Album Of The Week // 17–22 August

Chari Chari — We hear the last decades dreaming [Seeds and Ground]

‘We hear the last decades dreaming’ is a psychedelic sound scroll that contains a will to break away from past decades and create narrative that embraces the changing times.

Chari Chari is an electronic music project from Kaoru Inoue. Inoue is a well-established DJ, who started his career in a small clubs in Tokyo in early 90’s under the influence of acid jazz (check out the 1994 compilation Listen Up for a taste of this time). Under the moniker Chari Chari, Inoue has had a series of releases on UK-based Pussy Foot Records since 1995. The debut album came along in 1999, entitled Spring To Summer, released on File Records.

After that, Chari Chari gradually became more active. In 2002, the second album In Time was released on Toy’s Factory, followed by the release of the 12-inch Aurora EP on Bonjour Records. He gained a solid reputation both domestically and internationally, but since then Chari Chari has mostly been absent.

We hear the last decades dreaming is the third album, arriving 18 years after the second. It is a collection of electro-acoustic compositions inspired by Kaoru’s recent vinyl-digging fever, rekindled a long time after the beginning of his DJ career. The influences of contemporary, minimal, global, ambient, new age, avant-garde and electronic music make for a blissful 74 minutes. We hear the last decades dreaming is a psychedelic sound scroll that contains a will to break away from the rich culture and timelessness of the past decades and creates a narrative that embraces the changing times.

At the beginning of a new decade, Inoue wanted to update his sensibility towards DJ culture, music itself and even about the world we live in, looking at the world through a fresh lens. Inoue aimed to create music that constituted a requiem for the passing of time. As his musical inspiration comes from records he’s been digging, rather than personal experiences, his focus on music for music’s sake has become stronger than ever. He is especially inspired by music from the 80s and intends to showcase his unique collection one day. The album also pays homage to I Hear the Water Dreaming (notice the similar phrasing of the title) by the legendary Japanese contemporary music composer Toru Takemitsu.

Tune in to Morning Mari* all week to hear tracks from this album, or listen back to this months instalment of Oto Nova Japan 音の波 to hear an interview with Kaoru Inoue.