AKO - Haze (2019)

Haze in the rice field, Haze in the brain - the pieces for AKO's third album were made in Japan. And on sleepless nights after the family expansion. A studio stay in an over-aged ghost village north of Tokyo brought the sharp contrasts of the country to light. Where the city seems to be cutting-edge and technology-savvy, it is rustic and simple in the countryside. Rice fields are burned off after harvest because it saves time. Rice is sifted by hand, it is heated with wood, and you live in more or less harmony with huge centipedes and spiders. Bandleader and composer Anicia Kohler and her high-profile colleagues play music that is geared to the fifties. There are pieces about water spirits or ticking time bombs, and the swing is back in.