The first thing I notice is the sound of a sparse bass line, then the melodic wash of electronica begins and a metallic voice soars effortlessly across the two, improvising, speaking through the trumpet. The sound both calms and creates bobbing heads of the festive crowd at the Plastic Factory, a girl staggers in a skimpy santa claus outfit while others have their faces painted. A photographer takes random photos, which punters can buy by donation. 

The music floats across the background of the quickly-growing crowd and draws everybody in with its subtlety. Applauds don’t happen until the third song, they are so long, people aren’t sure where they begin and end. The band, Echolocation, from Tokyo, to put it simply plays beautifully sparse and seductive music, as though in a dream: intriguing though not dominating.

Massa Takemoto takes care of composition, bass and computer and Testsuroh Konishi plays trumpet . They are gentle men with a good feel for melody and keeping rhythm within a sparse playing field – a very difficult thing in my opinion. It’s easier to jam numerous notes into a song and have them sound okay then one or two and keep interest. 

I fortunately now own their CDs from previous projects, echolocation is a new project, and they are sublime. Please check them out: Desert Island Mix (Massa) and Blue Ground Music (Tetsuroh). I look forward to future creations from either artist.