2006年末に設立された東京のレコード・レーベル。
General Information: flau@flau.jp
Booking: booking@flau.jp
Press: press@flau.jp
Event: event@flau.jp
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. FLAU61
Release Date: Japan - Mar 6th / Overseas - Mar 22th, 2019
Format: 2CD/2LP/DIGITAL
KiTsuNe / Brian The Foxは、Tomo Akikawabayaとして80年代より活動し、Minimal Waveからのリイシューによって近年世界的な再評価が高まる日本人アーティストThが、ロバート・ワイアットから1998年に受け取った1本のDATテープから始まったコラボレーション作品。録音された一篇の詩とベーシックなトラックがThのギター、半谷高明によるシンセサイザー、ミックスによって拡張され、膨大なワイアットのコラボレーションの中でも最もオブスキュアな作品となったオリジナル・バージョン(Disc1)。無常を見るかのように繰り返されるワイアットの声と詩、テープのMIDI変換によってプリミティヴな音階を獲得し、まるでアクションペインティングのように特異な動きへと変貌を遂げ、生命の輪廻が表現されたというリング・バージョン(Disc2)。電子エスノ・アンビエントともコールドウェイヴの極北とも呼べるかのような強烈な密度を持ったこの作品は、成長と増幅を遂げ、様々なプロジェクトが現在も派生している「KiTsuNe」の広大な世界の端緒となる貴重なドキュメントといえます。
DISC1「02.03」はワイアットのアルバムCuckoolandに収録された「Tom Hay’s Fox」の原曲。マスタリングをTaylor Deupreeが担当、アートワークにはTh自らが撮り下ろした写真が使用され、デザインをModern Love諸作を手がけるRadu Prepeleacが手がけています。
20世紀も終わりが近づいてきた頃、Thからこんなメッセージが届く‐
「僕たちが作業を出来るような新しい素材がありますか?」
素材はあった。Brian the Foxだ。宙に浮いていてまだ手の入っていない、ベーシックなアイデアのままだった。
私の曲には珍しく、厳格なテンポは無く、俳句よりも短い詩!を書こうとしたものだった。
曲の最後は即興だった‐間をおいてから最後の和音になるのは、どの和音にするか決めかねていたからだ…(自宅のカセットを使いテープに直接録音、「作品」ではなかった。)
彼らは私のアイデアを美しく高めていった。
– Robert Wyatt
Japanese producer The Future Eve (fka Tomo Akikawabaya) has announced a landmark collaboration spanning continents and planes of existence. Going under the new name of The Future Eve, he has worked together with the legendary Robert Wyatt to create an electronic journey of sound. But it isn’t the usual musical cooperative.
Robert Wyatt retired from music in 2014, stating “there is a pride in (stopping), I don’t want (the music) to go off.”
But let’s rewind to 1998.
Leftfield electronic producer Th – known for his minimalist, synthesised pieces under the moniker Tomo Akikawabaya such as The Castle (1984), reissued alongside other works on New York’s Minimal Wave Records as The Invitation of The Dead in 2015 – contacted Robert Wyatt.
Wyatt recalls,
“towards the end of the 20th century, Th sent me a message asking something like;
“do you have any piece of new material we could work on”—–?
I did have. Brian the Fox was an un-placed,
un-worked basic idea I had.
unusual for me in that it had no strict tempo, and the words were an attempt to write a text even shorter than a Haiku! (I just recorded it directly onto tape at home, on cassette, no ‘production’.)
the music ending was improvised – the delay before the final chords was me trying to choose the final few chords…
I sent this to Th and Rinko.
they have enhanced the idea beautifully.”
The DAT tape reached its destination.
“I received a tape from Robert Wyatt in 1998,” says Th. “The title was “Brian The Fox” and four takes were recorded. I first dubbed layers of sounds to it and Takaaki Han-ya [fellow member of duo Beata Beatrix] took over the piece afterwards. It was dramatically changed and completed after a total of two years.”
But it didn’t stop there.
“I became aware of more possibilities for the piece sometime after we finished the work,” admits Th. “That was the beginning of this long journey.
“When I read the lyrics for the first time, I felt as if they were like Japanese haiku poetry because of the tight, simple expressionism. Also by seeing within something similar to the impermanence of Buddhism, I was more and more attracted to the tape.”
KiTsuNe – Brian the Fox changes dramatically between its first and second discs. The second – the “Ring Version” – reflects this change of mind, this Buddhist inflection. It combines cinematic, introspective drone and frustrated circuitry electronics for an odyssey of uncertainty vs. eternity.
