www.flau.jp/releases/stories/
So, it is late at night. What left is just a dimmed light at the side of your bed. You open up a book, and then, gradually, and quietly, your thoughts started to move along, with its stories, and your “stories”…..
"Stories" is the first vibraphone solo album by Berlin-based Japanese artist Masayoshi Fujita, who also known as El Fog and a collaboration project with Jan Jelinek. This quietly exquisite album by Fujita, is like a book of illustration, painting 8 delicate pictures of small stories about the nature we are embracing….cloud, forest, river, swan and morning dews….things that we all are so familiar with, but yet so quaint.
Masayoshi Fujita’s style of solo vibraphone is uniquely inspired by classic and jazz music. In this beautiful album, in additional to some gorgeous strings and bowings, he also introduced some ingenious ideas in making unique sounds, like the usage of bead and aluminum foil on his vibraphone, like a prepared instrument. As such, “Stories” is a wonderful result of the beautiful vibration (of which the name Vibraphone came from) of all the delicate sounds produced in this album. They are poetic, they are melancholic, and they are lushly emotional.
Let the dimmed light continues on, and let Fujita tell you these wonderful stories.
'Fujita’s plangent playing proves to be as sweetly intoxicating as drifting off next to a mountain stream on a summer’s day. A gently uplifting and inviting record, ideal for soothing troubled minds' - Rock A Rolla
'Evoking scenes of natural beauty and balancing the inspiring with the not quite maudlin to create a perfect tension, Stories is one of most impressive albums of the year so far. This is highly recommended.(9/10)' - Exclaim!
Giles Peterson plays ‘Deer’ on BBC Radio 6
'Das Vibraphon: nicht nur ein atmosphärischer Begleiter, sondern eine wahre Quelle von Narration, so der Ansatz von Masayoshi Fujita…Hier wird weniger puristisch mit Resonanzen gearbeitet, dafür mit ordentlich knisternden Dub-Drones' - GROOVE
『Stories』は、Jan Jelinekとのコラボレーションや、el fog名義での活動でも知られるベルリン在住の日本人アーティストMasayoshi Fujitaによる初のヴィブラフォン・ソロ作品です。物語の挿絵のように、聴く者の脳裏にその情景をシネマチックに映し出す本作。クラシックやジャズの 影響を独自に昇華したヴィブラフォンの独奏をメインに、ビーズやアルミホイルを用いたプリペアド、ボウイング奏法、弦楽器のアレンジメントを取り入れ、楽器の持つ響きを最大限に追求した、詩的かつメランコリックな叙情溢れる作品が完成しました。この楽器の名前の由来でもある独特のビブラートが、深遠なハーモニーに揺らぎを持たせ、聴く者をインティメイトに包み込む感動作です。
released November 14, 2012
All songs written by Masayoshi Fujita
Vibraphone: Masayoshi Fujita
Violin: Hoshiko Yamane
Cello: Arturo Martínez Steele
Recorded by Kassian Troyer at Ausland, Berlin
except songs 1, 2, 3, 7 and Strings recorded by Masayoshi Fujita at Wyst Studio, Berlin
Mastered by Nils Frahm
Illustration by Fleck
Designed by mondii