Tokyo Recordings were ideas, compositions and performance recorded in Tokyo, 2019. Finally mastered and released on September 3, 2021.

I found myself in Taiwan, witnessing a family feud unfold and dissolve with the destruction of my grandmother’s home, after it was sold to developers. I traced my roots and it ended with me running away to Japan, retracing the steps of my ancestor, Koxinga, 350 years prior. I drove alone to Tokyo, where I found a grand piano, enclosed into a concrete bunker. It was just me, the piano and a bed. I recorded and wept. It was a sound proof concrete bunker, no sound came in nor out. This is the recording I did during that week. I closed myself in during the day, and went to see a lover at night. For the first time in my life, I played. Without looking over my shoulders, and for no one. I played for myself. I knew I was safe, in my own cocoon, no sound came in, and no sound went out. This is the first improvisations that I allowed myself.

These are sensitive and fragile ideas, moments, that came and left. It has taken me my whole life until now to finally let go of the fear. And now I’d like to share that with you.

Love,
Ayoto
credits
released September 3, 2021

Performed and recorded by Ayoto Ataraxia, in Tokyo, Japan.
Mixed and mastered in Berlin, Germany.
Photography by Camilla Wasen