Unknown Me
Bitokagaku
Not Not Fun
/
2024
Includes Instant Download
LP (clear)
24.99
NNF 413 LP
Incl. VAT plus shipping / Orders from outside the EU are exempt from VAT
Tracklist
1A Rainbow in Meditative Air 4:23
2Dancing Leaves 4:00
3The Universe in Ore (Paradise Mix)4:10
4Kitsune No Yomeiri 3:21
5Retreat Beats 3:57
6Mirage of Ocean (Science Edit)3:14
7Eternal Sunset 2:27
8Beauty and Science 3:32

The second full-length LP by Tokyo ambient conceptualists UNKNOWN ME began as a commission for historic Japanese cosmetic conglomerate Shiseido, conjuring audio approximations of seasons and scents, but soon flowered into its own refracted environment: Bitokagaku. Translated as “beauty and science,” the album is the foursome’s first composed solely with software, reflecting the collection’s utopian, laboratorial muse.

From levitational electronica (“A Rainbow in Meditative Air”) and vaporous downtempo (“Dancing Leaves”) to planetarium reverie (“Kitsune No Yomeiri”) and A.I. IDM (“Retreat Beats”), the music moves like weather patterns in a bio-dome: dazzling, microcosmic, and delicately calibrated. Percolating synths crossfade with field recordings from Shiseido’s research division; the sound of streams and distant birds blur into a processed haze; clinical voices read lists of precious stones. It’s a vision of new age as soft robotics, of serenity streamlined by sentient systems.

UM’s team of engineers (Yakenohara, P-RUFF, H. Takahashi, and Osawa Yudai) cite an eclectic swath of inspirations behind Bitokagaku – molecules, stars, Kenji Miyazawa, Akira Kurosawa, even “the sparkle of rainbows” – but their guiding artistic principle is as ancient as it is eternal: “beauty.”