HAKOBUNE “Impalpable Ashes”
C40 (Ghost Organics)




Today is Hakobune day. I just finished writing up a quick blurb for his tape In Arboreal Whispering for my (late) coverage of Constellation Tatsu’s fall 2016 cassette batch over at Critical Masses, and I figured I’d hit up his Ghost Organics tape today as well. (Don’t think that link takes you to the review; I’m writing this before it posts, so you’ll just have to look at the front page of the site – with your eyes – to find it.) I like the idea of repeating myself here, too: “His style of layering ambient guitar textures on top of one another results in some of the most gloriously tranquil sonics laid to tape.” Hey, that still holds true for Impalpable Ashes, and what’s weird, there’s a track on here called “Airworthiness,” but there’s a track on the Ctatsu tape called “airworthy”! Pretty cool. Hakobune – real name Takahiro Yorifuji –  is apparently as self-referential as I am. Does that make us best friends? Hardly. At the other end of the spectrum, does that make us insufferable know-it-alls? Well, I’ll let you debate that about me, but it’s certainly not true in Hakobune’s case. He just happens to be personally enlightened, and he projects that enlightenment through his myriad cassette releases. It’s hard to go wrong choosing a Hakobune tape, and Impalpable Ashes looks and sounds as good as the rest of the dude’s oeuvre. Ahem: “Sheer bliss. Keep ’em coming, Hakobune.” Sounds right. So why don’t you take a moment out of your day and zone out to this. Has it gotten better? Are you in a better mood? Now tell me who’s an insufferable know-it-all. (It’s still me.)




--Ryan Masteller