In the liner notes for his seminal album Music for Airports, Brian Eno wrote that ambient music “must be as ignorable as it is interesting.” Before him, French composer Erik Satie, whose musique d’ameublement (‘furniture music’) prefigured ambient, reportedly used to get angry if his compositions drew too much attention. Ambient music, then, has long occupied a strange space. It should reward deep listening without demanding it; operate with presence, but not insistence.
This is a paradox that sits at the heart of Sen’nyū, the latest effort from Japanese ambient bodach Meitei. Inspired by Japanese onsen culture, it’s an album with place as its central tenet. And it’s best enjoyed in the bath.
The record, released on Singapore’s Kitchen…