PALE COCOON - Mayu [Repress]

Conatala

£31.48

Format: gatefold 2xLP repress
Cat: CONATALA 001
Release Date: 30th September 2020
Genre: Experimental/Electronic

Established in the early 1980s by Toyama-based musician Tsuyoshi Kawabata, Pale Cocoon was Japan's short-lived answer to musical fusionists Woo, Penguin Cafe Orchestra and The Durutti Column. The outfit's sole album, 1984's cassette-only "Mayu", has long been considered a cult classic, hence this first ever vinyl edition. Musically, the album is magic, with Kawabata and his collaborators offering up unearthly, mind-massaging soundscapes and pastoral, slow-burn songs crafted from effects-laden guitar textures, haunting flutes, quietly colourful synthesiser motifs, drowsy vocal passages, field recordings, occasional drum machine rhythms and chiming, off-kilter percussion. Wisely they've stretched the 60-minute album across two slabs of wax, too, meaning that every oddball sonic detail and picturesque musical refrain comes through loud and clear. In a word: superb.