s w e e t b e a t s
february.21.2002 - #866
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artist : Calm
album : Free-Soil Sounds for Moonage 1996-2000
year : 2002
label : Music For Dreams / Emi
genre : Lo-Fi
catalogue : EMI5377492
url : www.musicfordreams.com
quality : CD 192k HQ True Stereo
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01.Long Way, Long Time (The Second Page of Creator's Delight) 08:57
02.Journey to the Shadow of the Earth (Kick in the Shadow Mix)05:54
03.Donde Sal El Sol 06:27
04.Running on the Sand 08:54
05.Light Years "Live" 12:03
06.Noon at the Moon 07:34
07.Sitting on the Beach 05:13
08.Midnight Sun 06:50
09.Dubbing for the Nature #2 (Waltz for the Virgin Forest) 07:06
10.White Breath 08:31
10 tracks | 77:29 mins | 106,5 MB
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If you asked him to explain it, it was the urge to express his
world and his Japanese identity that made Kiyotaka Fukagawa start
composing. Japanese people are often accused of being obstinate and
cut off, but if there's one thing that's a recurring theme in
Japan's younger generation of producers - people like DJ Krush and
Tokyo's Silent Poets, not to mention Calm himself - it's a desire
for openness, for sympathy, and respect for everything the world
has to offer.
Electronic music is the art world's answer to globalisation.
Fukagawa wasn't even born in the late 1950s when Brazilian bossa
nova started singing praises of beaches, love, and beautiful women,
but it's Latin American rhythms and vibes that are the calling card
of his organic nu-jazz productions - starting with the Calm EP in
1996. Ask him where this big heart comes from and he'll answer you
with a big smile, a shrug of the shoulders and a little tongue in
cheek about how his home town Kumamoto is in the middle of the
Kyushu island, is also known as Japan's 'smile to the West'. The
island is considered the part of Japan most influenced by European
culture: Japan's window to the world.
With the Calm EP, Fukagawa found both his professional alias
(others on his list are Farr and Organ Language) and a whole scene
of like-minded artists - including the previously mentioned Krush
and Silent Poets who immediately started spreading the word about
this new luminary through the vinyl jungle of Tokyo's hippest 'hood
Shibuya, and out in the clubs.
Fukugawa's international breakthrough came via Japan's
much-respected Yellow Production record label, when his track
People from the Sun and the Earth was selected for their Bossa Tres
Jazz compilation. This played Calm into the hands of Europe's
nu-jazz flagship Compost Records, where label boss Michael
Reinboth's enthusiasm for Fukagawa's music made him put Calm's
holiday-hot and dreamy track Running on The Sand on as the final
number for the fifth of his label's successful Future Sound of Jazz
compilations. That was in 1999 - the same year that San Francisco
record label Ubiquity brought Calm over to the other side of the
Pacific and released the track Donde Sal El Sol on their New
Latiners vol. 2 compilation. This raised a few eyebrows, and paved
the way for a release on Francois Kervorkian's Wave label.
Meanwhile in England, future thinking people like Gilles Peterson,
Patrick Forge and Ross Allen - all considered pioneers of Acid-Jazz
in the birthplace of football - prick up their ears for the
Japanese atmospherics with warm blooded temperament. This was
probably one of the reasons that London outfit Exceptional decided
to take a chance by releasing Calm's European debut. First the 3
track Sky EP no 3, followed by the LP Shadow of the Earth, which
cemented Calm's reputation as a master of sound design, and the
focal point of a cornucopia of inspiration.
Even celebrities like Nuphonics' label boss David Hill and Phil
Mison, aka Cantoma, had started listening to Fukagawa's dreamy
compositions. When Mison lent Kenneth Bager one of Calm's first
releases with the simple message that this must be heard, the road
was paved for a collaborative project with Danish label Music For
Dreams.
Here in Denmark, Calm is probably best known for his work with hip
hop massive Blue Foundation, who he performed with at Rust in
Copenhagen, and at the Roskilde Festival. But Calm's work in
Denmark didn't stop there. Calm represented all points East at the
Aarhus Festival Week's closing session 'The Final Party', featuring
DJs from the Four Corners of the globe. And all this in 2001 alone.
Calm's ear for the unexplored frontier between acid jazz, chilled
hip hop and Latin American influence has also made him a coveted
remixer. New York's art-rock wunderkind Arto Lindsay, afro-beat
innovator Femi Kuti, Modaji and Jazzanova have all benefited from
his hypnotic style. His collaborations with Compost and Jazzanova's
own JCR label ensured that his services were called upon for the
Compost/JCR label tour took them to Japan's minimalist club/bunker
Liquid Room, in Tokyo's Shinuku district, a couple of years back.
At that moment, Calm had no idea that the Liquid Room would end up
being the host of one of his most memorable concerts with his band:
Fujiya from Time Fellowship on bass, Nobuyuki Nakajima on keyboards
and Fender Rhodes, and Yuichiro Kato on sax, flutes and shaker.
Luckily, the concert was recorded, and contributes a more than 12
minute long turning point on Calm's first record for Music For
Dreams - a record which all the way up to its printing had the
working title Best of Calm. Instead, it became Free-soil Sounds for
Moonage. But, it's still the same record, and the same
concentration of all Calm's best in one place.
--www.musicfordreams.com
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s w e e t b e a t s
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greetings to klangwerk, mgc, sour, dh, impg & sfe
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