2006年末に設立された東京のレコード・レーベル。
the nation’s premier label for hushed music – Pitchfork
Flau releases are sonically quite diverse, from acoustic folk to dream pop and complex drum experiments. And though eclectic, never before has a label’s oeuvre come together to so closely sound the way a cherry blossom looks – The FADER
one of the biggest names in the world of really small sounds…the perfect soundtrack to a Sunday evening – Timeout Tokyo
consistently impressive – XLR8R
Flau has associated itself with a signature sound…association with Flau suggests a superior level of pop craftsmanship…What’s remarkable about Fukuzono’s project, which launched at the end of 2006, is that he’s achieved quality control without uniformity – exclaim!
Flau has shown that sometimes silence beats flashiness – METROPOLIS Magazine
flau seem to have a magic touch; everything they put out..has a celestial, positively glowing aura about it that has us longing for more..sonically the label is incredibly diverse, but what its releases share in common are a playful curiosity, an unmatchable quality and a genre-bending commitment to evoking time and space within their sounds – DUMMY
Flau label casts its net across a worldwide community of artists with a particular affection for fragile arrangements and microscopic songwriting…A reliable resource for all the finest, quirkiest exploratory electronic pop music – Boomkat
it combines genuine emotion with a sense of playfulness – Fluid Radio
everyone’s favourite Japanese label and, of course, we make no exception – Going Solo
constantly surprising, consistently stunning – Dummy
un monde de l’infiniment fragile et doux – Ondefixe
one of our favourite labels – Textura
Flau are one of those unassuming labels, which since 2007 have been quietly making their way in the world releasing a diverse range of high quality albums…their roster of international artists blend field recordings, acoustic instruments, microsounds, and voice, in a sound that has become truly synonymous with the label – Furthernoise
worth finding – Foxy Digitalis
grow, pushing boundaries and releasing gems – Drifting, Almost Falling
An inner experience and pure fascination to little things concept and microscopic sounds. FLAU is the latest Label Of The Moment – Otsechka
the Tokyo label’s dreamy and cinematic aesthetic seems tailor-made for two favourite hobbies: idleness and letting the imagination run wild – Solar Flares
This label collects very particular artists from all over the world all under one roof that eclectically holds them together. Each artist is so unique, that you would like to read a whole book about them – PonyDanceClyde
2008-09 London, Cafe OTO
2009-09 Melbourne, Toff In Town
2010-08 Berlin, Altes Finanzamt
2012-05 Malaysia, Black Box Map
2012-05 Macau, LMA
2012-05 China Tour Beijing-Shanghai-Hangzhou
2012-06 Tokyo, Fujimigaoka Church & VACANT
2012-06 Kyoto, Metro
2013-04 London, Cafe OTO
2013-04 Berlin, Antje Øklesund
2013-12 Tokyo, VACANT
2016-03 Tokyo, VACANT
SEE FULL LIST
©FLAU
CAT No. FLAU79
Release Date: September 27th, 2019
Format: LP/Digital
「旅はいつもSparrowsの作品のテーマです」と三宅亮太は話します。ニュージーランドのギターポップ新世代Fazerdaze、三宅と未来的なラテン・バンドFlash Amazonasを組むスペインのJulián Mayorga、カナダ・トロントの若手シンガーソングライターCasey MQ、ジャズ・ベーシストでもあるスイスのVincent Ruiz、イラン系アメリカ人プロデューサーKamron Saniee。国際色豊かなアーティスト達との交流だけではなく、音楽そのものの雰囲気においても、このことは感じられます。前作 Collected Visits で描かれた空想よりも、もう少し確かな、サイエンス・フィクションのような旅路。
そして、SFのような旅行という点で、Sparrowsの最新作に勝るものはありません。彼のバンドCRYSTALのレトロ・ダダイストなエレクトロニック・ミュージックとも通底した、pre-YMOフュージョンとも呼べそうなThe Star Tours、趣深いビデオゲーム・ミュージックにびっしりと包まれたMoon 、偽物のジャズバンドにアシッドハウスのベースラインとシンセノイズを組み合わせたBands In The Sandなど、どの曲も足を宙に浮かせたようなフェイクじみた冒険に溢れています。「偽物の、空想のバンド」というテーマは、この作品を説明する時に重要なワードです。
Berriesは 「Coffee and TV」 のジャングリーさ、派手で遊び心のあるジャズの要素、 60年代のサイケデリアとギャロッピング奏法、風通しの良いスペース・ロックのパッチワークを転々としながら、変化に富んだ生き生きとした旅に出ます。子どもの頃からジャズやフュージョン、ソウル・ミュージックが流れる家庭に育ったという三宅は、幼少期の音楽的な影響を否定はしないものの、作品全体のトーンを、海外で過ごしたふわっとした生活と、ずっと好きだったという淡く夢見心地でサイケデリックな雰囲気をミックスさせたもの、と話します。
ふわっとした生活といえば、当初 Sparrows’ Lazy Lifeというアルバムのタイトルを予定していたこの作品。スズメの友達エミールが、テイラー・スウィフトのように甘いポップスがたくさんあるから、と提案してきたその名前は、スズメの涙よりは少しだけ大きいBerriesというタイトルです。
“Travel is always the theme of Sparrows’ work,” says Ryota Miyake (aka Sparrows himself). It’s on his latest album Berries that this is truly exemplified, not just in the international smorgasbord of featuring artists from Fazerdaze (New Zealand), Julián Mayorga (Spain), Casey MQ (Canada) and Vincent Ruiz aka Yung Veerp (Switzland), to Iranian-American producer Kamron Saniee, but in the actual feeling of the music itself. “I wanted it to be a little hard-boiled and rough,” he admits, “but in the end, the concept is to travel like science fiction.”
