About

One of Yokota's most loved releases that explores the intersection of jazz, new age ambience and a world of found sound and samples.

Including an essay by Wyndham Wallace in the liner notes:

...."Imagination...." Lewis Carroll’s Cheshire cat advised in the pages of Alice in Wonderland '...is the only weapon in the war with reality'. Grinning Cat couldn’t feel much less like combat, but, whether one relates to it intellectually or instinctively, emotional socery - always a great stimulator of the imagination - is critical to its charms. Shifting styles accross tracks and, moreover, within tracks, it exhibits a carefree disregard for conventions, creating an environment in which to revel while offering compelling triumphant proof of its fictional precursor's doctrine'....

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Sentimental without being schmaltzy, joyful without being saccharine, Grinning Cat sees Yokota at his most playful and experimental, channelling moments of transitory wonder and jubilation, and opening up a sonic environment in which we can romp and play. 

Although one of Susumu Yokota’s most stylistically varied works in the Skintone catalogue, Grinning Cat revolves largely around the piano- both sampled and seemingly played by Yokota himself. Across its thirteen deeply evocative tracks, he runs the gamut of emotions, stylistic hallmarks and timbres, albeit using a narrow palette of sound sources. A follow-up to the much loved Sakura, Grinning Cat represented an amoebic, energised and joyful chapter in Yokota’s career, where his recent successes and a move into a larger studio in Tokyo’s suburbs afforded him time to process his influences and refine his techniques across a multitude of styles, opening up countless potential directions for his work in the years to come.

While 1999’s Sakura seemed to draw heavily on the concept of ‘mono no aware’ or impermanence; a national melancholy associated with beauty and impermanence characterised by the meagre couple of weeks in which Japan’s cherry blossoms emerge, Grinning Cat latches on to the present moment with glee and inquisitiveness, fluctuating in tempo, rhythmic structure and arrangement in a way poignantly reminiscent of the chaos and delight of everyday life. “Last summer,” Yokota wrote, “I started to live with my girlfriend and also three cats: mother cat, Tabasa, her son cat, Bindi, and her daughter black cat, Noa. We all played together like having parties everyday at home. The everyday life with cats is like a fairytale, and also it was like I met the Cheshire Cat in Alice In Wonderland. In my works, I always create philosophy and ‘childlike’ images. This album Grinning Cat came into existence because of having this wonderful life”. It is this preoccupation with everyday wonder and mystery, closer to the buddhist concept of ‘yuugen’, which characterises Grinning Cat; a suggestion of profound beauty, mystery and joy in memory and imagination.  — (via Label)

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Part of the Skintone Edition series of re-issues.

Limited Edition white vinyl 2x12” vinyl LP housed in 2 x PMS printed inner sleeves featuring custom fonts by Non Format and spot gloss abstraction of the original album artwork.

Accompanied with a double sided 2-panel insert and double sided 4 panel poster.

All sleeved in a custom PMS 7mm wide spine reverse board outer sleeve with die cut square centre panel and belly band.

In memory of Susumu Yokota. These reissues are brought to you in association with the Yokota family, in celebration of the extraordinary legacy of his music. Made with love and respect.

Under exclusive license to Lo Recordings from Skintone Records.

Vinyl Tracklist
A1 I Imagine  
A2 King Dragonfly  
A3 Card Nation  
A4 Balloon in a Cage
B1 Lapis Lazuli   
B2 Cherry Blossom  
B3 Sleepy Eye

C1 Love Bird 
C2 Fearful Dream
C3 Tears of A Poet
D1 Flying Cat
D2 So Red 
D3 Lost Child

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Label: Lo Recordings
Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Album, Limited Edition, Reissue, White
Reissued: 2025 / Originally Released: 2001
Genre: Electronic
Style: Ambient, Downtempo

File under: Electronic // Japanese Electronic
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