Minima Moralia is ambient artist Chihei Hatakeyama's debut solo album, with his prior musical output coming via his electro-acoustic duo Opitope and the improv group Copa del Papa. Additionally he co-runs the Kualauk Table record label and helps organize the "continuous live performance event" (i.e. "music festival") Kuala Mute Geek. All of this means absolutely nothing to me. If it does to you, then congratulations, for you are clearly more down with the kids in the Tokyo ambient-electro-improv scene than I.
What is presented here is just over fifty minutes of lush sound. Not distinctive songs, nor catchy choruses, but rather what you've probably come to expect of a Kranky release. Seeping guitar, fractured sounds and laptop induced drones and crackles. Often the kind of release you might find me shrugging my shoulders at in a dismissive fashion, but today it happens to be snowing. I have old Charlie Brown Christmas time cartoons playing away silently on my television, and I'm quite placidly enjoying taking photographs of my unspoiled back garden. As such, Minima Moralia works perfectly as my background music. Neither too intrusive as to demand my undivided attention to it, but nor so inconspicuous as to render is valueless.
This is certainly a type of music for a very specific time and place. It isn't about to "get the party started" anytime soon, but if you're in the mood for just staring out the window at the snow falling then you could do a lot worse than having this flickering away in the background.
