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. FLAU58
Release Date: Japan - September 22th / Overseas - October 7th 2016
Format: CD/Digital
始まりは90年代半ば、北極圏の少し南の一人の男の子の部屋。短い夏に真夜中でも太陽が輝く白夜と、長く暗い冬の続く極夜が演出するスウェーデン北部の小さな町。そこでは大衆文化やサブカルチャーが、衛星とラジオウェーブに乗って大西洋を飛び越え、ラジオやテレビへと輸入されます。そしてそれは一人の少年にとって全く新しい世界を開いたのです。カセットテープやVHSテープによってそれらの音や画像をキャプチャー、後には学校の友達とそのコピーを交換すること。それはJohnという名前の少年が、埃まみれのジャズのループや野蛮なドラム、韻を踏む詩とともに彼のアイドルに触発されてサウンドコラージュを始め、今日彼がMolnbär av Johnと呼ぶ音楽プロジェクトへと彼を導くことになりました。
Molnbärは、クラウドベリーを直訳したものです。クラウドベリーは北半球で自然に育ち、淡い赤色、初秋には琥珀色になり、独特な酸味を持っています。熟れた時にはふわふわの雲のような美しい形状で甘い風味とクリーミーな食感を持ち、苔と朽ちた植物の堆積物との間の湿地で多く育ちます。ジョンは彼の名前です。
「クラウドベリー・バイ・ジョン」
彼の音は、苔の中で雲のような形の燃えさし色の果実と、カセットテープで圧縮された埃っぽいジャズ・ループの間のどこかに私たちを誘います。リサイクルショップで長い間忘れ去られていた45回転レコードのサウンドコラージュを、サンプラーやカセットテープに録音し、そのメロディやテクスチャーと実験を繰り返す。そしてパチパチとしたレコードノイズが雨の音と混在し、記憶に残る新しい生命が与えられ、曇りがかった地平へとその音は導かれる。そんなオーガニックでロマンチックな曲たちは、90年代半ばのアイドルと同じアーキテクチャでもって作られています。
「The End」のセッションからの最初のレコーディングやスケッチは2006年に始まり、2013年まで続いています。そこには録音や写真、スケッチが含まれており、３つのプロジェクトとしてすでに公開されています：Molnbär av John名義での初めての作品「I Wish I Could Draw Her Nose／私は彼女の鼻を描きたい」（2009）、スコットランドの重要人物モーマスとのコラボレーション「Thunderclown」セッションのアウトテイク「Thundersketches」EP（2012）、Milan Wとのスプリット作品「 Music For Night (shops)」(2013)に収録された「 Kaikiki Loppunu」。
母国スウェーデンの宗教音楽やストレンジなパーカッションポエトリー・リーディングを、サンプラーやディクタフォン、カセットテープを使ってミックスし、ユーモラスなコンポジションと甘美なメロディを新たな輝きと共に現代に甦らせたオブスキュア・イージーリスニング。クラウドベリーのように甘酸っぱいノスタルジーを盟友Musetteによるヴィンテージ感溢れるミキシングでまとめ上げ、これまでにJohnが録り貯めた全てのアーカイヴを網羅した集大成的作品です。
このアルバムは彼の弟、Jesper Henrikssonに捧げられます。 1987-2015
It began in the middle of the 90s, in a young boys room, slightly south of the arctic circle. In a small town in the north of Sweden, with midnight sun during the short summers and the opposite – the polar nights – during the long dark winters. Popular culture and subcultures was then usually imported via satellites and radio waves all the wav across the Atlantic ocean to our radios and televisions. And for a young boy that opened for a brand new world. With cassette tapes and VHS was he able to capture those sounds and images and to later on trade and copy those cassette and VHS tapes on the school yard among friends. That was the foundation for the musical ideal for that young boy name John to start collaging with sounds inspired by his idols with dusty jazz loops, slamming drums and rhyming poetry led him later on to the music project that he today calls Molnbär av John. Molnbär is a direct translation of the word cloudberries. Cloudberries are a pale red – and sometimes in early autumn amber – colored berry that occur naturally throughout the Northern Hemisphere and have a distinctive tart taste, when over-ripe a creamy texture with a fine sweet flavor, shaped as beautiful fluffy clouds often grown on wetlands among with mosses and deposits of dead plant material. John is his name. Cloudberries by John. Somewhere between the cloudy shaped ember colored berries among the moss, the compressed sounds of dusty jazz loops on cassette tapes is where we are at. Sound collaged with thrift stores, long forgotten vinyls, put together on samplers and cassette tapes, experimenting with textures, melodies and screwing the sounds into cloudy horizons, where the crackling of the record is hard to separate from the sound of rain intermingled and given new life as haunting, organic and romantic compositions made somehow with the same architecture as the idols from the mid 90s.
