Meditative, gentle and minimal. These are the adjectives that have been chosen for a concise introduction of the sound that the Japanese audio artist and gagaku musician Hiroshi Ebina offered on “In science and the human heart” (released by Kitchen Label in November 2022). Following the EP “Faraway Vicinity”, his debut release sprouted from a remote collaboration with the composer Kin Leonn forged in the early days of the Coronavirus pandemic, this album dives into a weirdly warm weightless atmosphere, that we try to dive through its author’s words as well.
Chain D.L.K.: Hey Hiroshi! How are you doing?
Hiroshi Ebina: I’m doing great, thanks!
Chain D.L.K.: As I’m not 100% sure that our readers already know your name, let’s proceed with an introduction. How do you get closer to music composition? What’s the first music score you played, and what’s the first one you wrote?
Hiroshi Ebina: When I was younger, I was doing something totally different. I picked up my first guitar when I was 12, and immediately shifted my interest to traditional Irish music. There are small communities for Irish music in Tokyo. When I was at my high school and undergrad program, I spent a long time playing with them at local Irish pubs. In addition, I started playing traditional Japanese music called gagaku since I was 14, and up to this date, I’ve been active as a gagaku player as well. It was when I was at my graduate program that I started writing my original ambient tracks.
Chain D.L.K.: Is there any specific listening who fired the sparkle for your interest in ambient music?
Hiroshi Ebina: I think I’ve been listening to this genre of music for a long time. Perhaps it goes back to when I was in my high school. I discovered Brian Eno through U2, and then expanded my interest into other pioneers such as Christian Fennesz and Ryuichi Sakamoto. Then, when I was an undergrad, I picked up an EP called “Landing” by Taylor Deupree. I was deeply moved by his simple yet rich music, so I decided to make something on my own.
Chain D.L.K.: You spent many years in New York before getting back to your hometown Tokyo. Why such a choice? What did you absorb from Gotham’s artistic environment that is going to play an important role in your artistic and emotional life?
Hiroshi Ebina: Moving to New York and coming back to Tokyo actually has nothing to do with my music, it was just a matter of my career choice (I do something totally different for my day job). But when I was living in Brooklyn, I met so many friends who made a positive impact on my life. I went to see Taylor Deupree and Marcus Fischer performing at a local venue, after which I decided to give up my MacBook as a performance tool and switched to an Eurorack synth. I also met Joseph Branciforte, now one of my best friends, who always master my albums.
Chain D.L.K.: I read you’re a gagaku performer as well. Is there any somehow hidden connection between this form of art and the music you forge?
Hiroshi Ebina: I keep gagaku and my ambient music in different domains in my life. While I’m passionate about both, they don’t really merge into each other (but maybe gagaku might have made hidden influence on my compositional process). I keep these two separate because I respect for gagaku tradition. Even though there are so many rules when it comes to this traditional music, it also has a different kind of freedom that I cannot find in ambient music. You might know Tim Hecker sampled gagaku for his recent albums, but to be honest I couldn’t really listen to it, perhaps because I know gagaku too well.
Chain D.L.K.: ‘In science and the human heart’ was not your first release on Kitchen label. Can you tell us something about ‘Faraway Vicinity EP’ your first output on Kitchen and its making?
Hiroshi Ebina: “In Science” was in fact supposed to be my first album from Kitchen. I turned in my demo back in the springtime of 2019, but then Covid came in, and we couldn’t figure out when to release it for a long time. Meanwhile, I started talking to my label mate Kin Leonn, and we decided to work together remotely and create something based on our new life in the pandemic. The result was “Faraway Vicinity.”
Chain D.L.K.: These two outputs are connected by the set and the setting when they were conceived, that is the so-called pandemic emergency. Can you imagine your artistic route if there had been no pandemic situation?
Hiroshi Ebina: I think the pandemic had a silver lining-especially in the first year, many things in my life got canceled, so I had more time to explore new things in my compositional process. But on the flip side, there were very few opportunities to perform live. Japan is now almost back to normal as far as the Covid-related restriction is concerned, so I’m looking forward to performing more in the coming years.
Chain D.L.K.: With regard to ‘In science and the human heart’, why did you choose such a title?
Hiroshi Ebina: I’ve been having clinical depression for years, and the album title was inspired by my medication process. We think our mind (consciousness, our human heart) is in non-physical part that makes us unique. Yet what we think and feel can be easily manipulated but medicine we take, in my case antidepressants. So I realized there’s a thin wall between our physical body (including brain) and our mind. Science definitely has the power to influence who and how we are, for better or worse.
Chain D.L.K.: The idea of titling each track with a kind of self-healing sentence is quite interesting. Why such a choice? How do they relate to the content of each music file (or I’d rather say ‘music therapy’)?
Hiroshi Ebina: Each title is a small message card for people having trouble. It’s a kind of reminder that there are alternative ways to understand our current predicament.
Chain D.L.K.: Another intriguing idea is the one to keep some captures of the noises produced by the interaction between you and the tape recorder you used, an old NAGRA IV. Any word about this choice?
Hiroshi Ebina: Tape machine can bring unpredictable and organic elements to electronic music. While I frequently use digital synthesizers, listening to them using an old tape machine opens up a different sonic dimension.
Chain D.L.K.: What’s portrayed on the cover artwork?
Hiroshi Ebina: Ricks Ang of Kitchen. Label created the cover, which depicts a heart with a laser aiming toward the model’s center. He remarked that after listening to the record and learning about the concept and suggested title, Norbert Vogel’s LP “Anti-stress” sprang to mind. It sets the tone for how we envision the album cover to look, and it pays homage to relaxation and sound health cassette recordings from the 1980s in certain respects.
Chain D.L.K.: Have you ever made live sessions performing your music? If not, are you planning to do that?
Hiroshi Ebina: I haven’t done that yet, except for a couple of YouTube videos I made in the past. An interesting idea that I might try in the future.
Chain D.L.K.: Your music is quite closer to so-called ‘therapy music’ by fact. Are there any specific releases that you consider a kind of predecessor of your output? Did you have a scientific approach to composition?
Hiroshi Ebina: Music can be therapeutic, regardless of genre. I cannot really pick specific examples that influenced me to choose this theme, but there are many cases I had catharsis while listening to music. For example, during the first few months of the pandemic, I literally cried to listen to “It’s a Wonderful World” by Luis Armstrong.
Chain D.L.K.: Any work in progress?
Hiroshi Ebina: I’m always working on something. Can’t wait to share new materials!
Visit Hiroshi Ebina on the web:
https://hiroshiebina.com/