earth by Hideyuki Hashimoto

1.prologue
2.klock
3.Hikari
4.pop
5.elephant walk
6.Mai
7.naoshima
8.Rin
9.fake
10.core
11.a petal
12.loops
13.earth
14.grounding

"Calm nature and everyday life,
Plain and pure landscape,
Boundlessly simple and beautiful,
Collection of short piano pieces as if a story .."

"earth" is the Japanese composer Hideyuki Hashimoto's 1st solo album,and also the first half of the two-part work released on his own label, nlart. This remarkably gentle and lyrical album was born arising from the daily natural landscapes with the influence of musicians that creates rather "visual" music such as Mono Fontana.These melodius 14 tracks (including 3 improvised tracks) are packaged in gorgeous 6 panel digipak, beautiful artwork designed by a young designer and musician, Yu Kadowaki.

Hideyuki Hashimoto (b. 1986) is a keyboardist/pianist from Osaka, Japan. He was influenced by piano greats such as Keith Jarrett, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Mono Fontana and creates minimal compositions,while his performance is based on improvisation with an ambient feeling. With his natural performing style and the simply beautiful tones, he has previously collaborated with many instruments and voices including a collaboration project with visuals in europe, already increasing his popularity outside of Japan. After the release of his 1st album “earth” (2012), the 2nd part of the two-part work “air” is planned to be released in winter 2012.

-Review-
Vital Weekly 834
The perfect cure (pun intended) for this is the CD ‘Earth’ by Hideyuki Hashimoto, born in 1986 and inspired by Keith Jarret, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Mono Fontana when it comes to playing the piano himself.He has also played with other instruments and vocalists, but here Hashimoto is on the piano solo. Minimal piano music, with a great ambient feel to it. I’d like to mention Harold Budd in this respect too. Three of the fourteen pieces are improvised, but I couldn’t say which one. Still music, quiet, which reminded me also of the current neo-classical movement, with people like Nils Frahm. A release that could have fitted nicely on Les Disques Du Crepuscule, had he been born twenty years earlier. Another fine grandson of Erik Satie. Excellent music for a quiet evening and fine wine. (FdW)

Avant Music News
Debut album by Osaka-based Hideyuki Hashimoto, a naturalist with a piano, collecting musical butterflies in his light, meshed net. Gentle and narrative as a show of pastoral watercolours by local artists in the parish hall. Yet his thinking and playing is that of a sophisticate, as the subtle cogitations of ”Hikari” display. ”Core” is so colourful, lovely and innocent, it would immediately capture the attention of an infant and hold it rapt. ”A Petal” and ”Loops” seem a tad downhearted, but you can tell that it won´t last long. The twenty-six year old Hashimoto names Keith Jarrett and Ryuichi Sakamoto as influences, but throughout “Earth” I keep hearing the tone of Vince Guaraldi´s soundtracks for ”Peanuts”, which I consider high praise indeed. The baker´s dozen of minatures is rounded off with a more ponderous, eleven-minute ”Grounding”. A downcast appendix fretting over the actual state of our planet? (Stephen Fruitman)

textura
Recorded in its entirety on December 26, 2011 and issued on his own label Nlart, the Osaka, Japan-based pianist's first solo album is a thoroughly appealing collection that opts for restraint and understatement over virtuoso display and over-embellishment. All but one of its fourteen pieces (three of them improvisations) are miniatures, the exception being the closing “Grounding,” whose slow-motion unfolding entrances for the full measure of its eleven minutes. The overall mood of the forty-two-minute recording is melancholy, heartfelt, and wistful (the title track especially), without being dour or lugubrious. Moments of relative levity appear, too, such as during the pieces “Pop” and “Fake,” and one is repeatedly struck by the lyrical quality of Hashimoto's playing. One also hears echoes of Satie in Hashimoto's minimal playing style, and elegant, ruminative settings such as “Hikari,” “Elephant Walk,” and “Earth” suggest that he conceivably might regard Keith Jarrett and Bill Evans as kindred spirits. “Elephant Walk” in particular is so Evans-like, one could easily imagine it being identified as such in a Downbeat ‘Blindfold Test.' The sound presentation is undoctored, though one can't help but notice Hashimoto's love of sustain, which imbues the material with a degree of reverberation that's far from inconspicuous. That detail aside, listeners with a love for piano playing in its most pure and elegant form would be wise to track down Hashimoto's recording as well as look forward to the second half of the two-part work, Air, set to be released in winter of 2012.
-textura July-August 2012-

Hideyuki Hashimoto 橋本秀幸

hideyukihashimoto.com