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Reviews

Satomimagae — Taba
(RVNG Intl. NL 119, 2025, CD / LP / DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2025-04-24

Taba Cover art

It seems unfair to begin a review of an artist’s new release by talking about a different artist, but in this case I can’t help it. I’ve been hearing a lot about Ichiko Aoba lately, so I checked out her music. Her gentle songs based around acoustic guitar and breathy singing are quite charming, with a kind of meditative innocence to them. But when I heard her, the first thing I thought of was, “She sounds like Satomimagae.” Which is probably backwards from what most people will think, but I have only my own experience to go on. Both artists got their start around the same time — Aoba’s first album was in 2010, and Satomimagae’s in 2012 — and both have acoustic guitar and voice at their core, sometimes unadorned by anything else. In Aoba’s case, she sometimes plays keyboards, and has been adding other instruments into her arrangements lately, while Satomimagae brings in ambient electronics and field recordings. Taba is her fifth full-length release, and it’s a set of fifteen relatively short songs that function like brief stories, setting scenes obliquely and impressionistically. The first thing you hear is the chirping of crickets, then a finger-picked guitar and a gentle voice singing in Japanese. There’s a very subtle keyboard part as well, and a rhythmic sound that could be some kind of sample or field recording looped to become a sort of virtual percussion. Some of the other tracks feature additional acoustic guitar parts overdubbed, and three tracks feature guest musicians on clarinet, electric piano, and synthesizer (one track each); there are also doubled vocal parts here and there, and I think I detect the occasional electric guitar. Within the overall aesthetic, there is some variation, and some of the tracks are almost upbeat, like “Tonbo” with its bouncy strumming, or “Horo Horo” with its brass samples. The sounds of nature (crickets, birds, water, and so on) often act as bridges between songs, and there are lots of sounds with mysterious origins. All of the background sounds serve to place the songs in imaginary environments, so that they have a sense of place (however nebulous) rather than the detached could-be-anywhere sound of typical studio recordings. Taba is not the kind of album that forces your attention with loud energy; it compels attention with the hint of more to be revealed upon closer inspection.

Filed under: New releases, 2025 releases

Related artist(s): Satomimagae

More info
http://satomimagae.bandcamp.com/album/taba

 

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