Masahiro Takahashi - Flowering Tree, Distant MoonJapanese multi instrumentalist Masahiro Takahashi's latest album is a meditation on seasons and distance, recorded in isolation at his temporary home studio in Toronto. Following the coldest winter I have ever experienced, he began crafting hushed, lush vignettes of color wheel electronics with an array of software synthesizers, granular samplers, plug in FX, MIDI controllers, and a shruti box. The songs sway, shimmer, and unspool in sparkling arcs,

MOJO (4 stars)

on Earache Records

layers of flutes

Silvio‰۪s singing and playing has a little bit of rawness to it that undercuts a lot of the ‰Û÷prettiness‰۪ of a lot of the songs

Emmylou Harris and Robbie Robertson

Soul Jazz Records’ LP (plus digital download code) reissue of this very rare album

still present

I didn’t know what his studio was like

Or maybe each album is a bridge to the next part of the story

Fritz Lang‰۪s boundary-breaking Twenties classic ‰Û÷Metropolis‰۪ was a favourite

rather than an album merely to listen to from beginning to end

making the band the musical equivalent of an equilateral triangle (the strongest shape in physics)