This event is included with the Friends of Reethaus annual pass.
In collaboration with Slow Wonder and Sonic Minds, Reethaus presents a reimagining of A・I・R (Air In Resort) by Hiroshi Yoshimura, a pioneer of Japanese ambient music. Turning the landscapes that host Wonderfruit in Thailand into a research lab, MSCTY_Studio led a project to capture local field recordings and update the classic Japanese record with a new and more tropical sonic palette. The result was an homage to the original album on its 40-year anniversary, its luminous pointillism reinterpreted by MSCTY_Studio for a live audience at Wonderfruit’s Enfold pavilion in 2024, with additional vocals by TA2MI, the musical project of Japanese Buddhist monk and beatmaker Akinobu Tatsumi, and British artist Scanner. The recording from that occasion has now been transposed again to a new latitude, spatialized at Reethaus to invoke the immersive environment of the fields in Thailand.
An heir to Erik Satie’s “furniture music” and Brian Eno’s concept of “sound as atmosphere,” Hiroshi Yoshimura was one of the leading composers of kankyō ongaku (“environmental music”), a genre that emerged in Japan in the eighties as artists and researchers sought the ideal music to perfect spaces of leisure. Mastering the new technology of synths while remaining devoted to the inspiration of nature, Yoshimura composed a series of lyrical records that have experienced a renaissance in recent years.
AIR in Resort by MSCTY_Studio was developed as part of Sonic Minds, a year-round research initiative by Wonderfruit that examines sound from the perspective of physics, neuroscience and health. It is presented at Reethaus by Slow Wonder, a project by Slowness and Wonderfruit that explores how rituals and contemporary expressions of music, food, art, and performance can lead us to experiences of radical presence.