And when it comes to “travel like science fiction”, nothing does it better than Miyake’s latest body of work. Taking cues from the retro dadaist electronica of his band CRYSTAL, there are tracks like ‘Moon’, drenched in atmospheric VGM flavours, ‘The Star Tours’ which Ryota himself describes as “pre-YMO fusion”, and the “phony jazz band, acid house bass and synth noise” of ‘Bands In The Sand’. This theme of the “imaginary band” crops up more than once.
Elsewhere Berries tumbles along in a patchwork of ‘Coffee and TV’ jangle, splashy jazz elements, ‘60s psychedelia and galloping, airy space rock, making for a journey that’s as vivid as it is varied. Sounds, we’re told, from Miyake’s student days.
“I had a lot of opportunities to listen to jazz, fusion, and soul,” he admits, “but I decided on the overall tone thinking that I would be able to mix the feeling of the puffy life I had spent abroad with the pale, dreamy, psychic atmosphere I had always liked.”
Speaking of that “puffy life”, he was originally going to name the album Sparrows’ Lazy Life but decided on Berries when a friend suggested “a short title like Taylor Swift because there were a lot of sweet pop songs.” Each track on Berries bursts with flavour: the perfect road trip snack for a mystical mixed salad of journeys and travels.
01 Sweet Holograms
02 Gold In The Tide (feat. Fazerdaze)03 Moon
04 Dreamy Puzzle (feat. Julián Mayorga)
05 Bands In The Sand
06 La chanson du Kisuki (feat. Vincent)
07 Dizzy Jazz
08 The Star Tours09 Never Knew That (feat. Kamron Saniee)
10 On Air (feat. Casey MQ)
11 Eating The Clouds
12 Home13 From Belle’s To Olive
it’s wonderful – Frankie Francis, Amazing Radio
Berries shoots an air of uncanniness through styles such as hypnagogic pop, library composition and bedroom indie. It all makes for a curiously hypnotic listening experience – Bleep
very relaxing pop – KEXP
sweetly surreal psych-pop – Bandcamp (NEW & NOTABLE)
oddball yet sweet psych pop, ideal for soundtracking a road trip – Norman Records
Among the many daring instrumental free-form joints, which range with ease between jazzy segmentations and analogical languor, melodic charms of slight pop modernism – Rockellila / Music Won’ts Save You
relaxed, dreamy quality present across the record that fans of The Beta Band or Grandaddy would admire – For The Rabbit
utterly adorable sound scape – The Sunday Experience
unconventional – Mor.bo (11 recent releases you should listen to)
perfect accompaniment for late-night star-tripping – Live Eye TV
excellent introduction to the talented musician who is really able to craft some excellent rock and hip-hop inspired compositions – In Search of Media
how flawless its construction is – Nothing But Hope and Passion
quite delicate tunes…a fine release and takes in many influences to cross the finishing line – God Is In The TV
風通し抜群のソフト・サイケ～エキゾ万華鏡グルーヴ超最高作 – Jet Set
CAT No. FLAU79
Release Date: September 27th, 2019
Format: LP/Digital
01 Sweet Holograms
02 Gold In The Tide (feat. Fazerdaze)03 Moon
04 Dreamy Puzzle (feat. Julián Mayorga)
05 Bands In The Sand
