Download this free music album: The Aokigahara Forest

The Aokigahara Forest

by Friend Owl

View Friend Owl's blog

instrumental drone improvisational artrock noisepop

8 tracks

41:39

1	Wendigo l	6:13
2	Wendigo ll	2:08
3	Numbers	4:49
4	The Cabinet Door	5:30
5	Meadowlake	6:01
6	Oh Gosh! Oh Golly! Oh Wow!	5:16
7	Excalibur	4:36
8	Faces I've Seen in the Water	7:06

Album description

Aokigahara Woods is my follow up to Antelope. Like Antelope, it contains a prominant bass and clean guitars. Aokigahara contains very little percussion and revolves mostly around guitar/bass interplay with some keyboard, violin, piano, and noise for good measure. Songs here are repetitive, simple, quiet, loud, noisy, melody centred, and long.

Aokigahara strips away all the punk influences I used to have along with most of the folk influences of the prior album. Aokigahara has a 'krautrock' influence, though I normally despise the term it seems to be the only thing that comes to mind. The album contains alot of improvised melodies making it more unique, but less focussed then Antelope.

Aokigahara isn't as good as Antelope in my opinion, but it represents things that I look for in music...Repetition, melody, simplicity, instrumental focus, and an original sound.

Banjii: Guitar, Bass, Percussion, Synthesizer, Piano, Violin, Sound Effects

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Reviews on The Aokigahara Forest

Christian Bonner

Great album

22/01/10

Trying to adequately describe Friend Owl's music is akin to trying to measure the speed of the wind with a ruler - it's largely impressionistic and so singular that each listener is likely to hear it a different way, rendering descriptions futile. The songs are generally anchored by sturdy, simple basslines (sometimes guitar), with other instruments such as keyboards and brilliantly unconventional violin weaving in and out... but there is still plenty of space left, which to me is one of the most attractive facets of Friend Owl's music.

To my ears, there is a strong dub sensibility here, and if I were to try to pick reference points, I'd say I'm reminded of a little Can, a bit of early Jandek, maybe even some Savage Republic (circa "Jamahariya")... but those reference points are tenuous, probably coincidental and ultimately inconsequential.

Like "Antelope." before it, "The Aokigahara Forest" is its own thing. It really doesn't have much precedent. Furthermore, it's music that brings new rewards on each listen, there are subtleties that reveal themselves when they're ready to... very highly recommended.