Track Listing

1. The Colour Of Pomegranates
2. Live Echo
3. Fairy Link
4. Grass, Tree & Stone
5. Secret Garden
6. Rose Necklace
7. Beans
8. Plateau on Plateau
9. Red Swan
10. Thread Leads To Heaven
11. Future Tiger
12. Blood & Snow

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #77570 in Music
• Released on: 2002-09-16
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .16 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Boy and the Tree is jointly inspired by Yokota's experience of Yaku-shima island (a world heritage site) and the anime Mononokehime, directed by Hayao Miyazki. Yokota moves outside the house again, heading deep into an ambient glade. In the real world itself he has indeed relocated away from Tokyo's nerve centre, getting slightly nearer to nature. This is readily apparent in the forest-like feeling that pervades the first few tracks, Yokota concerned with the steady accumulation of atmosphere, teeming with natural phenomena. He uses almost exclusively organic sound sources, but with an artificial slant imposed by the act of looping and layering. Slow-twang guitars are a popular choice, floating into the clouds beside a panoply of small folk instruments. Flute whorls and pattering bamboo, koto (or kora?), zither, sitar, gongs, gamelan cascades or prepared piano, all used to form cyclic patterns of wonderment, weaving a scintillating lattice. As the disc progresses, its bass presence grows and repeated voices creep in, with later tunes like "Red Swan" and "Future Tiger" developing the motion of a ceremonial procession, filled with handclaps and chanting, the density and intensity of Yokota's loops increasing by the minute. --Martin Longley

Uncut Magazine
"It's hard not to be enchanted by Yokota's dense, disorienting, exquisitely-judged work"

The Face
"Ancient and modern, Yokota’s going down in history"

Customer Reviews

The perfect end to a perfect trilogy
Yokota has made his third brilliant album for Skintone/Leaf, effectively creating a trilogy of records which progress along a steady line: Sakura was mainly ambient, but towards the end Yokota began throwing in beats and jazz rhythms, which was where last year's Grinning Cat picked up. That album upped the ante further, adding the occasional dicordant noise and unsettling voice, which gave the music more character, yet never became intrusive enough to ruin the relaxed feel of the record. More of the tracks contained beats of some sort, but always of the lighter kind.

And that's where The Boy And The Tree comes in. The ante is upped yet further, with the tracks almost gaining traditional song forms at times. The usual beautiful dub/ambient sounds are here, with lush voices speaking in not-quite-words, but most tracks feature full rhythm (log drums, african/japanese/jazz sounds etc.) and some have quite a fast tempo (relative to the usual tempo in Yokota's ambient recordings). And while I would recommend you buy the other two albums in order, this album is definitely the best product of Mr. Yokota's offbeat, relaxed vision so far.

Excellent
Peerless mystical ambience, fond of twanging guitars, clanking percussion, subliminal voice samples, heterogenous stop-start song structures and twittering birdsong. Tonally organic and and tightly composed, with exceptionally intricate layering and placement of sounds. Resonant stuff, conjuring the ambience of an ancient forest alive with spirits.

Further adventures in lushness
Nobody thought he could top 'Sakura' and I don't think he has with this. But he has at least equalled it in terms of quality and listening pleasure.

Again he proceeds to combine beautiful, sweet ambient sounds to just immerse you totally in his sound. It's like voices and sounds that you recall from your past, like looking back hazily through time. I don't know how he manages to do it, but there is something magical about the music he makes.

From what other have said to me about Susumu Yokota's music, it seems to transcend all boundaries, his music can mean many things to many different people.

For all those who like electronica, then this has to be an album you must consider buying. Again the cover design is just delightful.