Piece of My Scape by Takeo Watanabe

Not to be confused with the Anime music composer of the same name, Japanese artist Takeo Watanabe creates experimental music in and inspired by nature. Not another Ambient artist you groan? Well, Watanabe's unique selling point is different: he not only uses field recordings in his work but he actually records his work in the field (watch him in action on his acclaimed YouTube channel). It's fair to say a lot of his music is literally 'Ambient in nature'; his 2020 debut album Microcosm perfectly captures this aesthetic. Listen to the wobbly sounds on 移ろうfor an impactful vision of new life and growth. Or the organic piano notes peppering やわらかにうつる. His follow-up in the clouds (also from 2020) went further, introducing amoebic melody and glitchy rhythms to colour an undulating terrain. It's a blueprint he's been tweaking since.

Production concepts aside, Watanabe creates with a variety of electronic gear, incorporating a range of manipulated sound in his work, including piano and voice. One constant is glitch. Ubiquitous throughout new album Piece of My Scape, glitchy noises insinuate natural movements, like ice melting, rustling leaves, footsteps, breathing. I have a problem with glitch though: I find it annoying. Good thing Watanabe's glitch is tempered and low frequency, more like a crackly old record. Call it value added glitch. Conversely, we get plenty of heavily textured sounds (check Dreaming 2 and Abandoned Space), vocal treatments (Gently and Deeply) and wavering rhythms. There's a lovely Boards of Canada vibe to the wonky synths on Bridge at Night. And the broken Hip-Hop beats on Underpass are so dishevelled they barely retain a recognisable shape. Solid rhythms are largely moderate though. My fav has to be the skewed Dub Techno of Seaside, although the stuttering melody of Iced Bench is somewhat addictive.