nlart

Vital Weekly

The perfect cure (pun intended) for this is the CD 'Earth' by Hideyuki Hashimoto, born in 1986 and inspired by Keith Jarret, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Mono Fontana when it comes to playing the piano himself.He has also played with other instruments and vocalists, but here Hashimoto is on the piano solo. Minimal piano music, with a great ambient feel to it. I'd like to mention Harold Budd in this respect too. Three of the fourteen pieces are improvised, but I couldn't say which one. Still music, quiet, which reminded me also of the current neo-classical movement, with people like Nils Frahm. A release that could have fitted nicely on Les Disques Du Crepuscule, had he been born twenty years earlier. Another fine grandson of Erik Satie. Excellent music for a quiet evening and fine wine. (FdW)
-Vital Weekly 834-

Avant Music News

Debut album by Osaka-based Hideyuki Hashimoto, a naturalist with a piano, collecting musical butterflies in his light, meshed net. Gentle and narrative as a show of pastoral watercolours by local artists in the parish hall. Yet his thinking and playing is that of a sophisticate, as the subtle cogitations of ”Hikari” display. ”Core” is so colourful, lovely and innocent, it would immediately capture the attention of an infant and hold it rapt. ”A Petal” and ”Loops” seem a tad downhearted, but you can tell that it won´t last long. The twenty-six year old Hashimoto names Keith Jarrett and Ryuichi Sakamoto as influences, but throughout “Earth” I keep hearing the tone of Vince Guaraldi´s soundtracks for ”Peanuts”, which I consider high praise indeed. The baker´s dozen of minatures is rounded off with a more ponderous, eleven-minute ”Grounding”. A downcast appendix fretting over the actual state of our planet? (Stephen Fruitman)
-AMN Reviews June 5, 2012-

textura

Recorded in its entirety on December 26, 2011 and issued on his own label Nlart, the Osaka, Japan-based pianist's first solo album is a thoroughly appealing collection that opts for restraint and understatement over virtuoso display and over-embellishment. All but one of its fourteen pieces (three of them improvisations) are miniatures, the exception being the closing “Grounding,” whose slow-motion unfolding entrances for the full measure of its eleven minutes. The overall mood of the forty-two-minute recording is melancholy, heartfelt, and wistful (the title track especially), without being dour or lugubrious. Moments of relative levity appear, too, such as during the pieces “Pop” and “Fake,” and one is repeatedly struck by the lyrical quality of Hashimoto's playing. One also hears echoes of Satie in Hashimoto's minimal playing style, and elegant, ruminative settings such as “Hikari,” “Elephant Walk,” and “Earth” suggest that he conceivably might regard Keith Jarrett and Bill Evans as kindred spirits. “Elephant Walk” in particular is so Evans-like, one could easily imagine it being identified as such in a Downbeat ‘Blindfold Test.' The sound presentation is undoctored, though one can't help but notice Hashimoto's love of sustain, which imbues the material with a degree of reverberation that's far from inconspicuous. That detail aside, listeners with a love for piano playing in its most pure and elegant form would be wise to track down Hashimoto's recording as well as look forward to the second half of the two-part work, Air, set to be released in winter of 2012.
-textura July-August 2012-

Cyclic Defrost

There’s an abundance of wispy pastel-hued piano twinklings out there and the Japanese seem to contribute more than their fair share, but they’re fortunately better at it than most. Ryuichi Sakamoto is this music’s grandpappy, and his dreamy/lazy compositions/improvisations are clearly an inspiration to Osaka’s Hideyuki Hashimoto. The fourteen tracks are mostly short vignettes of between 1 and 3 minutes, unresolved wistful mood pieces, moderate to slow in tempo and evocative of the watery autumnal imagery on the six-paneled digipack. ‘A Petal’ features short gasps which create a gentle lurching motion, momentarily jarring one from the unceasing pleasantness of the preceding half hour. The final ‘Grounding’ breaks the mould at 12 minutes, centring on a repeated bass chord, almost irritating in its stasis but thrilling after such languor, around which tiny melodic runs sparkle dully like a Dave Grusin soundtrack. While somewhat numbing at length, Earthis filled with pleasing little bonbons, best enjoyed in small doses. (Joshua Meggitt)
-Cyclic Defrost August 10, 2012-

GONZO (circus)

Zelf rekent hij pianovirtuozen als Keith Jarrett, Ryuichi Sakamoto en Mono Fontana tot zijn voornaamste invloeden, maar bij het beluisteren van ‘Earth’ wordt meteen duidelijk datHideyuki Hashimoto een aanzienlijk deel van zijn mosterd bij Erik Satie en consoorten gehaald heeft. De debuutplaat van de Japanse componist/pianist werd volledig ingeblikt op één dag, drie nummers werden geïmproviseerd. Resultaat zijn veertien korte (met uitzondering van slottrack ‘Grounding’) minimalistische pianonummers die quasi overlopen van melancholie en eenvoud. Zowel de speelstijl van Hashimoto als het klankbeeld dat hij hiermee genereert wordt getypeerd door een soberheid die hij zeer bewust hanteert om zijn doel te bereiken: ontroeren. Een associatie met de hedendaagse Europese beweging rondNils Frahm is dan ook nooit veraf. Aanvankelijk klinkt ‘Earth’ veelbelovend: de aarzelende speelwijze op nummers als ‘Klock’ en ‘Hikari’ brengt een zekere oprechtheid met zich mee die niet onbewogen laat. ‘Pop’, zonder twijfel één van de beste nummers op ‘Earth’, is een licht maar aangrijpend werkje dat fel doet denken aan ‘Drukqs’, het vijfde studioalbum van Aphex Twin waarop naast de gekende ophitsende elektronica enkele prachtige pianostukken verschenen. ‘Elephant Walk’ en ‘Fake’ belichten de jazzy kant van Hashimoto, ook het Oosters aandoende ‘Mai’ is in deze categorie te plaatsen en verraadt bovendien dat de componist goed vertrouwd is met het oeuvre van Claude Debussy. De plaat kent evenwel zijn gebreken: waar in ‘Naoshima’ en titeltrack ‘Earth’ al stevig geflirt wordt met de dunne grens tussen gezonde melancholie en platte meligheid, slaat Hashimoto met ‘Rin’ de bal behoorlijk mis. Toegegeven, het nummer duurt nauwelijks anderhalve minuut, maar is dermate flauw en smakeloos, dat de nodige moed vereist is om er niet de brui aan te geven. Gelukkig wordt volharding beloond in ‘Core’ en ‘A Petal’: iets experimenteler maar zeker de moeite waard. (Jannis Van de Sande)
-GONZO (circus) augustus 2012-