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
ever-reliable – Bandcamp
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. FLAU116
Release Date: 2026-08-26
Format: LP/CD/DIGITAL
前作 Drift から6年、日本を代表するピアニスト・林正樹とチェリスト・徳澤青弦の名手二人による2ndアルバム B が完成しました。
Drift が二人の間を、そしてスタイルとスタイルの間を漂流するアルバムであったとすれば、B はその同じ関係性を、ひとつの部屋へと持ち込んだ作品ともいえるかもしれません。互いの音を聴き続けてきた10年近い時間をふまえ、アルバムはセッションを分断せず、相模湖畔のホールで全曲を一度に録音されました。ここで聴こえてくるのは、二人の巧みなスキルを見せつけるものではなく、二人が互いに耳を澄ませ続けた記録としての作品です。
全13曲中8曲は、その近さを前提に書き下ろされたオリジナル曲。残る2曲は、演奏されたそのままの姿を残した即興で、ホールの響きそのものが録音の一部になっています。林のピアノはリズミカルな躍動と余白のあいだを行き来し、徳澤のチェロは低音から旋律までを担いながら、どちらが先導しどちらが追っているのか判然としないほど自然に役割を交換していきます。
Drift はThe Velvet Underground や Squarepusherといった意外な曲をチェロとピアノで再構築していましたが、 B でもその探求心は健在。セロニアス・モンクの名曲をチェンバー編成に置き換えた一曲、そしてクラウス・オガーマンの楽曲では、徳澤が初めてボーカルを取っています。一曲一曲の選択は、作品そのものと同じくらい、二人が普段何を聴き、何に耳を傾けているかを映し出しています。
前作が視覚的なイメージを喚起する、外に開かれた作品だったとすれば、 B はその同じ感性を内へと向けたアルバムです。ジャズとも、室内楽とも、現代音楽とも言い切れない。ただ、長く共演を重ねてきた二人が、音と音のあいだの余白に、音そのものと同じだけの意味を託せるようになった、その到達点がここにあります。
If Drift, their 2020 debut, cast the listener adrift between styles, drifting as much between the two musicians as between genres, B pulls that same partnership into a single room. The two have known each other’s playing for the better part of a decade now, and this time they wanted to record it whole, in one hall, on the shores of Lake Sagami, without breaking the session apart.
What comes out the other side is a quieter, more private record: less a display of range than a document of two people listening closely to each other.
Of the album’s thirteen pieces, eight are new originals, written with that same closeness in mind, and two are improvisations left exactly as they were played, keeping the resonance of the hall itself as part of the recording. Hayashi’s piano moves between the rhythmic and the spacious, Tokuzawa’s cello taking on bass, lead and everything between, the two trading roles so seamlessly that it can be hard to say who is leading and who is following.
Drift was notable for pulling covers from unlikely places, The Velvet Underground and Squarepusher rendered unrecognizable and beautiful in cello and piano. B keeps that same restless curiosity: a little known classical piece, a Thelonious Monk standard reworked as chamber music, and a Claus Ogerman composition that finds Tokuzawa, for the first time on record, stepping up to sing. Each choice says as much about the two musicians’ own listening habits as it does about the record itself, an intimate map of what they reach for when no one else is in the room.
Where Drift was cinematic and outward looking, music built to be seen as much as heard, B turns the same instinct inward. It is not jazz, not quite chamber music, not really post classical either, just two musicians who have spent long enough playing together to let the space between the notes carry as much as the notes themselves.
