Country: Japan
Ichiko Aoba writes some of the most soothing and relaxing folk that I've heard in a while. It's a very bare bones type of thing where her songwriting is completely dependent on how well her voice complements her guitar playing. What I find interesting about her approach is that she really varies the styles she crafts and they oddly seem like they belong there. Like if you listen to the third song, roughly around the middle of the song she really shows that isn't afraid to show her guitar playing skills through some fast playing that didn't really seem to fit at first but after a few listens, you realize how well it fits the part before it. She even throws in some field recordings here and there to fill the empty space that her music tends to create and they don't take too much of the spotlight of Ichiko Aoba's playing at all. If you're just looking for something to wind down to, this is a pretty fitting album that does that but I would say there's a little more to it than that if you listen carefully.
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