Cloud Wandering

One of the foremost performers of Okinawan folk music, vocalist and sanshin (banjo-like lute) player Takashi Hirayasu came to prominence in the Western consciousness through his celebrated collaborations with American slide guitarist Bob Brozman. Though his history goes back much further, to the group Champloose - one of the first bands to combine Okinawan music with rock - who debuted in 1977, and later worked with Ry Cooder.

On this album, Hirayasu continues this fusion of sanshin-led songwriting with a variety of Western and pan-Asian sounds. Opening with the languid dub of ‘Daisanaja’ (Braggart), Hirayasu is joined by both traditional and contemporary percussion, as well as the iridescent sprinkling of Ken Ohtake's guitar, which lends the track a gently psychedelic quality. This languorous pace continues in the loping polyrhythms of ‘Umi No Chimbora’ (Seashells), setting the tone for the album as a whole. Ohtake, who shares songwriting credit on several of the tunes, helps emphasise the Western aspects of the album, notably on the acoustic guitar-led ballad ‘Starlight Wish’ and the blues rock grooves of ‘1968’. Hirayasu's sanshin is given central focus in the instrumental ‘Drunk Improviser’, exchanging lashings of melody with tenor saxophone. A quietly dreamlike atmosphere is conjured on ‘As the Moon Rises’, aided by guest singer Wan Fang's intimate vocal performance, as well as beautifully plaintive interjections by Chung Yufeng on the Chinese pipa. Ending with the wistful nostalgia of ‘Farmer from Chunjun’, Cloud Wandering is a playful and humorous meander through place and memory, led by a quiet master of his art.