The Walk by Kato Hideki & Kramer

"THE WALK"

by Kato Hideki & Kramer

Shimmy-2025 (Release Date: August 23, 2024)

Shimmy-Disc presents the long-awaited debut collaboration between two maverick composers.

An ambient/hybrid musical journey interweaving the dual inspirations of poets Basho and Robert Walser… two 21st Century audio artists seeking out two long-gone, language artists to show them a new way to see and hear the world - a monument to listening, hearing space beyond what the physical body experiences - an immemorial Walk for the listener, without ever leaving home.

"The Walk" takes you from here, to there.

The 1st pressing is limited to 555 hand-numbered LP's on 150gm black vinyl, PRE-SALE available through Bandcamp and the Shimmy-Shop - NOW.

A link to the free digital download with each vinyl purchase also includes a special "digital-only" bonus track of 11 minutes in length.

(Full LP download is available on the August 23rd Release Date)

All Tracks Composed & Performed by Kato Hideki & Kramer

Produced by Kato Hideki & Kramer

Mixed and Mastered by Kramer

Jacket photography by Rudy Royston

“The Walk is the first collaboration between me and my brother from another mother, Kramer. We started working together in the late summer in 2023, discussing the thematics and the sonic palette of the album. We shared strong connections with the writings by Robert Walser and Basho - both of them walked, dreamed, lived and died on the road. Ambient music was our natural plane for us to transduce the power of their literature into our music as signifiers. Neither of us imagined justto make “another ambient record”, nor a direct translation of their writings. My instinct was to use various modal colors with modulation- slow yet structured music that sounds deceivingly similar to ambient music. Kramer’s genius was apparent to me: his ability to elaborate the music as a composer / musician with his keen ears; to frame the album conceptually, sonically and musically as a producer. What you hear in this album is a true collaboration between two artists who trusted each other to let the music transcend. Here you have it, enjoy YOUR walk - dream, live and die well! ” - Kato Hideki - April 3, 2024 (Brooklyn, NY)

“Sometime in the latter 20th Century, I became aware of the art of The Brothers Quay, two American animators living in London and making the most beautiful works of art I’d ever experienced in cinema. I noted that some of their work was inspired by… “the writings of Robert Walser”. Fast forward to 2024 and I have now read every word there was to read (translated into English) by this unique Swiss-German writer. I’d waited decades to find the right ‘environment’ in which to create music in dedication to this great prose writer and poet, and in 2023, I found that it was not ‘the right environment’ that I’d been waiting for, but rather, the right collaborator. Kato Hideki and his extraordinary work as composer for film, dance and just about every other creative discipline you can imagine, was equally as inspiring to me for this project as the words and worlds of Walser and Basho. Our journey in collaborative composition began all over the global map, but arrived at the same physical endpoint, and at the very same point in time. I’m not sure that I would even be interested in music at all, unless there were other artists to partner with as I worked. Working alone means Nothing to me. This months-long act of co-creation I have shared with Kato for “THE WALK” has made me as happy to be alive as Walser and Basho were so happy to be alive while on their walks, as evidenced by their extraordinary descriptive powers, knowing that the world around them - so simple yet so very complex - made life so wondrous, and so well worth the sometimes seemingly insurmountable struggles of finding a way to survive Today, so that we might try again Tomorrow.” - Kramer, April 9, 2024 (Asheville, NC)

Kato Hideki is a Japanese multi-instrumentalist, composer & producer. His music is truly diverse with a wide range of forms and sounds. His other titles are released on Tzadik, Joyful Noise Recordings, Improvised Music from Japan, Presquile records & Virgin UK
, etc.

katohideki.com