Anchorsong "Ceremonial"
Interviewed and written by： Hiroyuki Ichinoki
Great artist of worldwide fame known for his melodious music opens his eyes to the fascination of Afro-centric music and its secret of sampling technique! Anchorsong opens the door to more minimal and deeper fascination...
After being discovered by the prestigious Tru Thoughts label in the UK, known for producing such artists as Bonobo (British electro artist aka Simon Green) and Quantic (British DJ and producer aka Will Holland), Anchorsong, aka Masaaki Yoshida, made a sensational international debut with the album "Chapters" in 2011 and has further intensified his musical activity being based in London. He has just released the second album "Ceremonial" again on the label.
In between the two releases he scrapped a whole album he had already completed because it 'just wasn’t surprising enough.' It was a chance encounter with 70's African music that inspired him to write "Ceremonial." Without knowing about the band from Benin in west Africa, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou, he bought their compilation album "Volume 1: "The Vodoun Effect" Funk & Sato From Benin's Obscure Labels 1972-1975" just because of the attractive cover art. This made him become interested in African music, leading him to use a sampling technique that finally changed his songwriting style.
"Volume 1: "The Vodoun Effect" Funk & Sato From Benin's Obscure Labels 1972-1975"
"Up until that time, I had been neither so interested in nor willing to the use of sampling techniques, but I found it might be useful for incorporating warmer tones into electronic music. That said, I wanted to assimilate and use it as one of the elements of different musical backgrounds. I wanted to include sounds that have a commonality in terms of the way the instruments sounded, rather than only featuring African music. Basically, in many cases I took a rhythm or pattern that I could never come up on my own (through sampling) and added my own touch to it with the melodies I composed from scratch."
I now see an unmistakable parallel between his style of music on this latest album that incorporates live-samplings of instruments based on Afro/Tribal sounds and the album "Mawa EP" (2014), released in digital and analog from the British record label BBE. While the 1st album "Chapters" showcases his wide variety of musicality with different approaches and tempos, this album further highlights his delicate lyricism and minimalism, having more consistent color.
"The last album contains both up and down tempo tunes with more variety in rhythm patterns while this album doesn't vary much in BPM. Irrespective of the development or construction of a song, I don't need complicated arrangements and tend to unwittingly make very simple songs. But my songwriting style to construct a song with an introduction, adequate development and a conclusion by adding changes little by little remains completely unchanged from the time I started writing music by myself."
Included in this album, the track "Last Feast" whose crisp rhythm arrangement makes the balafon sound even more pleasant to the ears is a song that, Anchorsong proudly says, "the best parts of the original song and my music are well-balanced." "Eve" creates a calm groove woven by flickering synth works, soft percussion and instruments. "Monsoon" impressively loops the sound of khen taken from Thai music and 'kobushi (vibrato)' singing. All the tracks on the album taking/assimilating the warm essence of the past music not only actively shake the listeners but also show another aspect suitable for relaxed listening. This may be caused by the changes in himself as he explains, "I began to realize the attraction of music that can be enjoyed as BGM." The simple style of his music makes it all the more timeless. That may be one of reasons why this album has already attracted high praise from Gilles Peterson (British-based DJ, record collector and record label owner) and Laurent Garnier (French electronic music producer and DJ) as well as from Addison Groove (renowned producer and DJ from Bristol).
"There is a lot of great music that is for today and what's in the now. I listen a lot to contemporary music, but I still think there are few songs that can be played in 10 years down the line. I always want to make songs that sound fresh even after 5 or 10 years. I soon lose interest in overly eccentric songs. So, I want to create songs and albums that sound simple and familiar but become more addicting every time you listen to it. I think it's more fully realized on this album."
