(2020) Akisai - Travelers


Review:
With Yo Suzuki handling music production and Koichi Nakaie artwork and design, the Akisai partners bring a novel working arrangement to their joint project. As warm and enveloping as a summer’s day, the serenades on Travelers are uplifting productions that flatter Suzuki as both multi-instrumentalist and composer. In sweetening acoustic guitar, piano, and flute with electronics, he fashions a harmonious blend of pop, post-rock, and electronica that’s endearing and melodically enticing. With the overture an ambient oasis of piano-sprinkled shimmer, “Entrance” is about as inviting a starting-point as could be imagined. In the subsequent “Circle,” electronic beats provide the drive, but it’s the sparkle of acoustic guitars, synthesizers, and sunny melodies that generates the greatest head-rush. Sweetly singing flutes and acoustic guitars add a pastoral quality to “Allemande,” but the inclusion of horns and punchy beats lends the tune an aggressive, post-rock vibe. The release’s prettiest piece is arguably “Crepavane,” a mellow, flute-and-strings-enhanced reverie that’s closer in style to New Age and lounge music than post-rock but is no less appealing for being so.





Tracklist:
01 - entrance
02 - circle
03 - theme
04 - allemande
05 - impression#1
06 - weather
07 - ecossaise
08 - crepavane
09 - unitverge
10 - islands


Media Report:
Genre: ambient, electronic
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