- Amsterdam's Music From Memory has done some vital reissue work, reassessing the likes of NYC downtown composer Vito Ricci and the elegant Japanese pop of Dip In The Pool. But Talk To The Sea, their 2014 compilation of Italian artist Gigi Masin, might be their crowning achievement. Beginning in the '80s, Masin released albums that drifted between modern classical, ambient and Balearic pop, but he'd since fallen off of most people's radar. Talk To The Sea was a revelation for a new generation unacquainted with his luminous, evocative music. From there, Masin kept his renaissance going with a reissue of his 1986 debut, Wind, a studio project with Johnny Nash and Young Marco as Gaussian Curve, and a collaborative album with the Italian group Tempelhof called Hoshi. Now, Masin and Tempelhof's Luciano Ermondi and Paolo Mazzacani reconvene with Tsuki.
The album's title is Japanese for "thrust," and while there's hand percussion that adds a slight pulse to some of the shorter tracks (like "Vampeta"), Tsuki is best when it acts like a kabuki dancer: the slower the trio moves, the better they sound. Though named after a Polynesian island, the seven-minute opener "Tuvalu" is Balearic at its most blissed. A skipping loop gambols alongside glissades of piano and a wordless vocal. In just a few brief but sure strokes, the song sets a warmly shaded mood and, almost imperceptibly, swells to a climax.
A gorgeous piano underpins "Blue 13," Masin's voice—delivered at a near whisper—stirring even if it's not wholly audible. "Komorebi" arises out of a gentle drone and a kosmische synth line. When the tribal drums and chants march through three minutes in, it brings to mind Cluster's playful "Umleitung" from Sowiesoso.
Masin and the duo blend together in such a way that it's impossible to parse out who contributes what. Similarly difficult is to pinpoint just how Masin's music remains so resonant over the decades. It can be sunny and pensive, melodic and ambient, abstract for one song and then sound like Sting the next. Describing Masin's 1991 album The Wind Collector, a blurb at New York's Other Music record store invoked Caravaggio, the 17th century Italian painter. It's a heady comparison, in that Masin's music is humanistic, finely detailed. Those traits come through on Tsuki, striking that balance between the brilliance of the sun's light and the mystery of what's still in shadow.
Tracklist01. Tuvalu
02. Corner Song
03. Vampeta
04. Komorebi
05. Blue 13
06. Labyrinth
07. Phantom Ship
08. Treasure
09. The Flying Man