Maya Ongaku

Japanese favorites Maya Ongaku continue to evolve their sound. After a dip through synth cycles on Electronic Phantoms, the band returns to the calm waters of their debut. Here they swap that release’s focus on folk for a sound that balances their fuller production with an emphasis on quietude. The latter is the key to Nothing Space Music. The band returned to their hometown to build a studio that let them realize the potential of silence. A soundproofed oasis, Nothing Space Studio allowed the band to focus on the minutiae of their music; cascading patient fingerings, glass-ringed keys, and fogged breath among beds of field recordings and the faint shapes of jazz. A headphone record of the highest order, the band lives in the small details that can best be picked out in the humid hum of morning light or the slow sweep of dusk.

A perfect companion piece to Approach to Anima, the new record revels in a delicacy that’s not often found in their peers. It glides through ambient jazz, but winds around fuller rhythms on “Thinkingspace.” Feelings of water often wend through the pieces, a kind of lapping feeling that’s hypnotic and endlessly meditative. The waves pulse in grey-morning measures while the band laces flutes, sax, and textural electronics held over from Phantoms. The soft touch of keys is a constant on the album, tiptoed melodies that are drenched in melancholy hues. The band remains one of the most interesting exports from Guruguru Brain, eschewing the pervasive psych ripple of the label for something soft that still leaves a heavy impression.

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