Ichiko Aoba - Luminescent Creatures

hermine

Ichiko Aoba returns to the music scene with Luminescent Creatures. Windswept Adan was my introduction to Aoba. It flooded my senses with an overpowering tide of beginning again. A conduit for pulling things - sounds, melodies, musicianship - back to their essence, Aoba captures a purity which is so peaceful it can be near-haunting in its level of calm. In a world of ever-increasing complexity, Aoba makes it feel like nothing else is worth having without peace of mind(or peace from mind, in most cases) at its core. Peace of/from mind might be the most essential aspect of being that we can ever work towards. You cannot "be" without the shackles - the grips of life conditioning - fully loosened and unlocked. As silly and as impossible as it may sound, Luminescent Creatures captures a boundless form. 

The serene waters of Ichiko Aoba flow forth once more through the effervescent springs of Luminescent Creatures. "Windswept" is a word which comes to mind as Aoba's music drifts on by. Not just because her previous album made use of the word in it's title - it's appendaged to the feel and flow in a much deeper sense. Worlds of slow-moving, soothing ambience and oneness lovingly lay themselves down. A scenic view with life doing what life does - being so deep in the here and now that life itself disappears and just is. 

You don't need to understand the language - although it may help - to understand that this is a beautiful piece of work. Some things transcend understanding and, along with it, life itself. 

Grand sized clean slates. Ridges of a fairly fatal slope. Nothing to hold onto and nothing to get caught on. A cleansing certainty that things will work out - the belief as well as the knowing. Free fall or remain beneath it all. Let go. 

Luminescent Creatures is out now via Ichiko Aoba's label hermine.