青叶市子——Windswept Adan Pitchfork 8.0 乐评搬运

Pitchfork评分：8.0/10

By：Shy Clara Thompson

Genre：Experimental

Label：Ba Da Bing

Reviewed：November 22, 2021

作者：Shy Clara Thompson

流派：实验音乐

厂牌：Ba Da Bing

乐评日期：2021 年 11 月 22 日

Released last year, this ambitious album by the Japanese singer-songwriter utilizes lush instrumentation to create a dreamlike soundtrack to an imaginary film.

去年，这位日本创作型歌手推出这张雄心勃勃的专辑，通过丰富器乐的运用，为一部意念中的电影构筑了梦幻般的配乐世界。

Ichiko Aoba’s greatest strength is her ability to create pockets of intimacy. The Japanese singer-songwriter’s breathy vocals and placid guitar playing, often the only sounds you’d hear on her records, create a hypnotizing shroud that makes you feel like she’s performing for you alone. Aoba has been building a following in Japan since her 2010 debut Kamisori Otome—released when she was only 19 years old—but 2018’s qp was Aoba’s first small breakthrough; it connected her with listeners abroad and cracked Rate Your Music’s top rated albums of the year. The two years between qp and her next release gave people time to get up to speed on her back catalog, retroactively catapulting 2013’s 0 to the top spot for its own year. When her latest album Windswept Adan—now her first to be reissued internationally—received widespread coverage from Western critics last year, the established faithful weren’t surprised; this is the recognition they always knew she deserved. On Windswept Adan, Aoba expands her repertoire of sound and brings collaborators into her vision, yet she still holds on to the wistful imagination that allows her to dream up private universes.

青叶市子最显著的魅力在于她营造亲密氛围的非凡能力。这位日本唱作人的婉转歌喉与宁静平和的吉他弹奏，往往构成其唱片中唯一的听觉元素，编织出催人入眠的私密感，仿佛专为聆听者独奏。自2010年19岁时发表首专《剃刀乙女》起，她便开始在日本本土积累听众，而真正的小型突破发生在2018年的《qp》——这张作品不仅架起与海外乐迷的桥梁，更跻身Rate Your Music年度专辑榜单。从《qp》到后续专辑的两年空窗期，恰为听众回溯旧作提供契机，同时也令2013年发行的《0》重登年度榜首。当去年携首张国际再版专辑《Windswept Adan》收获西方乐评广泛关注时，其忠实追随者毫不讶异——他们始终坚信这份认可实至名归。尽管在《Windswept Adan》中拓展了音乐维度并引入合作者，青叶仍坚守着那份构筑私人世界的怀旧式想象力。

Aoba conceptualized the project as the soundtrack to a film that only exists in her head, set on two fictional islands—one where the central protagonist is from, and another, teeming with flora and fauna, she is spirited away to. She began writing Windswept Adan as a story first, intermittently showing her progress to her primary collaborator and producer, TV composer Taro Umebayashi. Umebayashi would begin to compose based on Aoba’s concepts, which would, in turn, influence what Aoba wrote next. Lead single “Porcelain” came from the idea of musically portraying weather conditions on the Kerama Islands, which Aoba visited while researching for her script. One of the album’s densest tracks, it bursts with lush strings, woodwinds, pitched percussion, and Aoba’s feather-light vocals—gentle elements on their own, but when combined they become a tumultuous storm.

青叶将创作构想为某部脑内电影的配乐，故事舞台设定于两座虚构岛屿：主人公的故土与那座遍布奇异动植物的迁居之地。她以故事的形式开启《Windswept Adan》的创作，期间不定期向主创伙伴兼制作人——电视作曲家梅林太郎展示进度。。梅林依据青叶的叙事框架谱写乐曲，而这些音乐反哺又重塑着故事的后续发展。灵感源自Kerama群岛气候的主打曲《Porcelain》，通过繁茂弦乐、木管音色、清亮打击乐与歌者空灵声线的交织，成为专辑中织体最绵密的乐章之一。

Elsewhere on the record, Aoba shows restraint, reminding us that more can also be done with less. Umebayashi plays an almost improvised sounding piano number on “Parfum d’étoiles,” the recording equipment so close to the instrument that the hammers can be heard thumping the strings with every slam of the keys. Field recordings of birdsong hang in the air, and Aoba haunts the track with a distant vocal, so low in the mix that it sounds as though it could have been picked up from another room. Aoba strips back to her own voice and nimble-fingered classical guitar on “Sagu Palm’s Song,” but rather than a return to something familiar, it acts as stark punctuation; after hearing Aoba’s voice accompanied by a rich tapestry of shifting elements on seven prior tracks, here she sounds truly alone. As the story’s protagonist deepens her connection with nature—witnessing its beauty, destruction, and eventual rebirth—each track distinguishes itself as a chapter in that emotional journey.

专辑其余部分则彰显着克制的艺术智慧，印证有限的成本亦能成就丰沛表达。《Parfum d'étoiles》中梅林弹奏近乎即兴的钢琴段落，近场录音清晰捕捉琴锤击弦的机械声响。空间里飘荡着实地录制的鸟鸣，青叶的歌声则经低徊混音处理，宛若隔墙传来的遥远呢喃。《Sagu Palm's Song》里仅存歌者嗓音与指尖流转的古典吉他，这并非对旧有风格的回归，而是精妙设计的点缀——相较于前七曲丰富的配器变幻，此刻的孤寂感愈显强烈。每首乐曲皆是主人公情感历程的章节注脚，见证其与自然缔结的羁绊：从壮美到崩坏，终至重生。

Aoba’s imaginary film draws to a close with “Luminescent Creatures,” the heroine giving herself back to nature. First, Aoba sings, accompanied only by lightly strummed chords. Slowly, strings start to swell around her as the scene approaches a dramatic end—as the final note rings out, only sounds of ocean waves lapping a shoreline remain. It paints a striking image, inviting you to live inside the world Aoba has dreamed up. In the Dreams & Visions companion book to Windswept Adan, she writes that she hoped her fantasies would immerse her more deeply into the world that she was laboring to create with every passing day. “Not knowing whether I’m asleep or awake is a sign that I’m on the right path,” she said. As Ichiko Aoba continued to dream bigger, it only makes sense that her music would keep expanding to fill the space.

青叶的幻想电影以《Luminescent Creatures》收束，女主人公最终融归自然。青叶在细碎分解和弦中浅吟低唱，待末音消散，只剩下海浪拍打海岸线的声音。这支终曲构建出令人屏息的通感画面，引领听者浸入她编织的梦境。在配套书籍《Dreams & Visions》中，她坦言渴望通过幻想更深刻地栖居于自己日复一日构筑的世界。“分不清清醒与沉睡的界限，恰说明我正行走在正确的道路上”，艺术家如是说。随着青叶市子的梦想疆域不断扩展，她的音乐亦在持续生长，以填充这愈加辽阔的想象空间。