SakuraBeats Volume 1

Boilerplate boring legal stuff, sorry:
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I (Shark) have also left some notes here about the tracks. I love talking about music, so if you have any more questions about the tracks, feel free to ask!

 

An Unforgettable Feeling

This is the track where I really fell in love with the Koto. The Koto is a beautiful traditional Japanese instrument, strung with nylon nowadays, but traditionally with gut. I love the expressiveness of the bends that are possible.

 

Bright Blossom

This track features one of my favorite techniques of self-resampling, where I chop up a part you’ve already heard to create a new part that is both familiar and new. You’ll hear this in several places in the album (and a lot of my work).

 

Dreaming of Better Days

Using both upwards and downwards motifs in different instruments, I was trying to create a feeling both melancholy and positive. Much like looking back on “The Good Old Days”.

 

Falling in Again

This track features perhaps the most stark contrast in instrumentation. A feisty 808 kick underlies smooth and gentle piano and Koto, and stands out just enough but not too much.

 

Following the Breeze

This track has some of the more experimental combinations of sounds I’ve used in this project. The overall feel of the track is somewhat undecided, as it moves through a few for me.

 

Hearing your Heartbeat

The heartbeat kick always reminds me of lying on a loved one’s chest. The clock ticking noise adds a sense of finite-ness, but as it blurs and glitches in the last section, it feels to me like losing track of time, sinking into the moment.

 

Keeping Clean

Nice and simple with the electric pianos and koto again. The bends in the koto’s melody feel so characteristic of the instrument, and I love it. There’s some use of negative space and pausing in the beat that I quite like.

 

Late Night Ramblings

I remember finishing my first draft of this track way too late in the night. I was rambling my way through the theory as I wrote some of the parts, so the name came naturally. A lot of them don’t. Naming instrumentals is surprisingly difficult.

 

Lazy River

I remember looking for visual inspiration on Twitter, and I found this gorgeous picture of a small river banked by blooming Sakura trees, and immediately wrote this track. Visual inspiration can be very helpful for idea generation.

 

Midafternoon Musings

This track features some new techniques I was trying out for glitching out the drums, and I really like the feeling it creates. It slowly slides into a sort of chaos and then brings itself right back around.

 

Old Memories

This track has a nostalgic feeling to me. Perhaps it’s the dusty lo-fi warping on the lead instrument, or the melancholy strings chords that underlie the melody.

 

Perfume on the Breeze

I like this track for its melancholy, using a similar combination of upwards and downwards motifs. The distorted guitar lends most of the texture to the track, as everything else is quite subdued.

 

Promise Given and Kept

To me, this track has a bit of an odd time feel. In sections, it feels somewhat loose (despite being nearly exactly on time) and suddenly snaps into a much more rigid and clean feel when the drums play.

 

Sitting Pretty

This track has a subtle, shimmery pad that adds a lot for me. It lends a lot of character, despite not being very prominent in many sections of the song.

 

Skeleton Key

One of my personal favorites on the album, for sure. Features some lines on my bass guitar that I quite like. Though every time it reminds me how much I’d like to upgrade to a nicer, fancier bass.

 

Slow Dancing with Sakura Petals

Certainly my favorite title on the album. I love the imagery that comes to mind, from the title and the song. I imagine a slightly different scene each time, but I always find them pretty. It’s beautiful and messy in a wonderful way.

 

Walking up a Waterfall

This track makes heavy use of a shakuhachi, another traditional japanese instrument that I simply adore. The part written for it is very simple, but the incredible character of the instrument makes even its simple part beautiful.

 

Wandering Wolves

This track was the first that I drafted that felt right for the project. I usually go through a lot of drafts in order to nail down the aesthetic I’m after. This track helped to guide the aesthetic of the rest of the project.

 

Wasting Double Time

As the name implies, this track makes use of some double time in the chorus and the latter half of the song. The drums play a pivotal role in driving that double time.

 

Wasting the Rain

This is my favorite track on the album. The subtle rain effects in the background, the way the all the parts work together to enforce the groove, the rainy downward motifs in the piano. It all makes me feel very cozy and relaxed, and felt like a great way to end the album.