Indeed, Th explains: “At that time I just lost my mother so I thought I would make this work with the thought and the structure of reincarnation.”
All-encompassing walls of warm sound feel instantly womblike yet empty and expansive at the same time. MIDI converters forge music like “an action painting” unable to be created by a human. These random sounds figure as the frustration, doubt and confusion Th was feeling, as much as they display the uncontrollable, automatic universe at work.
“This [Ring Version] work is not music formatted by using musical scales or instruments,” explains Th. “For this work I wanted to try to capture the mind behind the tape more than the music itself.”
Of course, as well as being an exploration of Th’s own emotion and spirituality, KiTsuNe – Brian the Fox exists as a collabroation and an extension of Wyatt’s own efforts.
“The tape itself and the time Mr. Wyatt spent in his room working is the prototype (substance) of this work,” Th says. “I have decided that the thought of this time, and the space where it was created, is the concept of this production.”
With a sense of detachment and almost scientific intrigue into excavating the depths of what can be done with mechanical processes, reverberations and resonance, Th simultaneously creates an intimate audio comfort blanket; it’s farflung but heartfelt. Laboratory calculations crossed with temple reflections.
He concludes:
“This work is dedicated to my late mother and the world.”
It was a great pleasure to work on music from such a legend as Robert Wyatt that has been so cleverly adorned by The Future Eve. – Taylor Deupree
vaporous farewell drones – Popmatters
truly innovative journey through sound – Soul Jazz Records
“Brian” becomes the shapeshifting kitsune of Japanese legend as each iteration finds something new in Wyatt’s major-minor lilts. – WIRE
incredible piece of work – Clash
experimental album of epic – Japan Times
a fascinating electronic journey – Bandcamp
stark drones morph into bubbling electronics and vocals are smudged into spectral after-images – Toneshift
desperate transmissions from another galaxy – Textura
an emotive synth soundscape which can be equal parts haunting and beautiful – Norman Records
voice and drone intertwine, each complimenting the other – A Closer Listen
extremely warm and flat, the emptiness at the end of a Buddhist meditation hinting…whispering out of a deep ocean. It’s good – Skug
the artful high Wyatt wowl trains the bridge over whirlwinds of slow-motion / gentle drones (5/5!) – Westzeit
special and special music…Musical rebirth – Yle
another electronic journey into sound – comes out of buzzing ambient noise (7.5 out of 10) – Nachtmix, RadioBayern 2
rather intriguing – Popgruppen
sounds like the breath of some alien life form…another world without specific geographical coordinates – Nowamuzyka
otherworldly waves…something elusive and tenuous – The Brightly Off-Coloured Discophile
The Future Eve have employed a tightly conceptualized approach to uncover the hidden places and ghosts inside the original…Robert Wyatt’s plangent voice rings out with a spiritual intensity as a chorus of vocals seem to pillow his with golden resonance – Live Eye TV
all photo by Th.
mastered by Taylor Deupree.
‘02.03’ is a prototype of ‘Tom Hay’s Fox’ on Robert Wyatt’s 2003 album Cuckooland.
CAT No. FLAU61
Release Date: Japan - Mar 6th / Overseas - Mar 22th, 2019
Format: 2CD/2LP/DIGITAL
KiTsuNe / Brian The Foxは、Tomo Akikawabayaとして80年代より活動し、Minimal Waveからのリイシューによって近年世界的な再評価が高まる日本人アーティストThが、ロバート・ワイアットから1998年に受け取った1本のDATテープから始まったコラボレーション作品。録音された一篇の詩とベーシックなトラックがThのギター、半谷高明によるシンセサイザー、ミックスによって拡張され、膨大なワイアットのコラボレーションの中でも最もオブスキュアな作品となったオリジナル・バージョン(Disc1)。無常を見るかのように繰り返されるワイアットの声と詩、テープのMIDI変換によってプリミティヴな音階を獲得し、まるでアクションペインティングのように特異な動きへと変貌を遂げ、生命の輪廻が表現されたというリング・バージョン(Disc2)。電子エスノ・アンビエントともコールドウェイヴの極北とも呼べるかのような強烈な密度を持ったこの作品は、成長と増幅を遂げ、様々なプロジェクトが現在も派生している「KiTsuNe」の広大な世界の端緒となる貴重なドキュメントといえます。
DISC1「02.03」はワイアットのアルバムCuckoolandに収録された「Tom Hay’s Fox」の原曲。マスタリングをTaylor Deupreeが担当、アートワークにはTh自らが撮り下ろした写真が使用され、デザインをModern Love諸作を手がけるRadu Prepeleacが手がけています。
20世紀も終わりが近づいてきた頃、Thからこんなメッセージが届く‐
「僕たちが作業を出来るような新しい素材がありますか?」
素材はあった。Brian the Foxだ。宙に浮いていてまだ手の入っていない、ベーシックなアイデアのままだった。
私の曲には珍しく、厳格なテンポは無く、俳句よりも短い詩!を書こうとしたものだった。
曲の最後は即興だった‐間をおいてから最後の和音になるのは、どの和音にするか決めかねていたからだ…(自宅のカセットを使いテープに直接録音、「作品」ではなかった。)
彼らは私のアイデアを美しく高めていった。
– Robert Wyatt
Japanese producer The Future Eve (fka Tomo Akikawabaya) has announced a landmark collaboration spanning continents and planes of existence. Going under the new name of The Future Eve, he has worked together with the legendary Robert Wyatt to create an electronic journey of sound. But it isn’t the usual musical cooperative.
