Ambient, Electronica Japanese Death Poems
In-ei Raisan

Live recording 31.12.2017

NOTE: the title comes from "In Praise of Shadows" (陰翳礼讃, 1933), an essay by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki,

Some "enlightening" (or, more probably, darkening) quotes:

"We find beauty not in the thing itself but in the patterns of shadows, the light and the darkness, that one thing against another creates… Were it not for shadows, there would be no beauty."

"Had we invented the phonograph and the radio, how much more faithfully they would reproduce the special character of our voices and our music. Japanese music is above all a music of reticence, of atmosphere. When recorded, or amplified by a loudspeaker, the greater part of its charm is lost. In conversation, too, we prefer the soft voice, the understatement. Most important of all are the pauses. Yet the phonograph and radio render these moments of silence utterly lifeless."

"We find it hard to be really at home with things that shine and glitter. The Westerner uses silver and steel and nickel tableware, and polishes it to a fine brilliance, but we object to the practice… We begin to enjoy it only when the luster has worn off, when it has begun to take on a dark, smoky patina."

"So benumbed are we nowadays by electric lights that we have become utterly insensitive to the evils of excessive illumination."

“If light is scarce then light is scarce; we will immerse ourselves in the darkness and there discover its own particular beauty.”