88P Artbook + CD with special case

The duo ‘synfilums’ by Shin Kikuchi and Itoko Toma has completed their fourth album ‘synonym’.

Kikuchi finds a row of cherry blossom trees near his studio, and it is planted with various types of cherry blossom.  After he sees the name plates attached to every tree and become curious to research the origins of the various types and cultivars of cherry blossom, and his studies motivated him to produce the album.

There are many different types of “Sakura (cherry blossom)” in Japan, some trees are originally native to Japan, and some trees are brought from overseas, and some trees are cultivated which people have blended for ornamental process.

From the research about cultivars, Kikuchi sees the “Sakura (Cherry blossom)” as an artwork created by people (with hope and wishes), and he used the sound to express and create his own row of cherry blossom trees.  For example, “Somei-yoshino”, an iconic native cherry tree in Japan, is a mixed cultivar of Oshima cherry (C.speciosa) and Edo Higan (C.itosakura f.ascendens), and this trial and error process of cultivation is also put into the concept of music.

This album was started with a demo by Kikuchi’s image of a dreamy row of beautiful but ephemeral cherry blossom trees growing along the mountain path leading through the village, and a pianist Toma worked faithfully expressed, arranged, and performed this worldview.