The most mournful record of 2018 is this one, a collaboration between Japanese singer Fuji Yuki, Japanese alto sax player Harutaka Mochizuki, and French lapsteel and various strings Michel Henritzi, whose collaborative LP with Rinji Fukuoka and Luca Massolin received high praise here. On this one, Henritzi collaborates on two tracks with each of the two Japanese artists, creating a hazy soundscape of despair, grief, and fragile beauty on the two tracks with Fuji Yuki, which are some kind of drone folk with banjo, lap guitar and noise, while the two tracks with Mochizuki are noisier, with the latter achieving desperate sax tones over a grinding droning noise. A true masterpiece. 2018 cd on An'archives.
