Meitei: Sen’nyū LP

Using flutes, synthesis and evocative environmental recordings, cult Hiroshima-based composer Meitei dreams up a centenary celebration for the city of Beppu and its mythical network of onsen, or hot springs. It's meditative, transportive material, bubbling up somewhere between Moniek Darge's 'Sounds of Sacred Places' and Sugai Ken's beguiling 'Tone River'.

At the end of last year, Daisuke Fujita (aka Meitei) was invited to Beppu, a subtropical city on Japan's southernmost island Kyushu that's widely known for its eight geothermal hot spots that power over 150 individual onsen facilities. The baths have been in use since the Kamakura period (from around the 12th to the 14th century), originally frequented by samurai who needed to recover after battle, so although Beppu is only a century old, the area has ancient significance. Meitei spent two weeks pacing around the city with his field recording gear, listening intently to the various sacred sites unique ambiance and capturing subtle, distinct sounds he could use to pay his respects to Beppu. He grabbed watery gurgles from the source of the springs, the wind as it rushed through bamboo, wheezing outlet pipes and squelching mud, and used these textural elements to guide a continuous composition that's rooted in real life.

Unlike Meitei's earlier "Lost Japan" works, such as the brilliant 'Kwaidan' and 'Komachi', 'Sen'nyū (泉涌)' isn't built around the composer's observations of dying culture, but his appreciation for a Japan that's still completely tangible. By creating snapshots of the onsen themselves and painting subtle, suggestive forms around the footage, Meitei lands on a beguiling mixture of fantasy and reality - a sound that quite literally haunts the atmosphere. Even if you've never set foot in a hot spring, the rich, textured environmental sounds and Meitei's restrained, tactile accompaniments feel almost real. The synth treatments, tweaked to echo the natural sonics, are so illusory, and Meitei's whispering xenharmonic woodwinds shuttle us from place to place by submerging us fully in the local culture. It's breathtakingly beautiful.