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. FLAU34
Release Date: Japan - June 19th / Europe & USA - July 8th 2013
Format: CD/Digital
makiとenの日本人２人組によるギターユニットIKEBANA、初の全国流通盤となるニューアルバム。 シューゲイザー／アンビエントを通過し、徹底的にミニマルに削ぎ落されたゆらめきの音像、ざらついたギターノイズの感触と深いリヴァーブの中から浮かんで は消える声。makiがカセットMTRに録音した音源をきっかけに生まれたそのサウンドは、夢と現実の間を漂いながらも、圧倒的な存在感をもって日常の隙 間に入り込んでいきます。欧米のサイケデリック／ドローンの流れとは一線を画す、限りなく白く儚い音楽の形がここに。
こんなに緊張感のある美しいアルバムは聴いたことがない。隠された夢のような音楽だ。 – James McNew (Yo La Tengo)
recording/mixing: DJ Codomo
mastering: Miles Whittaker (Demdike Stare/Pendle Coven)
artwork: Shimon Minamikawa
design: AOKI,hayato
IKEBANA, in Japanese, is an art of flower arrangement.
Unlike conventional flower arrangement, it often focuses on other areas of the plant, such as its stems and leaves, rather than its blooms, and lays emphasis toward the shape, line, form of the arrangement.
IKEBANA is about minimalism, about beauty in space, and about calmness.
And so does the music of flau label’s latest signing, the Japanese female duo IKEBANA.
IKEBANA is made up of 2 wonderfully talented female artists, maki and en. Their unique music is infused with a strong sense of Shoegaze and Ambient, but in a very much stripped-down form. Phases of minimal guitar noise floating through the space of sounds, like a wavering light in darkness, with deeply reverbed female voices drifting in to create a calm universe between a dream and the reality.
Unlike the current style of psychedelic/drone music for overseas, IKEBANA’s music is about minimalism, about beauty in space, and about calmness, just like the art of flower arrangement of IKEBANA itself.
an album of beautiful, tense, secret dream-music that sounds like nothing else, ever – James McNew (Yo La Tengo)
sun-dappled vista – SPIN
reminiscent of Slowdive’s Pygmalion or Grouper’s works. Breathtaking. – No Fear Of Pop
The Sensual Drift – BlackBook
keeping stocks of ethereal minimalism high for the rest of the world, presumably in case of a perilous shortage – The 405
aerial beauty trapped in isolation, evoking a not wholly definable past. ‘Rose’ brings to mind Grouper’s light touch with repetition – Peel Apart
a guitar chord and a wonderful voice that seems to capture the last shining ray of sunlight reflecting on the sea’s surface on a summer’s afternoon. It’s short, it’s simple and it’s brilliant – Echoes and Dust
very clean crisp sound a lot like the now fan favourite Slowdive album ‘Pygmalion’, there are some quirky moments of minimalism in there too like the scraping of a guitar string or the echo of distant feedback. ‘When You Arrive There’ has a very solitary sound to it like Labradford… – Norman Records
Ikebana‘s wafting enervated moods are striped down to their essential components, albeit with a resonating allurement of deep, echoing guitar effects.– Monolith Cocktail
Then reverb-heavy guitars emerge, caught halfway between the effects of Cocteau Twins and July Skies’ levels of fragility….after a few listens each key change seems startling and vital; like we’re hearing the advent of a new era for experimental music – The Leonald’s Lair
…que aqui têm algumas canções extremamente frágeis e doces, e uma ou outra ideal para acompanhar momentos de sexo oral cheios de meiguice…Diverte-me bastante. – VICE
a gradually, natural oozing of thought and contemplation, filling the air with a beautiful, lightly coloured smoke that acts as their own natural sonic perspiration…Vaporous songs from a Japanese duo, oozing out on exhaled breaths – ATTN:Magazine
wonderfully effective and uses the space between each note to allow the sound to breathe and resonate organically. Nice – Yes/No Music
It all adds up to a recording that, while short at thirty-one minutes, nevertheless impresses the listener with its beguiling experimental songcraft. – Textura
warm and intimate…there is always something wacky going it seems, and makes that this is quite out of the ordinary – Vital Weekly
ミニマルかつエフェクティヴなギターワークの深みと密やかな言葉の響きは、浮かべた氷がガラリと鳴る午後のけだるさに、あるいはぽっかりと灯る月の夜のしじまに、あまりにもしっくり。これぞ円熟した耽美。 – EYESCREAM
直接弾いた音から遊離したフィードバックノイズが作り出す、ファンタスマゴリーさながらの音像が心地よい – GINZA
Al contrario, tutto è minimale ed evanescente, in grado al massimo di evocare i passaggi più placidi e sognanti dei My Bloody Valentine o le eteree sospensioni degli ultimi Slowdive…fragili gemme melodiche possano sbocciare in carezze di impalpabile e rallentato minimalismo dreamy. – Music Wont’s Save You
CAT No. FLAU34
Release Date: Japan - June 19th / Europe & USA - July 8th 2013
Format: CD/Digital
makiとenの日本人２人組によるギターユニットIKEBANA、初の全国流通盤となるニューアルバム。 シューゲイザー／アンビエントを通過し、徹底的にミニマルに削ぎ落されたゆらめきの音像、ざらついたギターノイズの感触と深いリヴァーブの中から浮かんで は消える声。makiがカセットMTRに録音した音源をきっかけに生まれたそのサウンドは、夢と現実の間を漂いながらも、圧倒的な存在感をもって日常の隙 間に入り込んでいきます。欧米のサイケデリック／ドローンの流れとは一線を画す、限りなく白く儚い音楽の形がここに。
こんなに緊張感のある美しいアルバムは聴いたことがない。隠された夢のような音楽だ。 – James McNew (Yo La Tengo)
recording/mixing: DJ Codomo
mastering: Miles Whittaker (Demdike Stare/Pendle Coven)
artwork: Shimon Minamikawa
design: AOKI,hayato
IKEBANA, in Japanese, is an art of flower arrangement.
Unlike conventional flower arrangement, it often focuses on other areas of the plant, such as its stems and leaves, rather than its blooms, and lays emphasis toward the shape, line, form of the arrangement.
IKEBANA is about minimalism, about beauty in space, and about calmness.
And so does the music of flau label’s latest signing, the Japanese female duo IKEBANA.
IKEBANA is made up of 2 wonderfully talented female artists, maki and en. Their unique music is infused with a strong sense of Shoegaze and Ambient, but in a very much stripped-down form. Phases of minimal guitar noise floating through the space of sounds, like a wavering light in darkness, with deeply reverbed female voices drifting in to create a calm universe between a dream and the reality.
Unlike the current style of psychedelic/drone music for overseas, IKEBANA’s music is about minimalism, about beauty in space, and about calmness, just like the art of flower arrangement of IKEBANA itself.
