The Room40 label recently released Saunter by Tokyo-based Chihei Hatakeyama, and provided a free download, “A Stone Inside a Box” (MP3). The piece is a layered work of guitar and electronics, a gentle stroll of a song, true to the album’s title. The melody is relatively present and strong, but in time — both during a listening, and especially after multiple listens — the soft audio bed comes into the foreground. To extend the travel metaphor, it’s as if the destination recedes and experiences along the way come to the forefront. Toward the end of “A Stone Inside a Box,” a bit of feedback flares up, like a fuse being lit. It’s at that precise moment that foreground and background meet, when the guitar line and the song-less textures join.
More on the release at room40.org, and on Hatakeyama at chihei.org.