Kannazuki

On albums like 2017's excellent Are Euphoria, Takako Minekawa and Dustin Wong's interplay was so intuitive that it felt like the work of one mind housed in two bodies. When they opened their music to other collaborators, it became even more transporting: Exit Future Heart, which they recorded with the Chicago free music trio Good Willsmith (TALsounds' Natalie Chami, MrDougDoug's Doug Kaplan, and Mukqs' Maxwell Allison), was a dreamlike set of improvisations that offered a seamless yet spacious blend of all the artists' approaches. Wong and Minekawa achieve a similar cosmic openness on Kannazuki, a collaboration with producer Jara Tarnovski and Haco (the former singer for the Japanese art-pop group After Dinner) that they recorded in Tokyo in 2017. The album takes its name from the tenth month of the Japanese lunar year, hinting at its ebb and flow. Over the course of its 18 minutes, the piece distills the simultaneously lively and serene feel of Minekawa and Wong's studio work with electronics and washes of sounds that are equally organic and futuristic, suggesting a primordial jungle or deep space at any given moment. Kannazuki begins on a surprisingly lively note, with bouncing and chirping tones that complement Minekawa's and Haco's wordless vocalizations; as it continues, the group plays with space and density as well as textures. After an aquatic middle section dominated by a mantra-like loop and keening vocals, the piece drifts off blissfully on clusters of chimes. Given its smaller scope, Kannazuki isn't quite as ambitious as Exit Future Heart, but it's a lovely and engaging piece of sound art nonetheless. ~ Heather Phares