Stealth (LP) (Mint (M))

“Stealth” is the aptly-titled debut album from Tokyo-based composer/producer Takao. Gliding in under the radar with thirteen slyly sweet and subtle miniatures, these pieces are refreshing light-explosions of gentle harmony and modestly grand melodies. Fans of New Age and tonal minimalism will enjoy this music, but its brevity reveals a pop-influenced aesthetic as well, and the level of care and detail in the arrangements and recording evinces a nuanced, surprisingly mature sensibility. There’s a blossoming brightness and elegant simplicity that even calls to mind gentle ghosts of Satie and Debussy. Available as digital download, CD and vinyl LP.

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“Stealth” is certainly an apt title for this disarming collection of crypto-New Age. From its opening, one might be forgiven for assuming that what follows is a tableau of digital disruption, and noise in one of its less offensive iterations.
However, Takao instead presents a rich and detailed tapestry of compositions that take New Age affectations, fashioning them into something far grander. There’s a penchant for the naïve, the more garish of digital instruments in the vein of James Ferraro – but importantly, Takao steers away from submitting to gestures themselves naïve or garish, opting instead to focus attention to a more nuanced, delicate style.
Indeed, a more intrinsic tradition to posit “Stealth” as an inheritor of would be the Impressionism of Debussy, or even Satie, with Takao’s approach drawing light and composure from his instruments at their most bare and unadorned. Ever so pleasing and atmospheric, “Stealth” is remarkably affecting in its subtlety. (Nico Niquo)