1.Silhouette 02:10
2.Butterfly 02:07
3.Weak Me 02:58
4.Fragment I 02:08
5.Portrait 00:57
6.Pfau 02:07
7.Ichiru 02:20
8.Hue 03:17
9.Fragment II 02:15
10.Solitude 02:46
11.And This Is How It Ends 04:09
12.Close 07:51

Written and recorded by Daigo Hanada
Mastered by Emil Thomsen (ET Mastering)

A very discreet musician, Daigo Hanada is a young Tokyo-based pianist and composer sharing his time between his native Japan and Berlin. Apart from two Nils Frahm reworks and a one track contribution (“Again”) to the Piano Cloud Series – Volume One compilation released last year on the 1631 Recordings, Daigo Hanada has spent a lot of time maturing and perfecting his art away from the public eye. But when the first notes of “Silhouette” start playing, there is little doubt that Daigo Hanada is a very talented musician. His full-length solo début album Ichiru was released on 27 February 2017 last on the Montréal-based label Moderna Records.

“Equipped with only an upright piano, a pair of microphones and his two hands” read the official press release, “Hanada worked for the better part of a year on these pieces in bringing them to their final form”. As a result, Ichiru is a stripped-down and concise recording, going straight to the essential core of the compositions with the carefully placed microphones scrupulously capturing the live mechanics of the piano.

“Equipped with only an upright piano, a pair of microphones and his two hands” read the official press release, “Hanada worked for the better part of a year on these pieces in bringing them to their final form”. As a result, Ichiru is a stripped-down and concise recording, going straight to the essential core of the compositions with the carefully placed microphones scrupulously capturing the live mechanics of the piano.

“It was raining heavily but a very quiet day – I was just sitting by the window and looking outside, watching the rain fall continuously but randomly. That’s when I got this idea of falling ambient sound in the back”.

The last two tracks on the album, both much longer than the rest, draw the music towards a more electro-acoustic and ambient texture with their layering and slightly saturated meandering notes.

Almost coming out of the blue, Daigo Hanada’s Ichiru is a subtle, very expressive and captivating début. ---Guillaume, spellbindingmusic.com

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1 	Two Birds 	3:04
2 	Ouka 	3:33
3 	En 	3:47
4 	Suiu 	3:45
5 	Rin 	2:58
6 	Follow Me To The Moon 	3:03
7 	Under The Starry Sky 	2:29

Written & recorded by Daigo Hanada
Mastered by Martyn Heyne 

A composer that lives in the quiet and timid spectrum of piano-based compositions, Daigo Hanada returns with a new EP. ‘Ouka’ expands slightly from his 2017 debut ‘Ichiru’ and in many ways, it feels like a companion piece.

Daigo Hanada opens with warmth and rattles with ‘Two Birds’. The piano and acoustic noises that surround it rattle and flutter like tiny wings. Its quietly uplifting tone in contrast to the title track ‘Ouka’ that follows. Here a weary but beautiful piano riff rolls out with little fanfare. It’s in the production where tiny tricks filter through. The rattle shimmers from the previous track are now shimmering piano notes ringing like mallet bells in the distance. There’s also a subtle tape warp to the high notes that really gives the track a layer of empathy.

These production tricks set up how the rest of the EP unfolds. ‘En’ reminds me of ‘Eternity of Light and Waves’ from Final Fantasy X-2 melodically and that is no bad thing. The mallets of the hammers mixed with the gentle distortion wring the melody for every thought. ‘Suiu’ delicately plays around mainly with the higher octaves of keys. It’s airy twinkles and reverbs are counterbalanced by single low notes which feel like giant footsteps. ‘Rin’ then combines everything for a more European and traditional classical composition. It has an uplifting tone to it and that’s shared with the gentile ‘Follow Me to the Moon’ and the ambient reverb drenched closer ‘Under The Starry Sky’.

Daigo Hanada is the perfect bridge between melodic piano composition and mood music. There is always a strong melody but Hanada refuses to let it reign like a charging horse. The work is always refined, delicate and even in its uplifting warmth, somewhat mournful yet peaceful. The music amounts to way more than the sum of its parts and ‘Ouka’ is easily one of the go to quiet places of 2019. ---higherplainmusic.com

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