The first recordings and sketches from the ”The End” sessions were made during 2006 and continues until 2013 and includes a selection of recordings, photos and sketches. Three already published projects: ”I Wish I Could Draw Her Nose” (2009), the sessions from the collaboration with Scottish mastermind Momus that resulted in three physical publications; The ”Thunderclown” EP (2011), ”Thunderclown” LP (2012) and the instrumental outtakes (that can be found on this record) the ”Thundersketches” EP (2012), the ”Kaikki Loppunu” sessions that was published as a split EP with Milan W by Joke Leonare and Yana Foké called Music For Night(shops) in 2013 and then unpublished outtakes from the Thunderclown sessions and never released material from those years.
This album I dedicate to my little brother Jesper Henriksson. Rest in peace, 1987 – 2015.
01 Aujourd'hui il fait beau
02 The Thundersketch
03 The Criminal Sketch
04 Willow Sketch05 The Teacher Sketch
06 Gibbous Groove07 Kaikki Loppunu n°1
08 Kaikki Loppunu n°2
09 Kaikki Loppunu n°3
10 Kaikki Loppunu n°4
11 I Wish I Could Draw Her Nose n° 1
12 I Wish I Could Draw Her Nose n° 2
13 Tralla La n°1
14 Tralla La n°2
15 Tralla La n°3
16 Tralla La n°4
17 Futura Light
18 Hokey Baloney n°1
19 Hokey Baloney n°2
20 How I Met Anders af Klintberg
21 Here is Ja
innovative and cluttered collection where old 78s and string loops escape from their mummified vaults..It’s like The Caretaker decided to go on a bender before sobering up and returning to his normal pursuits…nostalgia as haunted playrd – A Closer Listen (Top 10 Experimental 2016)
Sounds from another era, melodies and textures from the cloudy horizon, organic and romantic experimental compositions, easy listening jazzy undertones. It’s a special release that’s worth diving into – Sounds Of A Tired City
‘Experimental Easy Listening’ here from Molnbär av John, who appears to be deploying crackly cassette and vinyl samples and squeezing them into peculiar new miniatures…a fairly lovely package – Norman Records
スクラッチノイズが雨のように降りしきるなか、記憶の彼方から聞こえてくるような甘美でストレンジなイージーリスニング – Music Magazine
CAT No. FLAU58
Release Date: Japan - September 22th / Overseas - October 7th 2016
Format: CD/Digital
01 Aujourd'hui il fait beau
02 The Thundersketch
03 The Criminal Sketch
04 Willow Sketch05 The Teacher Sketch
06 Gibbous Groove07 Kaikki Loppunu n°1
08 Kaikki Loppunu n°2
09 Kaikki Loppunu n°3
10 Kaikki Loppunu n°4
11 I Wish I Could Draw Her Nose n° 1
12 I Wish I Could Draw Her Nose n° 2
13 Tralla La n°1
14 Tralla La n°2
15 Tralla La n°3
16 Tralla La n°4
17 Futura Light
18 Hokey Baloney n°1
19 Hokey Baloney n°2
20 How I Met Anders af Klintberg
21 Here is Ja
始まりは90年代半ば、北極圏の少し南の一人の男の子の部屋。短い夏に真夜中でも太陽が輝く白夜と、長く暗い冬の続く極夜が演出するスウェーデン北部の小さな町。そこでは大衆文化やサブカルチャーが、衛星とラジオウェーブに乗って大西洋を飛び越え、ラジオやテレビへと輸入されます。そしてそれは一人の少年にとって全く新しい世界を開いたのです。カセットテープやVHSテープによってそれらの音や画像をキャプチャー、後には学校の友達とそのコピーを交換すること。それはJohnという名前の少年が、埃まみれのジャズのループや野蛮なドラム、韻を踏む詩とともに彼のアイドルに触発されてサウンドコラージュを始め、今日彼がMolnbär av Johnと呼ぶ音楽プロジェクトへと彼を導くことになりました。
Molnbärは、クラウドベリーを直訳したものです。クラウドベリーは北半球で自然に育ち、淡い赤色、初秋には琥珀色になり、独特な酸味を持っています。熟れた時にはふわふわの雲のような美しい形状で甘い風味とクリーミーな食感を持ち、苔と朽ちた植物の堆積物との間の湿地で多く育ちます。ジョンは彼の名前です。
「クラウドベリー・バイ・ジョン」
彼の音は、苔の中で雲のような形の燃えさし色の果実と、カセットテープで圧縮された埃っぽいジャズ・ループの間のどこかに私たちを誘います。リサイクルショップで長い間忘れ去られていた45回転レコードのサウンドコラージュを、サンプラーやカセットテープに録音し、そのメロディやテクスチャーと実験を繰り返す。そしてパチパチとしたレコードノイズが雨の音と混在し、記憶に残る新しい生命が与えられ、曇りがかった地平へとその音は導かれる。そんなオーガニックでロマンチックな曲たちは、90年代半ばのアイドルと同じアーキテクチャでもって作られています。
