Cloud Hidden

A few years after Susumu Yokotas 2015 passing, former collaborator Mark Beazley of Rothko discovered a DAT tape containing unreleased material by Yokota as well as early, unfinished versions of pieces from his 2002 album The Boy and the Tree. Beazley gave the recordings to Jon Tye of Lo Recordings, who released several of Yokotas later albums, and Tye faithfully completed the tracks, titling many of them after quotes from philosopher Alan Watts book Cloud-hidden, Whereabouts Unknown. Many elements of these cuts will be familiar to anyone whos listened to The Boy and the Tree, including the cascading melody of Ama and the Mountain or Spectrum of Loves wheezing harmonium loop, so it ends up resembling more of a remix album than a lost treasure. It isnt particularly better or worse than the album in question, it just seems to approach the same ideas from a different angle. In any case, the release contains ten pieces that generally consist of hypnotically looped samples of acoustic instruments, possibly including singing bowls, wooden flutes, and dulcimers. The tracks arent heavy or chaotic, but they can still be quite densely layered, and they seem a bit too surreal and disorienting for relaxation purposes. Plenty of it is gorgeous and trippy, including the whirling, quizzical The Reality of Incarnation and the beachfront wash of Direct Transmission. ~ Paul Simpson