Floating Mountains (reissue) vinyl

Tokyo visionist Soshi Takeda's second album took shape across eight months of the winter and spring, inspired by an iconic mid-80s photography book of Chinese landscapes. Scenes of lantern-lit fishing boats on misty mountain lakes seeded a mood of hidden paradise, with ancient waterways snaking secret paths into the past. Recorded at his home studio using hardware synths and samplers from the 1990's, the six songs of Floating Mountains (plus digital-only bonus track, 'Deep Breath', from the 2nd Life Silk compilation) evoke shrouded vistas of liquid skies and shining lakes, like a Li River-esque twist on Balearic middleweight house. Shades of cosmic drift and crystalline electronica ebb and flow within its nocturnal pulse, pagodas and pearls reflecting the waning moon: "I hope you can feel the cool and exotic atmosphere," muses Takeda.