「The End」のセッションからの最初のレコーディングやスケッチは2006年に始まり、2013年まで続いています。そこには録音や写真、スケッチが含まれており、３つのプロジェクトとしてすでに公開されています：Molnbär av John名義での初めての作品「I Wish I Could Draw Her Nose／私は彼女の鼻を描きたい」（2009）、スコットランドの重要人物モーマスとのコラボレーション「Thunderclown」セッションのアウトテイク「Thundersketches」EP（2012）、Milan Wとのスプリット作品「 Music For Night (shops)」(2013)に収録された「 Kaikiki Loppunu」。
母国スウェーデンの宗教音楽やストレンジなパーカッションポエトリー・リーディングを、サンプラーやディクタフォン、カセットテープを使ってミックスし、ユーモラスなコンポジションと甘美なメロディを新たな輝きと共に現代に甦らせたオブスキュア・イージーリスニング。クラウドベリーのように甘酸っぱいノスタルジーを盟友Musetteによるヴィンテージ感溢れるミキシングでまとめ上げ、これまでにJohnが録り貯めた全てのアーカイヴを網羅した集大成的作品です。
このアルバムは彼の弟、Jesper Henrikssonに捧げられます。 1987-2015
It began in the middle of the 90s, in a young boys room, slightly south of the arctic circle. In a small town in the north of Sweden, with midnight sun during the short summers and the opposite – the polar nights – during the long dark winters. Popular culture and subcultures was then usually imported via satellites and radio waves all the wav across the Atlantic ocean to our radios and televisions. And for a young boy that opened for a brand new world. With cassette tapes and VHS was he able to capture those sounds and images and to later on trade and copy those cassette and VHS tapes on the school yard among friends. That was the foundation for the musical ideal for that young boy name John to start collaging with sounds inspired by his idols with dusty jazz loops, slamming drums and rhyming poetry led him later on to the music project that he today calls Molnbär av John. Molnbär is a direct translation of the word cloudberries. Cloudberries are a pale red – and sometimes in early autumn amber – colored berry that occur naturally throughout the Northern Hemisphere and have a distinctive tart taste, when over-ripe a creamy texture with a fine sweet flavor, shaped as beautiful fluffy clouds often grown on wetlands among with mosses and deposits of dead plant material. John is his name. Cloudberries by John. Somewhere between the cloudy shaped ember colored berries among the moss, the compressed sounds of dusty jazz loops on cassette tapes is where we are at. Sound collaged with thrift stores, long forgotten vinyls, put together on samplers and cassette tapes, experimenting with textures, melodies and screwing the sounds into cloudy horizons, where the crackling of the record is hard to separate from the sound of rain intermingled and given new life as haunting, organic and romantic compositions made somehow with the same architecture as the idols from the mid 90s.
The first recordings and sketches from the ”The End” sessions were made during 2006 and continues until 2013 and includes a selection of recordings, photos and sketches. Three already published projects: ”I Wish I Could Draw Her Nose” (2009), the sessions from the collaboration with Scottish mastermind Momus that resulted in three physical publications; The ”Thunderclown” EP (2011), ”Thunderclown” LP (2012) and the instrumental outtakes (that can be found on this record) the ”Thundersketches” EP (2012), the ”Kaikki Loppunu” sessions that was published as a split EP with Milan W by Joke Leonare and Yana Foké called Music For Night(shops) in 2013 and then unpublished outtakes from the Thunderclown sessions and never released material from those years.
This album I dedicate to my little brother Jesper Henriksson. Rest in peace, 1987 – 2015.
