Chihei Hatakeyama

Chihei Hatakeyama (畠山地平), born in 1978) is an electronic music artist from Tokyo, Japan. Hatakeyama's music is characteristically very slow, composed by repeatedly processing guitars, pianos, and vibraphones on a laptop. The result is a mix of droning chords and sparse single instruments rising above the mix. His music may be classified as either post-ambient experimental music or new-age music. Chihei Hatakeyama has released over 19 albums as of 2013. He released his first full-length album, Minima Moralia on Kranky in 2006 Hatakeyama's debut US album is a meditation on silence. The albums works as a series of vignettes or meditation exercises. Each track title is a specific image (Bonfire in the Field, Beside a Well, etc.), which the music apparently then seeks to replicate. Because each track has a slow tempo, little identifiably possessing a time signature, and very gradual changes to the droning chords which begin the songs, these titles can be seen as something worth contemplating while listening to the sound. The title of the album refers to German philosopher Theodor W. Adorno's book Minima Moralia. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.