Today, On This Island

In June 2017, while I was living on Tobase Island in Kumamoto, guitarist Hayato Aoki recorded a song I composed on the island in the music room of a closed elementary school. Because the windows were wide open at the time, if you listen closely to the recording, you'll notice it also captures the various sounds emanating from the island itself.
I love the song "The Wind" In Aoki's words, it's "music without beginning or end, just like the wind." It truly feels like the wind blowing across the island. Though it's an unfamiliar place, somehow it evokes memories of home-a pure, gentle wind. I hope that through the voice of Yumiko Iriguchi, who lives on the island and sang this song, it will touch listeners' cherished memories, just as it did for me. (Photographer: Isao Nishiyama)

"Today, On This Island" was the name of a website run by Takaaki Kitajima and Isao Nishiyama. When we created a song together with Yumiko Iriguchi, whom we met on the island, we decided to use this name as the title. Yumiko wrote the lyrics, and I composed the music. We recorded both her vocals and my guitar together. "Misumi Line" is a guitar solo piece I composed spontaneously in the recording studio, inspired by the Misumi Line railway I ride when traveling from Kumamoto City to Tobase Island. (Hayato Aoki)