{"product_id":"4582561407406","title":"Lusine Melting Days Japan Music CD","description":"\u003cp\u003eProduct Description\u003cbr\u003e\nA new pinnacle from electronica heavyweight Lusine. The electronic musician, who has traversed the boundaries of ambient, techno, and experimental music, crystallizes loss and change into 10 intricate sonic worlds in his latest work. Tracing the 20-year journey of Seattle-based Jeff McIlwain, also known as Lusine, reveals a discreet yet consistent and inexhaustibly curious image of one of the leading producers in contemporary electronic\/experimental music. His vast catalog, which seamlessly blends melodic structures with refined textures, drifts freely between techno, avant-pop, and ambient, never confining itself to any single genre. Following 2023's *Long Light*, one of his most collaborative and song-like works in recent years, McIlwain returns to his minimalist roots with *Melting Days*, his 10th full-length album under the Lusine moniker. Ten tracks exploring loss and transition are shaped by fundamental layers and ascending loops, enveloping his signature rhythms and beat patterns in a dazzling light. \"When you're in the midst of grief, it feels like you're watching your previous life gradually disappear into the mist,\" McIlwain says. While he didn't initially set out to create a journey, 'Melting Days' takes that feeling to a spiritual endpoint, from catharsis to clarity. The closest precedent to this work is probably Lusine's ambient masterpiece 'Language Barrier,' released in 2007. Both stem from film music work and focus on timbre and texture. Loraine James once called 'Language Barrier' \"my favorite ambient album of all time\" in an interview with 'The Wire.' Now labelmates on Ghostly through James's Whatever The Weather project, the two are opening up the term \"ambient\" to a looser, more UK-esque meaning, reminiscent of early Aphex Twin, Seefeel, and Locust, a favorite of Lusine. That is, music that is not beatless background music, but active, fluid, and even comes to the forefront. While *Melting Days* isn't entirely percussive, it includes sampled drum elements by longtime collaborator Trent Moorman, resulting in a more rhythmic experience than first impressions might suggest. McIlwain also cites Susumu Yokota's *Sakura* and the works of the duo Mountains, who released music on Thrill Jockey in the mid-2000s, as sonic influences. Another key element was simply life itself. Born during a particularly difficult period for McIlwain, this album reflects a more introspective and solitary approach to production than his more recent works. He constructed \"Melting Days\" in a more cinematic, intuitive way. While paying attention to the arc the track order traces, he didn't place too much emphasis on extroverted gestures or vocal hooks. \"I feel a little freer in the sense that I didn't have to compromise on ideas,\" he adds. The opening track, \"Sightline,\" and the closing track, \"Uncharted,\" are connected by Bryan Manzo's resonant, Reich-esque layers of saxophone. This gives the entire work a symmetrical framework, within which McIlwain experiments with various perspectives. Images related to the land and sea are often evoked. One can easily imagine bubbles of air rising to the surface of the water, or sunlight cutting through the blue. \"Bird's Eye\" surveys the past and present with a chord progression of rotating bells. \"Overlook\" presents another panorama with a hazy, hypnotic pulse. \"Intruder,\" one of the few tracks on the album to feature vocals, confronts intrusive thoughts head-on. Regarding \"Apparition,\" McIlwain describes it as a \"happy coincidence\"?a cello loop passed through dozens of filters, resulting in something entirely different. Throughout the album, he employs abstraction and elimination as creative methods. In the album's striking central track, \"Pendulum,\" all elements converge, fluctuating from a muffled shimmer to a magnificent soundscape woven from pulsating strings, flute, and static noise. \"Maybe it's because I come from a more beat-driven world, but it's difficult for me to just leave a track as it is,\" he explains. \"I want to build momentum.\" About the melancholic, cinematic \"These Walls,\" McIlwain says he was \"trying to find the song within it.\" This sense of exploration permeates the entirety of 'Melting Days.' The subtle movements of nature's wonder and sorrow blend together in the undercurrent of Lusine's music. Consciously or unconsciously, 'Melting Days' is the sound of a pioneering artist who embraces immeasurable weight and eventually lets it go. It is a work that reaches out for beauty amidst a life filled with loss and change.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"TOKYO JAPAN CD SHOP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53365826519349,"sku":"4582561407406","price":4180.0,"currency_code":"JPY","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1011\/5966\/5973\/files\/MeltingDays_CD_ARTPL-266_4582561407406_1.jpg?v=1787822259","url":"https:\/\/tokyojapancdshop.com\/products\/4582561407406","provider":"TOKYO JAPAN CD SHOP","version":"1.0","type":"link"}