SUSUMU YOKOTA - The Boy & The Tree

09'02

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SUSUMU YOKOTA
The Boy & The Tree
(BAY25CD) The Leaf Label 2002
12 Tracks. 54mins43secs.
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The Boy & The Tree is Yokota’s eleventh album in eight years. The man is not only one of the most prolific musicians of his generation, but also without a doubt one of the most imaginative. He has equally made his mark playing techno, ambient, jazz and electronica, always taking his audience by surprise while building a surprisingly consistent piece of work, making him one of the most respected composers around. Yokota’s follow up to last year’s blissful Ginning Cat and similarly excellent Will is yet another fascinating recording.
Contrasted and impressionist, The Boy & The Tree is a delightful collection of radically atmospheric compositions, built around ephemeral sonic trances, in the tribal sense of the word. From the opening moments of The Colour Of Pomegranates to the closing bars of Blood & Snow, Yokota delves into ethnic sonorities, using traditional Oriental percussions and instruments combined with founds sounds to focus on the most fragile aspects of music and life and create one of the most haunting pieces of music heard in recent times. Yokota admits a certain fascination for nature, particularly feeding on the mystery of the island of Yakushima, a designated world heritage site home to hundreds of secular trees, situated in the south of Japan. He also names one of the most successful animated films in Japan history, Mononokehime, a mystical tale depicting the battle between animal gods, as a source of inspiration for The Boy & The Tree. Yokota’s delicate compositions resound with spiritual references. Chimes, prayers and lamentations all contribute to the hypnotic effect of this record, while the tone of the flutes, tables and stings, intrinsic unworldly elements in the constructions, deflects the electronic characteristic of the record by injecting some vital energy at the heart of each track. Ethereal voices are integrated in the lush soundscapes in astonishing fashion, never really being prominent, yet exercising an incontestable pressure on the music by stressing the ephemeral nature of life. Yokota’s mastery at carefully organizing sounds together and crafting intriguing melodies is more obvious here than on any of his previous releases. It seems as if each component has a dedicated role to play, affecting the general mood of the listener while not entirely connecting with the physicality of its source, be it human.
Yokota has perhaps produced with this album his most intimate work. Moreover, perhaps will it prove to be too intricate and intense for some. There is no doubt however that The Boy & The Tree is his most soulful and best record to date. A must.

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TRACK LISTING

01	The Colour Of Pomegranates	07	Beans
02	Live Echo	08	Plateau On Plateau
03	Fairy Pink	09	Red Swan
04	Grass, Tree & Stone	10	Thread Leads To Heaven
05	Secret Garden	11	Future Tiger
06	Rose Necklace	12	Blood & Snow

SUSUMU YOKOTA DISCOGRAPHY

YOKOTA THE FRANKFURT-TOKYO CONNECTION Harthouse 1994 Buy it on line now _	In The Beginning Panicwaves Source Of Soul Tune For A Replicant Sonic Fairy-Tale Spacious House Judgement Day Follow The Sonic Leader Japanese Therapy Wicked City Trancewheel _
SUSUMU YOKOTA AKAFUJI ACID MT FUJI Sublime Records 1994 _
RINGO PLANTATION Sublime Records 1995 _
SONIC SUFI SACRAMENTAL PSY Harmonics 1995 _	Sharmodular Macro Mythos Optimum Flux Sacramental Janken Molecular Bugaku Iridescence Yamanotenonia Wiggy Watusee Neuro Tribe _
PRISM METRONOME MELODY Sublime Records 1995 _
EBI TEN Space Teddy 1995 _
ANIMA MUNDI ANIMA BEAT Newstage Records 1996 _
STEVIA FRUITS OF THE ROOM Newstage Records 1997 _
YOKOTA CAT, MOUSE & ME Harthouse 1997 _	Good Morning Neutral Field Riverside Wait For A Day One Way Lemon & Ginger Ceramic Flower Cat, Mouse & Me From Middle Finger Few In The Sky Dodo _
PRISM FALLEN ANGEL Sublime Records 1997 _
STEVIA GREENPEACE NS.COM 1998 _
SUSUMU YOKOTA 1998 Exceptional Records 1998 Buy it on line now _	Exit Miracle Play Mushroom Girl Golden Stamen Kemuri Triangle Memory Sexy Planet Inter Q Spin Cat & Rabbit _
SUSUMU YOKOTA 1999 Exceptional Records 1999 Buy it on line now _	Discotheque Now Hurry Up To Planet Melon Future Memory Red Planet I Am Ra Ra Ra Unrequited Love For Andromeda Galactic Form On & On Lonely Comets Endless _
SUSUMU YOKOTA IMAGE 1983-1998 The Leaf Label 1999 Buy it on line now _	Kaiten Mokuba Tayutafu Fukoro No Yume Wani Natte Sakashima Morino Gakudan Nisemono No Uta Daremoshiranai Chiisanakuni Kawano Hotorino Kinoshitade Yumekui Kobito Amai Niyoi Enogu Amanogawa _
SUSUMU YOKOTA MAGIC THREAD The Leaf Label 2000 Buy it on line now _	'Weave Reflux Unravel Circular Spool Potential Fiber Metabolic Stitch Blend Melt _
SUSUMU YOKOTA MIX The Leaf Label 2000 _	'Kodomotachi Remix Naminote Rhythm Mix Morino Gakudan Remix Genshi Remix Spool Remix Potential Remix Nisemono No Uta Remix Enogu Remix Mix Weave. Spool. Fiber Mix _
SUSUMU YOKOTA SAKURA The Leaf Label 2000 Buy it on line now _	'Saku Tobiume Uchu Tanjyo Hagoromo Genshi Gekkoh Hisen Azukiiro No Kaori Kodomotachi Naminote Shinsen' Kirakiraboshi _
SUSUMU YOKOTA THE GRINNING CAT The Leaf Label 2001 _	I Imagine King Dragonfly Card Nation Sleepy Eye Lapis Lazuli Balloon In A Cage Cherry Blossom Love Bird Fearful Dream Tears Of A Poet So Red Flying Cat Lost Child _
SUSUMU YOKOTA ZERO Exceptional Records 2001 Buy it on line now _	Go Ahead Fake Funk Could Heaven Ever Be Like This Hallelujah Life Up Come on My World Feel Me Love (Yokota) Sleepless Life Music Your Body So Beautiful Space Zero Into The Sky _
SUSUMU YOKOTA WILL The Leaf Label 2001 _	Level 21 Alpine Nation Red Door Illusion River Pegasus Man Black Sea Pony Tail Rabbit Earring _
SUSUMU YOKOTA SOUND OF SKY Sublime Records 2002 _	Three Ripple Nothing Time Sky Blue Crash Marble King Of Darkness Right To Be Free Make Peace? Sky & Diamond _
SUSUMU YOKOTA THE BOY & THE TREE The Leaf Label 2002 Buy it on line now	The Colour Of Pomegranates Live Echo Fairy Link Grass, Tree & Stone Secret Garden Rose Necklace Beans Plateau On Plateau Red Swan Thread Leads To Heaven Future Tiger Blood & Snow

THE SURFER'S GUIDE TO SUSUMU YOKOTA

THE LEAF LABEL
Five years after putting out their first release, The Leaf Label is proving an unduring force on the electronic scene.

EXCEPTIONAL RECORDS
This London-based label has been championing Susumu Yokota for some time now, and the site presents a good and rather exhaustive discography of the man.