Tenka’s real name is Daisuke Fujita and until recently he released under the alias Meitei. He has recorded four albums, one each year from 2018 to 2021, under his own direction, on Kitchen. Label and Métron, where he has now landed as Tenka with »Hydration«. And the name says it all. The six ambient tracks sound finely textured, vivid and dripping in moisture, harking back to the tradition of Japanese environmental music. But whereas Hiroshi Yoshimura’s milestone »Green«, for example, works more with relatively catchy melodies, Tenka’s design drifts along more, draws its power from the vague, the ever-flowing. This is demonstrated by »Diverse Aesthetics ~ Our Hydration Is A Symbol« as the second track, which creates a very real counterpoint to the synth blasters that run through the track like a ponderous earthworm with droplets, heavy rain and wooded mallets. This music, as the name of the genre already indicates, seems to be completely at peace with itself and its surroundings. It proclaims a delicate serenity that literally appears to have a healing character, lulls, strives for maximum naturalness and all-embracing peace. So too the frog croak and cicada drumfire in »How To Spend An Aromatic Night«, which Fujita juxtaposes with slow, soothing chords. Beauty without falling into kitsch, melancholy without becoming tearful.
Meitei
Kofū III
Kitchen Label