Akira Kosemura
SEASONS
Inspired by Japan’s four seasons, Kosemura dedicates 12 songs (3 songs for each season) and expresses the beauty of various moments in the country of rich nature – cherry blossoms, rainy season, fallen leaves and snowy landscape.
With this album, Kosemura elaborates his musical identity as a Japanese in his highly acclaimed solo piano format.
“This album began in the early summer of 2020, when I was contacted by Decca Records,” says Kosemura. “The seeds of ideas that emerged from our conversations about each other and our future projects gradually grew within me. This is a sort of the island music, in which I try to reexamine the world in front of me, which is very universal and precious to me, feeling the smell, touch, and memories of the land where I grew up, and keep my eyes open even for small changes that I might miss. That led me to this record.”
“I tried to catch the notes just the way I am, and not to express to avoid the excessive creativity,”Kosemura explains. “To achieve that, solo piano format was the most honest way for me to draw a simple pencil sketch, not a colorful painting with many pigments on a palette.”
The music of Kosemura has been highly renowned worldwide not only for his own works, but also for numerous well-known films, TV series, video games, and commercials including American TV series “Love Is” and “True Mothers” (directed by Naomi Kawase), an official selection of the Cannes International Film Festival. His talent has been enthusiastically supported by eminent artists such as Devendra Banhart, Gilles Peterson, M83 and many others.
“This album is like a love letter I wrote for the first time to this small island country, where I was born in Tokyo and have spent more than 37 years of my life,” says Kosemura. “I hope people would enjoy this record in every season of the year.”