Robert Wyatt retired from music in 2014, stating “there is a pride in (stopping), I don’t want (the music) to go off.”
But let’s rewind to 1998.
Leftfield electronic producer Th – known for his minimalist, synthesised pieces under the moniker Tomo Akikawabaya such as The Castle (1984), reissued alongside other works on New York’s Minimal Wave Records as The Invitation of The Dead in 2015 – contacted Robert Wyatt.
Wyatt recalls,
“towards the end of the 20th century, Th sent me a message asking something like;
“do you have any piece of new material we could work on”—–?
I did have. Brian the Fox was an un-placed,
un-worked basic idea I had.
unusual for me in that it had no strict tempo, and the words were an attempt to write a text even shorter than a Haiku! (I just recorded it directly onto tape at home, on cassette, no ‘production’.)
the music ending was improvised – the delay before the final chords was me trying to choose the final few chords…
I sent this to Th and Rinko.
they have enhanced the idea beautifully.”
The DAT tape reached its destination.
“I received a tape from Robert Wyatt in 1998,” says Th. “The title was “Brian The Fox” and four takes were recorded. I first dubbed layers of sounds to it and Takaaki Han-ya [fellow member of duo Beata Beatrix] took over the piece afterwards. It was dramatically changed and completed after a total of two years.”
But it didn’t stop there.
“I became aware of more possibilities for the piece sometime after we finished the work,” admits Th. “That was the beginning of this long journey.
“When I read the lyrics for the first time, I felt as if they were like Japanese haiku poetry because of the tight, simple expressionism. Also by seeing within something similar to the impermanence of Buddhism, I was more and more attracted to the tape.”
KiTsuNe – Brian the Fox changes dramatically between its first and second discs. The second – the “Ring Version” – reflects this change of mind, this Buddhist inflection. It combines cinematic, introspective drone and frustrated circuitry electronics for an odyssey of uncertainty vs. eternity.
Indeed, Th explains: “At that time I just lost my mother so I thought I would make this work with the thought and the structure of reincarnation.”
All-encompassing walls of warm sound feel instantly womblike yet empty and expansive at the same time. MIDI converters forge music like “an action painting” unable to be created by a human. These random sounds figure as the frustration, doubt and confusion Th was feeling, as much as they display the uncontrollable, automatic universe at work.
“This [Ring Version] work is not music formatted by using musical scales or instruments,” explains Th. “For this work I wanted to try to capture the mind behind the tape more than the music itself.”
Of course, as well as being an exploration of Th’s own emotion and spirituality, KiTsuNe – Brian the Fox exists as a collabroation and an extension of Wyatt’s own efforts.
“The tape itself and the time Mr. Wyatt spent in his room working is the prototype (substance) of this work,” Th says. “I have decided that the thought of this time, and the space where it was created, is the concept of this production.”
With a sense of detachment and almost scientific intrigue into excavating the depths of what can be done with mechanical processes, reverberations and resonance, Th simultaneously creates an intimate audio comfort blanket; it’s farflung but heartfelt. Laboratory calculations crossed with temple reflections.
He concludes:
“This work is dedicated to my late mother and the world.”
It was a great pleasure to work on music from such a legend as Robert Wyatt that has been so cleverly adorned by The Future Eve. – Taylor Deupree
all photo by Th.
mastered by Taylor Deupree.
‘02.03’ is a prototype of ‘Tom Hay’s Fox’ on Robert Wyatt’s 2003 album Cuckooland.