Tomoyoshi Date + Stijn Hüwels - Tatemono (2026)

Another year, another great release from the Brazilian-Japanese artist Tomoyoshi Date. This time, again, a collaboration with Stijn Hüwels from Belgium. Together, the two gentlemen cast a musical enchantment on their listeners cause how else can this sonic beauty be explained?

The music here is very slow. Actually, you can barely hear it move. But it does, in the tiniest of waves, like a lake in the darkness before dawn. There are other small proofs of the fact that life is somewhere there, living on the edge of the compositions. It's the soft, intimate piano key sounds, not entirely providing you with melodies, but also not entirely lacking those. I feel like this album is about nature, but, in fact, it's the exact opposite. The title means "a building" and the tracks further confirm that. So, I guess, it's an office building at night? I don't know, cause office buildings and what they're about at night may be one of those unsolved mysteries of the reality around us. 

But one thing is sure: it's just one of the most melancholic but also comforting albums these days.

Tatemono costs 7 EUR.

Check: Corridor / Rouka / 廊下

Country: Brazil/Japan/Belgium

Genre: piano ambient

Label: LAAPS

Tomoyoshi Date - 438Hz As It Is, As You Are [​あ​る​が​ま​ま​、​あ​な​た​の​ま​ま​に​] (2022)

Stijn Hüwels + Tomoyoshi Date - 遠き火、遠き雲’ ​(​A Distant Fire​,​ A Distant Cloud) (2021)

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Tomoyoshi Date - 438Hz As It Is, As You Are [​あ​る​が​ま​ま​、​あ​な​た​の​ま​ま​に​] (2022)

Although not that long ago Tomoyoshi Date was present on this blog with an album created together with Stijn Huwels, last year's 438Hz As It Is, As You Are [​あ​る​が​ま​ま​、​あ​な​た​の​ま​ま​に​] is only his third solo album since 2008. 

The music here is built upon the beautiful, though not extremely melodic sounds of piano keys. This is more an ambient recording played on a real instrument than your average neoclassical piece. The compositions are filled with delicate noise and subtle fuzziness, but the piano is definitely the main player here. This slow, moody music is a real band-aid on a bruised soul, but it was created with a particularly interesting idea in mind, as the artist describes, it's meant to have "the listener adjust the pitch at the desired speed according to the mood and frequency of [them] at that time". For me, it works at the melancholy level.

438Hz As It Is, As You Are [​あ​る​が​ま​ま​、​あ​な​た​の​ま​ま​に​] costs 6 EUR.

Stijn Hüwels + Tomoyoshi Date - 遠き火、遠き雲’ ​(​A Distant Fire​,​ A Distant Cloud) (2021)

Check: 光 Hikari (45 rpm)

Country: Brazil/Japan

Genre: piano ambient

Label: laaps

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Stijn Hüwels + Tomoyoshi Date - 遠き火、遠き雲’ ​(​A Distant Fire​,​ A Distant Cloud) (2021)

The French LAAPS label is on it again with another great ambient album. This time it's the (second already) result of collaboration between the Dutch Stijn Hüwels and the Brazilian/Japanese artist Tomoyoshi Date, known as part of the Opitope duo formed with Chihei Hatakeyama and a ton of other projects. Basically two hugely influential names on the ambient scene together on the album called 遠き火、遠き雲’ ​(​A Distant Fire​,​ A Distant Cloud). 

The legend says that the musicians met back in 2015 and at the same day recorded what in time turned out to be their first release together, Hochu-Ekki-Tou. The new album is described as "slow and bright", recorded "using field recordings, processed guitar, piano and synth". The title is also the title of a poem by Tadahito Ichinoseko who can be heard reciting it on the album too. The release strikes with calm and peace from the very first moments. It's not extremely quiet though, it's that the pace and ambiance of the processed guitar, synth and electronics sounds create this kind of comfortable trance that is only enriched with the omnipresent nature-based field recordings. There is quite a lot of things going on: the fields recordings, the spoken word, the neoclassical parts, a lot of electronic curiosities. However, the release never looses the best thing about it - the slow and relaxing flow.

遠き火、遠き雲’ ​(​A Distant Fire​,​ A Distant Cloud) costs 6 EUR.

Check: 遠き火、遠き雲’ ​(​A Distant Fire​,​ A Distant Cloud)

Country: Belgium, Brazil/Japan

Genre: complex soundscape

Label: LAAPS

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