Today is Hakobune day. I just finished writing up a quick blurb for his
tape In Arboreal Whispering for my
(late) coverage of Constellation Tatsu’s fall
2016 cassette batch over at Critical Masses, and I
figured I’d hit up his Ghost Organics tape today as well. (Don’t think that
link takes you to the review; I’m writing this before it posts, so you’ll just
have to look at the front page of the site – with your eyes – to find it.) I
like the idea of repeating myself here, too: “His style of layering ambient
guitar textures on top of one another results in some of the most gloriously
tranquil sonics laid to tape.” Hey, that still holds true for Impalpable Ashes, and what’s weird,
there’s a track on here called “Airworthiness,” but there’s a track on the
Ctatsu tape called “airworthy”! Pretty cool. Hakobune – real name Takahiro
Yorifuji – is apparently as self-referential
as I am. Does that make us best friends? Hardly. At the other end of the
spectrum, does that make us insufferable know-it-alls? Well, I’ll let you
debate that about me, but it’s certainly not true in Hakobune’s case. He just
happens to be personally enlightened, and he projects that enlightenment
through his myriad cassette releases. It’s hard to go wrong choosing a Hakobune
tape, and Impalpable Ashes looks and
sounds as good as the rest of the dude’s oeuvre. Ahem: “Sheer bliss. Keep ’em
coming, Hakobune.” Sounds right. So why don’t you take a moment out of your day
and zone out to this. Has it gotten better? Are you in a better mood? Now tell me who’s an insufferable
know-it-all. (It’s still me.)
--Ryan Masteller