Masayoshi Fujita loves nature and birds. In 2020, after living in Berlin for 13 years, the composer and multi-instrumentalist returned to his native Japan with his wife and three children, fulfilling his lifelong dream of composing music amid nature. The first album he made in his homeland is titled Bird Ambience (2021). He now returns with Migratory, inspired by an image of migratory birds hearing music from the land underneath.
“These ideas and images were inspired by my experiences living abroad and returning to my homeland,” explains Fujita. “As well as by the artists featured on this album who also somehow traveled or lived in other countries across the boundaries, and being influenced by the music of other lands but at the same time somehow led to their roots.”
The style of music on Migratory is fairly similar to Bird Ambience, which tends to pair Fujita’s marimba and vibraphone with meditative synths. The opener, “Tower of Cloud”, provides simple, repetitive melodies weaving around each other. Here and throughout the record, the combination of organic percussion with blasts of retro-leaning keyboards provides deeply soothing but melodically intriguing results.
As alluded to by Masayoshi Fujita in the above quote, Migratory often benefits from the inclusion of other artists crossing geographical boundaries. Moor Mother is featured in the striking “Our Mother’s Lights”, which blends her stark, eloquent spoken word with Fujita’s hypnotic marimba runs and bluesy saxophone. The saxophone, incidentally, is played by Fujita’s father, Osamu, who also lends his talents to the zen jazz opus “Blue Rock Thrush” and its more optimistic-sounding twin track, “In a Sunny Meadow”. Mattias Hallsten plays shō (a Japanese free reed instrument) on three tracks, bringing something of a droning, occasionally atonal vibe, and Japanese vocalist Hatis Noit (who, like Fujita, releases music on the Erased Tapes imprint) sings on the breathtaking “Higurashi”, combining her delicate vocals with chirping birds and subtle synth beds.
Besides these valuable contributors, Fujita is essentially by himself, creating tracks that build gently and slowly, like “Desonata”, employ an undertone of tension, like “Pale Purple” (which takes full advantage of Hallsten’s shō), or simply ebb and flow in lush sonic waves, like “Valley”. The variety of the arrangements also allows the listener to hear extremely sparse pieces like the compelling “Distant Planet”, almost a solo mallet percussion piece that eventually introduces gentle synthesizer swells.
For all the fantastic melodic figures featured throughout Migratory, one of the strongest tracks primarily consists of sustained notes establishing a powerful drone. “Yodaka” is Migratory‘s closer and is profoundly meditative and uplifting, setting a peaceful, mysterious, yet positive final statement. It’s a place of lush beauty, matched with subtle field recordings that underscore Fujita’s ultimate goal to continue creating music within the beauty of nature. On Migratory, as on Bird Ambience, Masayoshi Fujita finds deep inspiration in his peaceful working and living environment.