About

Originally released only in Japan at the dawn of the 1990s, Natural Sonic is a mesmerizing exploration of earthly sound and rhythm — a sonic tapestry woven from wood, water, and stone, and skin. Ochi, who at the time was the in-house composer and performer for world-renowned designer Issey Miyake, created a series of elemental pieces that blur the line between avant-garde percussion, ritual music, and environmental sound art. The result is both deeply physical and profoundly meditative — an album that breathes with nature itself.

Echoing the organic minimalism of Midori Takada’s Through the Looking Glass and the ecological grandeur of Geinoh Yamashirogumi’s Ecophony Gaia, Ochi’s compositions open portals into primal landscapes, evoking forests, rivers, and stones in flux. Part of NEWSIC’s celebrated experimental catalog — alongside Yoshio Ojima’s Une Collection des Chaînons, Motohiko Hamase’s #Notes of Forestry, and Satsuki Shibano’s Rendez-Vous — Natural Sonic now finds new life for contemporary listeners seeking sound that feels both timeless and vital.

A singular album of resonance and restraint, Natural Sonic is a treasure from the golden age of Japanese environmental music, finally available again over three decades later. — (via Label)

—

Released on Wacoal Art Center’s NEWSIC label, Yoshiaki Ochi’s Natural Sonic shares some of the same magic heard in the music of fellow roster mates Yoshio Ojima, Motohiko Hamase, and Mich Live. This time the aural trick would be one of the most simple of them all. Largely composed, conceived, and performed on organic material — water, stone, found and created, etc. — Natural Sonic tries to draw out a ton of beauty and inventive experimentation from very earthly objects. It’s some of the beauty he would later provide to Miyako Koda’s wonderful Jupiter as well.

Yoshiaki Ochi’s work on Natural Sonic was largely derived from compositions he created as house performer and composer for the legendary Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake. With a bit of outside help from his brother Yoshihisa, Natural Sonic was the interesting middle ground between experimental tribal music and Japanese environmental music.

For as many unplaceable wooden percussive exist on the album, sounds that mimic rain fall, bird song, and wordless vocal harmonizing take up equal sonic space. Whatever he didn’t have at hand, Yoshiaki would actually create, as art object and sound object, to go after a specific sound he wanted. Obviously, the lack of synthesizers is made up for a welcome exploration of the sonorities of these instruments. If you’re a huge fan of Geinoh Yamashirogumi’s Ecophony Gaia or Midori Takada’s Through The Looking Glass, Natural Sonic should sound of that lineage, albeit with a far more elemental stick. — (via Fond Sound)

Vinyl Tracklist
A1 Dawning
A2 Balasong
A3 Woods From The Sea
A4 Madal Sonic
A5 Anywhere
B1 Beatsonic
B2 Madal Sonic #2
B3 Ear Dreamin'
B4 Urban Kogili
B5 Beat The Water

↓
Label: WRWTFWW Records
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Limited Edition, Reissue
Reissued: 2025 / Originally Released: 1990
Genre: Electronic
Style: Tribal, Ambient

File under: Electronic // Japanese Electronic
⦿