LE SON DE LOS - Grass Pillow

First album from mysterious free-floating acoustic improvisation trio Le Son De Los who had a stunning track on the Tokyo Flashback 7 compilation. The group have apparently been together for several years, exploring performance in a variety of outdoor spaces. They consist of Yuko Hasegawa, Shizuo Uchida (Hasegawa-Shizuo, Kito Mizukumi Rouber), and Masahiro Deguchi (Gendai Sokkyo). Hasegawa and Uchida previously played together in Onna-Kodomo - one of the great, lost late-night Tokyo drone improv groups of the nineties. Theres a similar sense of subtly shaded space and poised atmosphere here, as Hasegawa threads wordless threnodies around the breathy lines of flute, and the strangely accented spaces created by Uchidas bass. Simultaneously fragile, melancholically beautiful and unsettling. File with your Taj Mahal Travellers, Nijiumu and Toho Sara records. Five tracks, 48 minutes. Gatefold papersleeve with obi. -Alan Cummings