“12 songs for the peaceful winters of the world, and 1 song for your soul”

Kitchen. Label is proud to present “12 & 1 song”, a collaboration album between haruka nakamura and long-time musical partner Janis Crunch. On a wintery night in 2007, the duo were in the process of a candle-lit recording session for haruka nakamura’s solo album “grace”. Instinctively, they decided to venture off the album recording and to compose a Christmas carol of their own. The track was christened “12 & 1 song” and then published online on a time-limited basis during the Christmas season. The spontaneous sessions spawned a couple more winter-themed compositions. Even as the two went separate ways on to work on individual projects, their creative bond sustained this year-end tradition till a substantial collection of winter-themed songs, recorded between 2007-2011, was borne. — Read more

“I went mourning without the sun; I am a companion to owls.”

In the autumn/winter of 2010, Singapore-based April Lee and Ricks Ang of ASPIDISTRAFLY (also founders of Kitchen. Label) embarked on the recording of their second album A LITTLE FABLE in Japan in collaboration with several artists. Fascinated by the patina of time and themes of
folklore, A LITTLE FABLE narrates a surrealist procession of tales, twelve compositions simmering one into the other lyrically and picturesquely. This album sees the duo returning to a warm, organic palette of closely-whispered vocals, fingerpicked guitar, string arrangements and their trademark texture-focused arrangements. Featuring guest collaborators Kyo Ichinose, Seigen Tokuzawa, haruka nakamura, Junya Yanagidaira (ironomi), honagayoko, Akira Kosemura, Janis Crunch and more. — Read more

“The reason never lies in oneself. The others do. Its just a matter of reception, not emission.”

Following 2009’s critically acclaimed ‘The Setting Sun”, FJORDNE (aka Shunichiro Fujimoto) releases his second album on Kitchen. Label entitled “Charles Rendition”. The lyricism of that earlier album and stories of tragedy and social decline are intact, but further explored. “Charles Rendition” is an introspective piano study through a child’s eyes set in a self-penned short story, inspired by Charles Dickens’ 1861 novel “Great Expectations” – a morality tale of a forest boy and girl struggling to accept and adjust to the decadence of society in a mysterious, timeless era. “Charles Rendition” takes its cues from the antique patina of time, with traces of a lingering past that continue to intrude onto the present. — Read more

“On a summer’s day, there was an artist sketching the chorus of insects, sketching them using his sense of hearing, adding various colors to a white canvas…”

ironomi’s delicate field recordings capture the tangible atmosphere of a specific time and place. “sketch” is a live improvisation recorded in the summer of 2007 in a very old wooden house atop a hill in Mashiko, a town in Japan’s Tochigi prefecture known for its close association with some of the country’s leading ceramic artists and pioneers of the mingei (folk art and craft) movement, such as Shoji Hamada. By straddling both ambient classical music and documentary recording, ironomi created a “folk craft” album of their own – a pastoral reverie inspired by Mashiko’s shaded bowers and fitting dragonflies. — Read more

“From the car window, view of streetlamps from atop the hill, like the lighthouse keeper feeding the bonfire with firewood.”

An emerging talent on the Japanese ambient/electro-acoustic music scene, haruka nakamura’s second solo outing refines the lyrical, pastoral imagery that inspired his first album “grace”. Recorded in a studio overlooking the ocean as a tribute to the sight of the expiring sun falling slowly over the horizon at dusk, “twilight” is a sustained reverie that mirrors the dwindling rays of light at day’s end with its subtle variations in timbre and texture. — Read more

“Be noble, always have pride, wait and you shall see the setting sun.”

FJORDNE’s new album from Kitchen. Label is inspired by the evocative descriptions of simple things in Dazai Osamu’s novel of the same name (Shayo), a story of an aristocratic family in decline and the moral lapses of its members. Sidestepping the novel’s content, FJORDNE recreates the introspection and pastoral lyricism of Dazai’s language into poignant chapters of musicial eloquence. — Read more

“Ethereal froth scudding across the sky. The sunset cleanses today, leaving it glowing. Shining water, silent waves.”

“i hold a wish for you” is aspidistrafly’s anticipated first full album. Drawing references to Banana Yoshimoto’s literary classic “Moonlight Shadow”, aspidistrafly weaves through the solitary atmosphere of the novel with their own narratives inspired by several excursions outside the confines of their immediate surroundings. This latest release invokes delicate moments with nine tracks that combine acoustic instrumentation across April’s warm vocal harmonies, soft floating textures and binaural field recordings. — Read more