HOCHZEITSKAPELLE + JAPANESE FRIENDS - THE ORCHESTRA IN THE SKY - TOKYO & KOBE RECORDINGS (2CD)

"There's a big clue to the pacific wisdom of The Orchestra in the Sky in the artist name - Hochzeitskapelle + Japanese Friends. For this is, indeed, music based in, and resonating with, friendship, camaraderie, collaboration, and creative exchange. Across two albums - one documenting recordings from Tokyo, the other an expansive double album of sessions from Kobe - Hochzeitskapelle gather around them some of the finest voices in Japanese independent and underground pop music, like Tenniscoats, Eddie Marcon, Yuko Ikema, and Kama Aina, and explore an open field of music, full of creative encounters. You may already know Hochzeitskapelle as the German instrumental quintet formed by members of The Notwist, Alien Ensemble, and friends from the jazz scene. Across three albums, one a collaboration with Kama Aina (2018's Wayfaring Suite), they've developed a way of playing together that's intimate and playful, rich and human; it's a music that's deliberately rough around the edges, and that nestles cosily into the everyday. Their relationship with Japanese indie has developed over the years, doubtless encouraged by Saya´s "Minna Miteru", compilations series of Japanese indie pop for Morr Music. A peripatetic gang, Hochzeitskapelle also recently backed Japanese singer-songwriter Makoto Kawamoto on her new album, Hikari." (label info)