Japanese visual artist & musician Yoshino Shigihara returns with the vibrant, beautiful music of her main project Yama Warashi (translates as ‘small childlike mountain spirit’) on new EP ‘At My Mother's Piano’.
Founded in Bristol circa 2015 and centred on a close-knit coterie of gifted collaborators led by Shigihara, the output of Yama Warashi has since flourished across one EP and three albums, from the graceful spiritual jazz of 2016’s ‘MOON ZERO’ to the evocative, psychedelic dreamworlds of her debut album ‘Moon Egg’ - released in the same year - to the existential, Bon Odori-inspired music of 2018’s ‘Boiled Moon’.
Relocating to London, after being drawn to the city by its open-minded music scene - especially the activity centred around Cafe OTO and the Total Refreshment Centre - Shigihara released ‘Crispy Moon’ in 2022, unfurling even grander, more lavish depths within her multifaceted soundworld.
Enriched by the kaleidoscopic influence of Japanese folk dance, free jazz, African music and psychedelia, Shigihara illustrates the ever-evolving qualities of Yama Warashi on ‘At My Mother’s Piano’, crafting exquisite, improvisational solo piano works interlaced with vivid field recordings, inspired by a trip back to her family home in Ashiya City, Hyōgo, Japan earlier this year.
During a two-month period between January & February 2024, Shigihara would habitually play the eponymous piano that still resides at her family home. Capturing these unadorned, peaceful moments, she then incorporated field recordings documented during her time there. Resembling a beguiling, poetic reflection of everyday realities, the natural world, spirituality and Japanese folklore, ‘At My Mother’s Piano’ is a simple, meditative yet eloquent distillation of restorative tranquillity and intuitive artistic expression.
Across seven enchanting, impressionistic works, Shigihara manoeuvres between music of refined dexterity and mesmerising stillness. On the opening track, named after the Hankyu Denshya train line near her mother’s home, Shigihara combines charming piano variations with the environmental and conversational sounds recorded on an idyllic train journey to Kyoto, taken by Shigihara, her sister and her mother; an excursion of light conversation, ‘velvety moss-green seats’ and ‘cherry trees’ observed from train windows.
Then on ‘Frog From Amami’, Shigihara interpolates the strangely sublime sound of tropical frogs - recorded during a family holiday in the wake of her father’s passing - with reverberant vocal samples from her mother’s answer phone. For Shigihara, these sounds have a peculiarly symbolic symmetry: “These frogs were making really beautiful noise on the field. I couldn’t see them but there were lots of them making noises together. I added the answer phone messages at my mother’s house. It is a funny message, it sounded a bit passive-aggressive even though the speaker spoke beautifully in a good manner. It struck me that we as humans are just making noises together like these frogs.”
Elsewhere, on the penultimate track ‘Hibiki’ (meaning ‘Resonance’), Shigihara moves through delicate swells and spellbinding clusters, creating a sacred atmosphere. In her eyes, the track reflects the idea of human action representing a chain of endlessly connected resonances: ‘I believe that our actions affect our surroundings. Even tiny actions. Kindness and love will spread, and anger and hate will do the same. We resonate with each other. We can make dissonance but also we can make beautiful harmonies.’
Shigihara certainly fulfils the positive aspects of this philosophy on ‘At My Mother's Piano’, creating an intimate space of rare beauty and harmony throughout. With the final track ‘Mukatsuhime’ (the Japanese sun goddess), Shigihara provides a heavenly parting gift of choral vocals and gently descending piano that proves as transporting as the experience that inspired it. Intended as a rumination on a misty, rain-soaked pilgrimage Shigihara took to the ancient shrine of Mukatsuhime on Rokkou Mountain, the track signifies a definitive closing statement of serenity, on an album where mystical contemplations and everyday impressions coalesce, forming a special tapestry of memory, sound and extraordinary music.
1. Hankyu Denshya
2. Sazanami Yureru
3. At My Mothers' Piano
4. Frog From Amami
5. Amaterasu
6. Hibiki
7. Mukatsuhime