工藤礼子 [Reiko Kudo] 

夜の稲 (Rice Field Silently Riping in the Night)

★★★½

A short and muted album that feels like an encounter with an old friend, but you both speak really softly and say very little. Yet it still means the world to you. Each song on here is pretty short and gives off only a little show of her musicianship. Yet it feels so full and comfortable that it doesn't need much else. 

It gives me a feeling of living in a much smaller world, all this is played by tiny people in an environment much like the cover of this album. The words from her mouth pour out slowly and even with as light and airy as they seem, they carry a weight with them that's hard to ignore. 

While it is a compact album it offers much space in between it all, which is very attractive to me. The variety is great too, from piano ballads like "Mrs Wheeler" to the surf guitar of the opening track, "Kaihatsu-san". It's all very bare and stripped to the bone. 

And this theme is exponentially explored as the album progresses, she sings more softly and the different voices and instruments all seem to be shaved to their bare minimum. I just really wish there was more in this, it all stops so suddenly that it's hard to really think about each piece separately. But I know that I'm sleepier now and I smile a bit thinking of certain points in this album. 

Favorite Song: Lily