1. Kaeribana
2. Ollies in Odd Alleys
3. Lakeside #1
4. Kottesloe5. Adagio by G. Tailleferre
6. ホオズキの鳴る調べ
7. Juvenile
8. Lakeside #2
9. Misterioso
10. Dotted Walk
11. Filum
12. I Loved You
13. ６つの曲がり角
expert musicianship and attention to compositional detail. You’ll be impressed at first, and then increasingly enthusiastic with subsequent listens – Moderns
beautifully, disruptively and demanding…penguin-café-like fusion composition and Brian Eno or Harold Budd’s old-school atmosphere is great cinema, a class in itself – Groove
リズミカルに躍動するピアノと深遠さを湛えたチェロ – Music Magazine
躍動と静謐さ、そして緊張の中にこそ生まれる美 – Intoxicate
CAT No. FLAU116
Release Date: 2026-08-26
Format: LP/CD/DIGITAL
1. Kaeribana
2. Ollies in Odd Alleys
3. Lakeside #1
4. Kottesloe5. Adagio by G. Tailleferre
6. ホオズキの鳴る調べ
7. Juvenile
8. Lakeside #2
9. Misterioso
10. Dotted Walk
11. Filum
12. I Loved You
13. ６つの曲がり角
前作 Drift から6年、日本を代表するピアニスト・林正樹とチェリスト・徳澤青弦の名手二人による2ndアルバム B が完成しました。
Drift が二人の間を、そしてスタイルとスタイルの間を漂流するアルバムであったとすれば、B はその同じ関係性を、ひとつの部屋へと持ち込んだ作品ともいえるかもしれません。互いの音を聴き続けてきた10年近い時間をふまえ、アルバムはセッションを分断せず、相模湖畔のホールで全曲を一度に録音されました。ここで聴こえてくるのは、二人の巧みなスキルを見せつけるものではなく、二人が互いに耳を澄ませ続けた記録としての作品です。
全13曲中8曲は、その近さを前提に書き下ろされたオリジナル曲。残る2曲は、演奏されたそのままの姿を残した即興で、ホールの響きそのものが録音の一部になっています。林のピアノはリズミカルな躍動と余白のあいだを行き来し、徳澤のチェロは低音から旋律までを担いながら、どちらが先導しどちらが追っているのか判然としないほど自然に役割を交換していきます。
Drift はThe Velvet Underground や Squarepusherといった意外な曲をチェロとピアノで再構築していましたが、 B でもその探求心は健在。セロニアス・モンクの名曲をチェンバー編成に置き換えた一曲、そしてクラウス・オガーマンの楽曲では、徳澤が初めてボーカルを取っています。一曲一曲の選択は、作品そのものと同じくらい、二人が普段何を聴き、何に耳を傾けているかを映し出しています。
前作が視覚的なイメージを喚起する、外に開かれた作品だったとすれば、 B はその同じ感性を内へと向けたアルバムです。ジャズとも、室内楽とも、現代音楽とも言い切れない。ただ、長く共演を重ねてきた二人が、音と音のあいだの余白に、音そのものと同じだけの意味を託せるようになった、その到達点がここにあります。
If Drift, their 2020 debut, cast the listener adrift between styles, drifting as much between the two musicians as between genres, B pulls that same partnership into a single room. The two have known each other’s playing for the better part of a decade now, and this time they wanted to record it whole, in one hall, on the shores of Lake Sagami, without breaking the session apart.
What comes out the other side is a quieter, more private record: less a display of range than a document of two people listening closely to each other.
Of the album’s thirteen pieces, eight are new originals, written with that same closeness in mind, and two are improvisations left exactly as they were played, keeping the resonance of the hall itself as part of the recording. Hayashi’s piano moves between the rhythmic and the spacious, Tokuzawa’s cello taking on bass, lead and everything between, the two trading roles so seamlessly that it can be hard to say who is leading and who is following.
Drift was notable for pulling covers from unlikely places, The Velvet Underground and Squarepusher rendered unrecognizable and beautiful in cello and piano. B keeps that same restless curiosity: a little known classical piece, a Thelonious Monk standard reworked as chamber music, and a Claus Ogerman composition that finds Tokuzawa, for the first time on record, stepping up to sing. Each choice says as much about the two musicians’ own listening habits as it does about the record itself, an intimate map of what they reach for when no one else is in the room.
Where Drift was cinematic and outward looking, music built to be seen as much as heard, B turns the same instinct inward. It is not jazz, not quite chamber music, not really post classical either, just two musicians who have spent long enough playing together to let the space between the notes carry as much as the notes themselves.
