Description
2022, 12″ LP, Palto Flats.
Acclaimed saxophonist, producer and composer Yasuaki Shimizu will release Kiren, his unreleased album from 1984, on the Palto Flats record label in February, 2022.
By the early ‘80s, Yasuaki Shimizu had established himself on the Japanese new wave scene, produing many important experimental pop records and releasing several albums as the bandleader of Mariah. Following the release of his widely regarded solo classic Kakashi, from 1982, and the other worldly Utakata No Hibi, by Mariah in 1983,he went into the studio the following year with his frequent collaborators, producer Aki Ikuta and Morio Watanabe (bassist of Mariah), to record a mystifying collection of experimental dance music. Utilizing cutting-edge technology and studio trickery, Kiren showcases Shimizu’s trademark playfulness, marrying richly layered production techniques to off-kilter, sometimes traditional- sounding rhythms and melodies. Portending his work with the Saxophonettes as well as forecasting trends in techno, new wave, and futuristic rhythmic music, this lost album represents an important period of Shimizu’s artistic expression, an artist in his prime, while successfully exploring the intersections of fusion, synthpop, new wave, and jazz.
As Chee Shimizu (no relation) writes in the liner notes, Kiren, and his concurrent release Latin were “born out of a free environment of collaboration that existed between Yasuaki and Aki Ikuta … (exemplifying) his most energetic works.” In listening to Kiren, we might share with Shimizu the joy and excitement of experimentalism and movement that went into the making of this album, now released for the first time many years later.
