Announcement:
I will perform a live session with the modular synth in Tokyo under the new alias Halt! Run! in April.
Details will be shared as we get closer, but all will be recorded and shared afterwards.
Onwards and Upwards!
The one thing I will take with me into 2018 is stop making excuses and just get down to making more music! I might not update the blog more frequently, but I WILL make more music in 2018.
What is the one bullet YOU will take with you into the next year?
My time in Japan is drawing to a close for this trip and it’s been a great 4 weeks with plenty of good food, old friends and new inspiration.
This time I didn’t compose or track any new music, but I discovered something far more important. Over the past 12 months or so I’ve been struggling to find the right ‘moment’ to work on actual music and it’s been extremely hard to even get started on new tracks.
I’ve spent a lot of time agonising over the direction of Glitzerstrahl and where I really want to go with the music. How serious am I really about this whole project?
Turns out that within 24h of leaving Sweden and getting on a plan to Tokyo I started feeling the familiar grinding urge in the back of my head. New tunes started slowly, like trickling streams of lost water droplets, meandering their way into my conscious.
That of course begged a different question…
Why couldn’t I muster this excitement while in Stockholm? Was it the darkness? The swedes? The narrow horizons of living in a country the size of a third of Tokyo?
Or was it something else?
Part of my current studio layout
I knew it wasn’t work. I love my work and I the people I get to share everyday in the office with. In fact, they are some of the greatest teachers I’ve ever had the pleasure to learn and draw professional inspiration from.
I knew it wasn’t the tech. I have amassed a well planned array of instruments and effects and while my studio PC (iMac) was getting sluggish under the weight of new versions of Komplete, Logic and Live, as long as I had the ‘drive’ I would have found a way around that limitation.
Instead, after much examination what I realised was that I was lacking three things:
This was a great revelation. When looking back at the past 12 months through this lens so many struggles started to make sense.
Next I decided to turn these ‘problems’ into actions:
This is not going to be an easy venture, especially not no. 2. I realise it will take the better part of 2015 to resolve these issues, but I’m determined to give it a try.
I’m super excited and can’t wait to get back and get to work.
Look out for lots of updates in the coming weeks and months!
Miku agrees!
簡単に言うと、僕は中田ヤスタカさんの大ファンです。。。
Capsuleだけじゃなく、きゃりーぱみゅぱみゅとPerfumeも好きだし、他にContemodeでリリースされたアーティストもどれも僕の好みに近いです。
そして、前日北陸新聞を軽く読んだら、最近中田さんが金沢中央駅の駅メロをプロデュースすることになったのが分かった。聞きに行きたいな。。。
（中田さんは金沢出身なので選ばれたのはそれほど不思議な話ではない。。。）
音楽の才能があって、幾つかのサウンドやスタイルにおいて天才と言っても可笑しくないと思うけど。だが、どうして僕がこんなにファンになったのかをちょっと考えてみた。
やはり僕にとってあの「渋谷系」の代表的なアイコンだからかな。。。
初来日前、大学時代から僕はピチカート・ファイヴ、カヒミ・カリィ、Round Table等がとても好きで、Capsuleを初めて聞いたときはとても感動した。それまでの渋谷系の良いところを全部吸い上げて一つのサウンドに纏めたと感じた。
後で調べて分かったけど、Capsuleは1997年、当時17歳で同級生のこしじまとしこと立ち上げたユニット。その後金沢でサウンドを磨いて、2001年上京したそう。確かに渋谷系のブームが終わりかけたころだったけど、もしかしてだからこそあんなに上手く出来上がったのかも。
上京後は多面で音楽活動を続けた。自分のラーベルを立ち上げ、映画のサウンドトラックを制作、他のアーティスト（Perfume等）の音楽をプロデュースし、メジャーのリミックスを世界に送り、そしてCapsuleのアルバムを次々とリリースしてきた。
そのCapsuleの最新アルバムだけど、「Caps Lock」という名前で2013年に出た。
サウンドは今までとちょっと新しい方向を示しながら、更にCapsuleが面白くなった感じです（是非聞いて見て下さい）。
とはいえ、本人は認めるがどうか分からないけど、僕から言うと今でもしっかりと渋谷系の響きが聞こえる。。。
ま、ちょっとバラバラの話になってしまったけど、とにかく中田さんファンです！これからもたくさんのアルバムをリリースし、他の面でも音楽で是非頑張って欲しい。
Japan, in contrast to the rest of the world, still has a fairly healthy CD sales market (last year 85% of music sales in Japan were CDs). It is definitely shrinking (17% 2014), but still accounts for a significant portion of world wide CD sales (Japan is still the second largest music market world wide).
The reasons are probably multiple, a mixture of the demographic (older people buy more CDs), the collectable fandom culture and finally the lack of streaming options. The last point in particular is interesting since no streaming service, domestic or foreign, have ever really caught on in Japan. In fact, most of the global services have never even been introduced here.
Within this landscape there are several media rental chains that thrive on renting out CDs, DVDs and console games. GEO and Tsutaya are probably the biggest, with stores across Japan.
They are the perfect waterhole to batch sample new music regardless of genre, as they usually carry a very wide selection. Whenever I go to Japan I like to stop buy and rent a bunch of discs from artists or genres that interest me, and then pick out the stuff that’s good enough for keeping.
If you visit Japan, don’t miss out on this opportunity to listen in on what’s currently popular.
Glitzerstrahl 