hermine
Ichiko Aoba returns to the music scene with Luminescent Creatures. Windswept Adan was my introduction to Aoba. It flooded my senses with an overpowering tide of beginning again. A conduit for pulling things - sounds, melodies, musicianship - back to their essence, Aoba captures a purity which is so peaceful it can be near-haunting in its level of calm. In a world of ever-increasing complexity, Aoba makes it feel like nothing else is worth having without peace of mind(or peace from mind, in most cases) at its core. Peace of/from mind might be the most essential aspect of being that we can ever work towards. You cannot "be" without the shackles - the grips of life conditioning - fully loosened and unlocked. As silly and as impossible as it may sound, Luminescent Creatures captures a boundless form.
The serene waters of Ichiko Aoba flow forth once more through the effervescent springs of Luminescent Creatures. "Windswept" is a word which comes to mind as Aoba's music drifts on by. Not just because her previous album made use of the word in it's title - it's appendaged to the feel and flow in a much deeper sense. Worlds of slow-moving, soothing ambience and oneness lovingly lay themselves down. A scenic view with life doing what life does - being so deep in the here and now that life itself disappears and just is.
You don't need to understand the language - although it may help - to understand that this is a beautiful piece of work. Some things transcend understanding and, along with it, life itself.
Grand sized clean slates. Ridges of a fairly fatal slope. Nothing to hold onto and nothing to get caught on. A cleansing certainty that things will work out - the belief as well as the knowing. Free fall or remain beneath it all. Let go.
Luminescent Creatures is out now via Ichiko Aoba's label hermine.
