Satoshi Ashikawa - Still Way

Satoshi Ashikawa - Still Way

This album is as elusive as Satoshi Ashikawa himself.  Many songs are avoiding a discernable chord progression.  Mist rises from the mountain floor, through the trees, ascends past the highest branches and up to the heavens, like steam from a large scale tea kettle.  And Ashikawa sees all from above.

Lots of cool infoz for this album at https://www.discogs.com/%E8%8A%A6%E5%B7%9D%E8%81%A1-Still-Way-Wave-Notation-2/release/3697547

1.  Prelude

               Medieval rustic tree branches stretch across the sky, telling a silent tale of long battles past.   Solemn elderly majestic trees stand guard their land.

              

Opening climb goes E, F#, G, B.  You could play a large E-9 with B in the melody right here.  On guitar, the voicing that goes x75777. 

Next melody fragment goes F#, D, A, ascending a D major arpeggio.  Low G briefly harmonizes with the first F#.  IDK, I like to play a big open G major sort of thing, voiced 300200.  Satoshi’s chord is mysterious here.  On 2^nd though, this is probably B-.

Then repeat of the first melody fragment in E minor, then E, G, F#, melody that lands on sumthin like a B-9.

2.  Landscape of Wheels

               A history of mankind as told through blurry renderings on a light gray cave wall.  As if being played by some kind of visual vinyl record.  Silent, fuzzy, chalky, juvenile drawings.

               We see cave men, we see business men in brown suits, we see space men, and we see ancient Mayan farming men.  In the same chalky style, we are shown various time periods of humanity.

               There’s a lot of D descending to B melody action.  This is like E minor pentatonic/G major pentatonic, and all those modes in between.  I think Ashikawa intentionally makes this song unresolved, that’s sort of his thing.  You can sort of play E minor 7 and B minor (no 5) over these melodies.

               Again, very misty Chinese pentatonic melodies here, resolveless, formless, Tao, the mist coming off the mountain.

3.  Still Park –Ensemble-

               Might revisit the medieval tree branches and the field which they guard.  Woman’s voice reveals ancient history of the land.  Trees stand guard, still.  We learn of a battle between kingdom and mountain rock monster.  Giant, hulking boulder spirit crushed and squashed the kingdom.  People died, led, gave up in tears, and prayed.  All in silence, we watch a civilization being destroyed.  We see a singular warrior courageously stand up to the monster.  Battle ensues between warrior and monster.  Clash, clash, clash again.  Warrior is winning, nearly an even battle though.

               The imagery of the battle fade as the woman’s voice comes back into focus.  She guides us around the misty history field and throws our attention at various landmarks and land forms related to the battle.

               The woman’s voice fades into nothing.  And we’re left alone, quiet, in an empty misty field surrounded by deep dark British trees.  We feel the heaviness and coolness of the air; the texture of air soaked with mystery.

               Only the trees seldom whisper, “Ooohhh” and we are taken back.  Teased at by a greater existence at work…and then we continue.

               These chords are very specific.  The 2^nd chord is sort of a D major.  The first chord might be E-7sus4, because there is no G note here.  The scale is D major pentatonic.  On piano, there is a very meticulous but subtle play between the two hands coordination and note choice.  

               The recording is slightly out of tune, yea?  Out of tune piano, bells that are probably not sure, xylophones?  Lots of reverby metallic meditation sounds here.

               Towards the end of the song when the instruments solidify a little more, progression turns into B-7 to A major???

4.  Still Park –Piano Solo-

               A retelling in the present of the events of 3.  The Old Grandfather, pondering his youth, he wonders what it all means.  Droplets sliding off an icicle.  The life span of an icicle is the same as a human.

               Some F sus7 thing here.  Same theme as previous song, obviously, but in a different key.  F mixolydian sort of works on this, so does F minor.  So I’m thinking he’s intentionally omitting the A note from this.  2^nd chord is Ebmajor ish.

               Again, out of tune??  Ashikawa really made this song as hard to grasp as

 possible.

5.  Still Sky

               Roughly G major, no clue where the tonal center is but those notes work.

6.  Image Under The Tree

          C major pentatonic.  Lots of resolve going D to C.  This could possibly be expanded from  G, A, D, C melody.  I think he’s largely avoiding the E note.  There’s that unresolved feeling, taking away the chord tones.

7.  Wrinkle

               E, F, B, C, D.  Traditional Japanese scale, Traditional Japanese Scale with a Twist?  Sometimes the flute shakuhachi jawn lands on F#, that’s the awkward note it hits.  Like butter.

              

Miscellaneous Thoughts:

-This album seems to have a quality of Time.  That is, each song deals with a topic of time.  Track 1 takes place in a medieval time style, track 2 shows history of humans at various time periods.  Each song elicits imagery regarding time.  I’m sure it has to do with the way this album was recorded; mics, room placement, that type of thing.  The recording itself sounds like an out of tune old record from the 40’s.   Was this intentional on Satoshi Ashikawa’s part?

-Entire album viewed as a chalky cave painting.