Takashi Kokubo - Oasis Of The Wind

Takashi Kokubo - Oasis Of The Wind

 

 

 

 

 

1.  Forest of Ion

               Enter through the Japanese tori arch into vibrant realm of lush greens humming among themselves.  Gossiping birds flirt with whimsical faeries, all is playful.  Guitar hints at something more solemn, an undercurrent of melancholy.  The forest houses the graves of ancient leaders, respect in stillness; sun gallantly warms the earth.  Leaves of trees keep silent the secrets of history’s heroes.  This is a forest of dignity and preservation.

               Towering bark of prehistoric wooden bodies loom above enclosing and captivating the magic held under the woodland canopy.  Slits of light pierce the tapestry of nature and a small frog hops away.  Moss envelopes anonymous gray monuments.

               Eyes closed, kneel, short prayer to the fallen.  Honoring the spirits.

               Soft breeze wistfully passes.

This song has 2 basic sections.  First section is:

||G7      |   G7       |      C maj7      |     C maj7        || Repeated until:

||F maj7 |   Fmaj7|    Bbmaj7     |    Bbmaj7       ||  Repeated for a while.

               The G7 is voiced something like 3x3000, and sometimes switches to 3x3200. 

               The C maj7 is voiced x35200, with the 13 in there (The 2^nd fret of the G string).

               The F maj7 is a big one, 135200, it’s got the #11 in there (open B string).

               The Bbmaj7 does x1303x, changes to x1323, again uses the 13 when the G string is open.

               Lots of G mixolydian stuff happening here, focusing on that C to B suspended interval.

The 2^nd section does a riff off the F major 7 arpeggio for 4 bars, then a riff off Bb major 7 arpeggio for 4 bars.  After this repeats a while, it goes to G-7, C7, then repeats.  After the final repetition, the C7 sustains…emptiness, and then goes back to the first section.

               The guitar plays on the quarter note.  A marimba comes in that can be approximated on guitar, palm mute, playing melody notes E, F, G, E , F, G, F, E.

               Cool song because despite the change in harmonies during sections, mostly the same side tracking stuff is happening.

2.  Twilight

               The sky begins to blink and slowly sun sets.  Slumber heavies all living motions to a leisurely pace.  This is the sound of retiring.

               Music is divided into 2 bar segments.  First bar is active, 2^nd bar is the fade out of the 1^st bar’s part.  This shows us a slowing, restful feeling.  Twilight, slipping into night time, into rest.  So activity is slipping into rest.

||B maj 7       |  B maj7        |      E maj7         |  Emaj7       ||   For a while, until:

||  C#-7        |   C#-7           |F#7                    |F#7               ||   For a little bit, then repeat.

               The B maj7 is voiced x242xx, really simple.

               The E maj7 is voiced  024xxx.

               Similarly, C#-7 voiced x464xx.

               And then F#7 is voiced 246xxx. 

               All guitar voicings use the root, 5^th, and their respective 7ths.

               Synths emphasize 7^th scale degrees here and there.  Very laid back.

Part with silence and a lone G# note playing, then goes to A# note.  What follows is C#maj7, F#maj7.  Interesting!  Same chord root but changes chord quality!  For those of you playing on guitar, move the first chord progression up 2 frets, and there you go!  Actually, the entire form of the song is transposed up 2 frets, including the 2^nd chord progression.  THEN FINALLY it goes back to the original key.  Overall song form is ABA.

3.  Sanctuary

               Blessed nocturnal stream of water congratulates us on finding the way.  Japanese kanji form on the surface of the water.  Mysterious choir emanates omnidirectionally.  The fallen ancient heroes praise, offer their guidance, and foretell warnings for the future.  They depart with peaceful messages.  Spiritual evaporation.

            Intro starts with an A-sus thing, marimba plays A D E A, then root changes over it to Bb.  Sort of implies Bbmaj.

               Once song gets going, seems to transition from G major ideas to G minor ideas,  then I think bass goes to C-7…then to Cmajor.    More subtly, the G minor could be Ebmajor7.

               Towards the end, the intro comes back around, yadda yadda.

Misc. Notes:

-Although these songs are slow, they are abundant with rhythmic variation.  In the first song, the guitar performs mostly 8^th note steady rhythms while snippets of triplets and 16^th note intricate 

rhythms pass by here and there.

-Similar sounds in this album as Yoshimura’s “Wet Land” and Naitoh’s “In The Forest”.

-Each song has an underlying structure that is LONG but simple, harmonically.  Parts fade in and out.

-Lots of marimba sounds!