[WORLD GROOVE] Currently listening to Suiren - Oto wo Haramu

GROUP: Suiren

ALBUM: Oto wo Haramu

LABEL: tearbridge records/Raupenhauzer

CATALOG #: NFCD-27062

DURATION: 33:19

RELEASED ON December 19, 2007

OFFICIAL WEBSITE

MYSPACE WEBSITE

1. Lotus
2. 昼間
3. 鶏頭
4. 夕鶴会
5. 左手
6. Spine

Suiren’s music is probably best described as…mesmerizing and also surreal.

It’s the type of escapist music that you find throughout the album “Oto wo Haramu”.

Suiren comprises of Soft Ballet member Fujii Maki and vocalist Shakuyaku.

According to their MySpace website:

Suilen…

The band’s name derived from the name of a flower, a water lily, written as a sleeping lotus in Chinese characters.

Suilen’s music is like a lotus flower made of thin glasses.
As the band name describes, Shakuyaku’s voice is graceful and mesmerizing.
When she sings in either English or Japanese, the echoes of her voice take you to the Asianesk journey with her skewed nursery-rhymes.

Contrary, Maki is an electronic-noise wizard.
His unique vision of new music style exceeds beyond the listeners’ expectations.
As he refines the melody Shakuyaku resonates, he adds mechanical noises and gradually takes you to the dark industrial world.

Their music stimulates your senses and teases your soul.
Then it leaves you unsettled like cold electric shocks rushing all over you…
Unsettling feeling.

The hidden melody rooted inside Japanese souls has sometimes lost its place in modern Japanese pop culture.
Yet it still exist deep inside of our DNA - finger prints from ancient times.

The music you’ve been searching for is found in Suilen-world.
It’s so beautiful and complex…
It’s bewitched.
Insane….

And with what has been written, I have to totally agree.

By listening to the first track “Lotus”, it sounds as if you are entering into a temple. With Shakuyaku’s angelic, wood sprite vocals seductively singing “Monumentally…Obsessively…Love Me” and peeling away the layers of the vocals, you find a musically, dreamy arrangement by Fujii.

The second track “Hiruma” then has that underground beat, with a dizzying guitar effectively intermeshing in a surreal dreamscape of a track finding peace with the beauty of Shakuyaku’s beautiful vocals.

The third track which roughly translates to “chicken head” is the j-poppish song of the entire album and showcases the range of Shakuyaku’s vocals as it goes from popstar to something heavenly thanks to the melodic keyboard playing of Fujii.

The fourth track is rather beautiful with it’s orchestral undertones and the vocals go fresh, calm and relaxing as it leads up to the fifth track which is another j-poppish upbeat track.

The album concludes with “Spine”, the second track like “Lotus” that features all English lyrics. A song with an addicting beat with orchestral undertones.

The CD insert is a four fold piece featuring the lyrics to the six tracks and production credits.

Overall, Suiren’s “Oto wo Haramu” is a group that finds its uniqueness by putting the listener in a dreamlike-state with Shakuyaku’s beautiful vocals and Fujii Maki’s arrangement adding another depth to the group’s sound.

You get strings, piano, keyboards and drums in the music and overall, music that is thoroughly calming and relaxing. In fact, maybe a bit too calming that I feel like taking a nap.

Nevertheless, Suiren’s “Oto wo Haramu” is a unique album that it goes for a dreamy like atmosphere with tracks that go from beautiful and lush to at times, dark and sultry.

If you are a big supporter of Soft Ballet and Fujii Maki’s work, definitely recommend checking out Suiren. The music may be a bit too calming for some but overall, a refreshingly unique album.