The visual accompaniment for the first taste of Kato Hideki and (Bonner) Kramer‘s collaborative album pictures someone sitting at the end of a dock, gazing wistfully out into the sea. It’s that sort of meditative introspection that ‘Tranquility’ taps into, a quietly moving ambient piece that’s easy to get lost in and over far too soon. It’s also the first fruits of the pair’s collaboration.
The two linked up in the middle of last year, with Hideki saying: “We started working together in the late summer in 2023, discussing the thematics and the sonic palette of the album. We shared strong connections with the writings by Robert Walser and Basho [picked respectively by Kramer and myself] – both of them walked, dreamed, lived and died on the road.” Kramer goes on to say: “I’d waited decades to find the right ‘environment’ in which to create music in dedication to this great prose writer and poet, and in 2023, I found that it was not ‘the right environment’ that I’d been waiting for, but rather, the right collaborator.”
‘Just another ambient record’ this is assuredly not – while the full picture is yet to be unveiled, ‘Tranquility’ offers a tantalising glimpse into the world created by these two (or should that be four?) artists. Hideki and Kramer’s collaborative album The Walk follows on Friday August 23rd via (you guessed it) Shimmy-Disc.
