(2020) Ytamo - Vacant


Review:
A vacant space is one that can be filled by a body, an idea, a building or place. Tied to this function of being occupied, it can somehow be more than empty. Kansai artist Ytamo recorded the pieces of Vacant in 2019, a year where she was expecting her first child. Inspired by her fading first memories of childhood and the idea of bringing a child into the world, Vacant approaches the transitions of life. It approaches experienced changes in mind and body with an oft captivating gentle nature. The two opening tracks of Vacant find the piano front and center. Opening track, “April,” is a solo piano piece both entrancing and repetitious, laying a path for the intimate album that follows. “はじまりはすべて The Start Is Everything” follows with Ytamo’s voice now in front and the piano accompanying. It’s a tender piece that softens a listener’s ears, especially after Ytamo’s voice and her piano tussle and wrap around each other at points, much like the solo pieces of Mustapha Skandrani or Emahoy Tsegué-Mariam Guèbru might. Maybe these players are virtuosos to some extent, but their pieces are illustrious and attractive because they develop a propelling force and create an air of unending space. “Grasshopper” follows, and it loosens the instrumentation with a piano courting a gliding synth which emboldens the staccato melodic dust the piano creates. From here, more instruments and effects are introduced, creating dreamy and hazy, undefined spaces; keyboards and synths, vocals spoken and sung, minimal effects both panning and reverberating. But the piano, the instrument Ytamo first played, remains a constant. “2 Vacant Houses,” which features fellow Japanese musician Takako Minekawa, creates a ribbon of panning, ambient tones out of piano and keyboards, and it pairs with Ytamo’s near whispering, softly sung lullaby. It leads to another longform ambient creation, “心音は蹄のように Heart Beat, Clatter Of Hoofs,” where slightly psychedelic keyboard lines chase each other in a drifting cycle, peppered with the noticeable baby mumblings towards the end. Closing track, “5.30 AM,” is ribbed with glitchy interference, various low-bit electro drums appearing then disappearing, and again, baby mumblings diffuse into these sensible but sputtering sound clusters. It settles and billows into a scene of suspended keyboard tones and ones infinitely meandering. The best way to think of Vacant might be as a dialogue of two hemispheres. One creates tender pulses, grabbing the focus of an empty space around it, filling it with life, and one contains deeply textural, imaginary atmospheres that have an ability to move whatever lays inside; one is an organism, and the other is an environment. Both can represent a way of thinking about occupying and creating a space. Vacant displays a clarity and comfort in realizing this dependent relationship.





Tracklist:
01 - April
02 - はじまりはすべて The Start Is Everything
03 - Grasshopper
04 - どこかとおくへ Far Away from Here
05 - Mantis
06 - 2 Vacant Houses
07 - 心音は蹄のように Heart Beat, Clatter of Hoofs
08 - 5.30AM


Media Report:
Genre: ambient
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits