It turns out to be one of the most subdued projects in the CoH canon.  The ambient piano playing ranges from soothing and peaceful to melancholic, comparable to Ryuichi Sakamoto, as the liner notes admit, though ultimately more structured, as sometimes there are cinematic builds within the chord progressions here, which hit triumphant moments.  The project most similar to this one is perhaps not by CoH himself, but the series of collaborations between Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto.

 

Faint percussion is layered into Hirano's thoughtful piano, the most implied abbreviations of sounds one might associate with the word 'drums': soft fragments of clicks, hints of pops.  A gentle, understated form of IDM/downtempo that takes the idea of 'micro-rhythms' and reduces them still further, until there is merely a suggestion of a beat.

 

The third track, "Mirage", takes on subtle jazz elements with distant brushed toms in a shuffling cadence and what sounds like a plucked string bass, but could also be some kind of synthetic reproduction.  On this and other tracks, Pavlov seems to provide accompaniment that downplays its digital nature, seeking to organically fill the space an instrumentalist might if playing along to Hirano in real time.  The crisp, bright treble he has often implied is rolled off here, so that the tone of the recordings is smooth and round, and the piano never loses its dominant place.

 

Hirano and Pavlov match quite well in that they both seem to have a minimalist, highly thoughtful mode of composition in which small incremental changes in patterns and energy levels become the focus.  Hirano's style is more traditional, rooted in consonant, logical chord progressions, and she has certainly gone further into melody and harmony than Pavlov does in his work, but he has worked with such tones before, such as his use of piano in his 2007 solo work, Strings.

 

As the subtle precision of the composition unfolds, I am amazed by the longform structure of Hirano's work, which evolves so perfectly through a number of nostalgic moods, culminating for me in the next-to-last piece, "Waltz of Returnal".  Pavlov allows Hirano's subtle writing to remain the focus, adding a warm, relatable dimension to his often detached, alien-feeling works.  I actually prefer this to the similar collaborations between Sakamoto & Alva Noto, as this music takes on a kind of symphonic momentum, remaining concise and focused at all times. For more