06 La chanson du Kisuki (feat. Vincent)
07 Dizzy Jazz
08 The Star Tours09 Never Knew That (feat. Kamron Saniee)
10 On Air (feat. Casey MQ)
11 Eating The Clouds
12 Home13 From Belle’s To Olive
「旅はいつもSparrowsの作品のテーマです」と三宅亮太は話します。ニュージーランドのギターポップ新世代Fazerdaze、三宅と未来的なラテン・バンドFlash Amazonasを組むスペインのJulián Mayorga、カナダ・トロントの若手シンガーソングライターCasey MQ、ジャズ・ベーシストでもあるスイスのVincent Ruiz、イラン系アメリカ人プロデューサーKamron Saniee。国際色豊かなアーティスト達との交流だけではなく、音楽そのものの雰囲気においても、このことは感じられます。前作 Collected Visits で描かれた空想よりも、もう少し確かな、サイエンス・フィクションのような旅路。
そして、SFのような旅行という点で、Sparrowsの最新作に勝るものはありません。彼のバンドCRYSTALのレトロ・ダダイストなエレクトロニック・ミュージックとも通底した、pre-YMOフュージョンとも呼べそうなThe Star Tours、趣深いビデオゲーム・ミュージックにびっしりと包まれたMoon 、偽物のジャズバンドにアシッドハウスのベースラインとシンセノイズを組み合わせたBands In The Sandなど、どの曲も足を宙に浮かせたようなフェイクじみた冒険に溢れています。「偽物の、空想のバンド」というテーマは、この作品を説明する時に重要なワードです。
Berriesは 「Coffee and TV」 のジャングリーさ、派手で遊び心のあるジャズの要素、 60年代のサイケデリアとギャロッピング奏法、風通しの良いスペース・ロックのパッチワークを転々としながら、変化に富んだ生き生きとした旅に出ます。子どもの頃からジャズやフュージョン、ソウル・ミュージックが流れる家庭に育ったという三宅は、幼少期の音楽的な影響を否定はしないものの、作品全体のトーンを、海外で過ごしたふわっとした生活と、ずっと好きだったという淡く夢見心地でサイケデリックな雰囲気をミックスさせたもの、と話します。
ふわっとした生活といえば、当初 Sparrows’ Lazy Lifeというアルバムのタイトルを予定していたこの作品。スズメの友達エミールが、テイラー・スウィフトのように甘いポップスがたくさんあるから、と提案してきたその名前は、スズメの涙よりは少しだけ大きいBerriesというタイトルです。
“Travel is always the theme of Sparrows’ work,” says Ryota Miyake (aka Sparrows himself). It’s on his latest album Berries that this is truly exemplified, not just in the international smorgasbord of featuring artists from Fazerdaze (New Zealand), Julián Mayorga (Spain), Casey MQ (Canada) and Vincent Ruiz aka Yung Veerp (Switzland), to Iranian-American producer Kamron Saniee, but in the actual feeling of the music itself. “I wanted it to be a little hard-boiled and rough,” he admits, “but in the end, the concept is to travel like science fiction.”
And when it comes to “travel like science fiction”, nothing does it better than Miyake’s latest body of work. Taking cues from the retro dadaist electronica of his band CRYSTAL, there are tracks like ‘Moon’, drenched in atmospheric VGM flavours, ‘The Star Tours’ which Ryota himself describes as “pre-YMO fusion”, and the “phony jazz band, acid house bass and synth noise” of ‘Bands In The Sand’. This theme of the “imaginary band” crops up more than once.
Elsewhere Berries tumbles along in a patchwork of ‘Coffee and TV’ jangle, splashy jazz elements, ‘60s psychedelia and galloping, airy space rock, making for a journey that’s as vivid as it is varied. Sounds, we’re told, from Miyake’s student days.
“I had a lot of opportunities to listen to jazz, fusion, and soul,” he admits, “but I decided on the overall tone thinking that I would be able to mix the feeling of the puffy life I had spent abroad with the pale, dreamy, psychic atmosphere I had always liked.”
Speaking of that “puffy life”, he was originally going to name the album Sparrows’ Lazy Life but decided on Berries when a friend suggested “a short title like Taylor Swift because there were a lot of sweet pop songs.” Each track on Berries bursts with flavour: the perfect road trip snack for a mystical mixed salad of journeys and travels.
