sazanami

Waves that shimmer gently on a calm day.
Waves that rise and rage when the sea is rough.

The Japanese word "sazanami" evokes these two sides of the sea. In many ways, it also resembles the human heart-sometimes calm and still, at other times restless, shaken, or wild.

_Sazanami_ is musician shogo eguchi's first original album. The album artwork features the sea of Amakusa, where he is based.

The album was created together with kazuma nogi, an engineer at studio compass and a friend shogo has known for more than a decade, since they first met in Kagoshima. Building on shogo eguchi's ideas, kazuma nogi brings organic arrangements to the music, resulting in an album that carries the breath of the sea and the natural world.

In the refreshing, driving track "From the Seaside Town," he sings, "Just as the sea blends into the color of the sky, it turns my heart blue." By overlapping the color of the sea with the color of his own heart, the song captures a feeling that is pure, light, and free.

In "Where the Waves Go," he sings, "If you lose your way, follow the waves back to where you were born." When we find ourselves lost or uncertain, returning to the place where we were born-to our roots-can help us slowly find our way forward again. This is the feeling at the heart of the song.

Gentle waves and raging waves are both expressions of the same sea.

The human heart is much the same. There are days when we feel calm, and days when everything inside us is turbulent. Just as waves that quietly shimmer and waves that move restlessly are both part of the sea, perhaps the fluctuations of our hearts are also an essential part of who we are.

The sea and the human heart.

_Sazanami_ was born from placing these two landscapes-so different, yet somehow alike-side by side.

An album that quietly stays beside us as our hearts shift from day to day, inviting us to pause and gaze together at whatever landscape lies before us in that moment.