Wabi Sabi

Sometimes an album title immediately makes you want to return it, unheard. Such is the case with the nonsensically titled Wabi Sabi by Swedish artist Sven Wunder. Wabi Sabi is the profoundly deep concept in Japanese aesthetics roughly translated as ‘the beauty of impermanence’. Why Western artists continually use East and South Asian terms for album and song titles that generally have no relation to the word's meaning is a continued annoyance, here distracting from an otherwise fine album.

Wunder is obviously a very talented producer, able to combine Japanese string and wind instruments with consistently enticing funk and jazz rhythms. Again and again throughout the album he shows great timing in knowing when to bring in a break, drop in a sample or heighten the strings further for more drama. ‘Komorebi’ sounds like the background music to a love scene between Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway, and even better is ‘Bamboo and Rocks’, three tight minutes of groove with bubbling percussion. Closer ‘North Wind Rattles the Leaves’ then combines all of Wunder's work on his previous Turkish-influenced album with the Asian sounds of this one to make a rocking, driving climax.

Some readers might be horrified by the mere existence of this album, and I get it. Just ignore the title and the laughable press release (‘This is the illusion that celebrates the fleeting nature of all things. A journey. A deep inhale and a slow exhale’) and dig into a really fun album, soundtrack to an imagined 1970s romance-adventure set in Hong Kong and Japan.