Takuma Watanabe - Last Afternoon

The second release on SN Variations' sister label Constructive is a pedigree-rich debut from Berklee-graduate Takuma Watanabe, featuring contributions from Robert Ashley affiliate Joan La Barbara and Bjork collaborator, Akira Rabelais, as well as being mastered by Jim O'Rourke. Wow-wee. With those kind of names involved the results are inevitable, and this is a refined but gently probing example of modern minimal composition that draws immediate comparisons to contemporary greats Kara-Lis Coverdale, Sarah Davachi and Felecia Atkinson. Amongst the stately arrangements, Watanbe allows a little dissonance to wander in the door, static and drone staining the obvious virtuosity of the ensemble performers, recalling Michael Nyman's Decay Music, and in its intimate moments of unforced experimentalism could easily sit amongst the records made during lockdown for the Boomkat Documenting Sound series. A debut of rare poise and unhurried vision.