Nova + 4

WRWTFWW Records is blissful to announce the expanded reissue of one of the most fascinating Japanese ambient/environ­mental albums ever made, NOVA + 4 by Yutaka Hirose.

Initially released in 1986 as part of the Soundscape series\* commissioned by Misawa Home Corporation for use in their prefabricated houses, Yutaka Hirose’s NOVA has grown to become a mythical piece of the Japanese minimalist/am­bient/environ­mental scene of the eighties. Initiated around the enchanting landscapes of the two first tracks recorded for the project, “Nova” and “Epilogue”, Yutaka Hirose’s magnum opus serenely blends vintage synth with nature sounds, exploring soothing palettes and organic backdrops. For “Slow Sky”, Hirose explains he “went for a pointillism-like sound, and tried to express a scenery of awakening, where the portal of a heart is opening up”, while on “Humming The Sea”, he “tried to compose a kind of music that expresses the daily, lazy life of child-like innocence in a summer vacation in some small town.”

All in all, NOVA + 4 is a transcendent experience of nature in the urban context, an oeuvre which, much like Midori Takada’s Through The Looking Glass or Satoshi Ashikawa’s Still Way, holds the power to appease the soul in turbulent times. As one inspired YouTube commenter once said when describing Yutaka Hirose’s master­stroke: “I can’t tell if the birds are singing inside or outside! Thank you!”