CD: Resonance
Artist: Takashi Suzuki
Contact: www.cdbaby.com/cd/takashisuzuki2

Some musicians start out early in life, single-mindedly pursuing their artistic path and developing their talents into maturity. Others follow a more indirect path with a series of career detours leading to their musical blossoming. Takashi Suzuki is definitely a member of this second group. Now in his early 60’s, he actually began as an architect. While living in London in the 1970’s, a chance encounter with an influential sculptor sparked something in Takashi and that art form became his new passion. Becoming enamored with fine art he studied sculpture, and later taught it at the Chelsea School of Art and Design. In addition, he developed into a world-class painter and his work has been shown throughout Europe and Japan.


Further expanding on his artistic eclecticism, he added music composition to his creative palate. Not long ago he decided to re-record some of his early musical creations using contemporary technology. In his words, “ I thought that it was very important to preserve something about me from those days.” Using the same technique he employs with his painting, he worked on one tune until it was completed, before moving on to the next, with each piece being influenced by the previous one.


This sequential approach is mirrored in the music itself and there is a sense of continuity and similarity throughout the album. Even the song titles reflect this as well, with each of the ten compositions being called Resonance In Blue, followed by the numbers 1 through 10. The music itself is extremely, and I do mean extremely serene. Some might refer to it minimalistic, while others call it meditative. But with it’s washes of synthesizer and sampled orchestral sounds, it reminded me of some of the music that was beginning to be labeled “new age” when I first became a music reviewer back in the 1980’s – in particular some of the seminal early recordings of Brian Eno, Steve Roach, Robert Rich, Deuter, and others. It has also been likened to the “Liquid Mind” albums by Chuck Wild and I can see the basis for comparison. The music on “Resonance” is very dreamy and slow moving which works well as a background for meditation, massage, yoga, etc. A picturesque description in the album’s promo gives a sense of the music within: “Some tracks evoke the sweeping vastness of outer space while others bring to mind the sensation of witnessing the deepening twilight of a day’s conclusion right here on planet Earth.”