead, it hikes leisurely through luscious nature settings, with shimmering sprinkles of instrument sounds blending with the crackle of a campfire and the whoosh of a sudden wind. Dulcimer-like plucks, sleigh bells, piano sprinkles, and gauzy, vocal-inflected whooshes surface in five pieces that calm the soul better than any prescribed medication.

Far Drift Afield apparently eschews imposed compositional structures for a presentation where elements mingle, “set free to do what they will and go where they will.” Such a description suggests randomness, but Far Drift Afield never feels directionless; on the contrary, the recording assumes a satisfying sense of coherence when its sounds emerge organically and the final presentation is shaped with care by its creator. Though “Gladly Given” distances itself from the others when flute textures by Katarina Rose appear alongside Conrad's gentle sound painting, each piece is marked by individuating touches. While it sits comfortably alongside the others, “Long Along Sky,” for instance, exudes a particularly stately quality, its twelve minutes somehow redolent of wisdom acquired over vast expanses of time. Regardless, the release as a whole is consistently transporting, its meditations emblematic of their creator's fine-tuned artistic sensibility.

As potent as Far Drift Afield is, it's equaled by the concurrently issued Scenes of Scapes. Similar to the Ashan release, the material crafted by Kenji Kihara draws for inspiration from nature, in this case the sea and mountains of his Horiuchi, Japan home base. Also like Conrad's recording, an enveloping glow emanates from Kihara's seven settings, which merge field recordings of nature with percussive tinklings and assorted other instruments.

Guitar appears to have been utilized as a central sound source, given the hazy washes that often lend these aromatic evocations their deep ambient atmosphere. All elements work together to create peaceful, painterly soundscapes guaranteed to soothe the soul and relax the mind and body, and even when it's reduced to its minimal essence, as happens in “Nagi,” Scenes of Scapes casts a powerful spell. If nature is again a dominant point of reference, for Kihara it's nature as a benevolent and life-enriching force, its capacity for merciless destruction absent from these reveries. Subtle differences aside, Far Drift Afield and Scenes of Scapes are magnificent additions to the Inner Islands catalogue.

September 2018