Hajime Nakamura - Loop Drawing

 Released: January 6

At its core, Loop Drawing from Japanese artist Hajime Nakamura is an ambient album. But it also manages to be significantly more than that through its approach to utilizing various lengths of looping to create more dynamic environments. Nothing much is said about his particular method of shaping these compositions, but we can glean quite a bit from the slow interplay of each individual piece. For a prime example, we can look to the intricate textures of  “Cloud,” which takes slow oscillations from several different sources and winds them together in an offset manner as we hear one piece wind up and slowly dissipate. This dissipation gives the room for the next piece to rise in its place as loops of soft and gentle pads keep a consistent palate of sound present. 

The next track after this, “Hanabi Taste” builds on this dynamic with more upfront sounds including a jangling melody that forms the consistent motif of the track. It’s a difficult mood to explain but the repetition takes something that would otherwise sound like a simple flourish to end on and makes it the focus while it is supported by multiple other pieces of ambient magic. It’s this elegant combination that can be heard throughout all six tracks of the album that brings a certain otherworldly quality to each one, to varying degrees. But its the way in which they are stacked together, with loops that are just ever so slightly shorter than other creating this mildly slurred feeling that is just enough to keep things interesting without letting the whole thing fall apart.