Life Begins Selected Ambient Sketches 2023 / 2024

"Life Begins", to be released in June 2024, is an album based on ambient style sound sketches recorded from September 2023 to March 2024. From the many sketches recorded during this period, I selected 12 works and added additional recordings and remixes.

It was a period in which I could concentrate on music production, with the exception of a few duties. A sound sketch is like a diary for musicians. Just as we write down in notebooks, I touch instruments and create sound images through sound programming.

How does daily life affect musical works, and how celebrating the process and completion led to Kota Suzuki's personal rebirth? I often thought about it and came up with the album title "Life Begins.'' In order to regenerate myself, I needed to express and create a lot, but at the same time, I needed to listen to the sounds that were already around me (not music) and the sounds left behind by my elders in life that I respected. It was to re-encounter the sound.

For example, an iPhone video of my grandfather talking about his life before he died. Or the video of my father's last performance of Ohayashi - the traditional Japanese festival music. This collection includes works in which the audio is extracted from them, unnecessary sounds are removed and repaired using technology, and each piece is interspersed into a single song as a "session." In addition, I used sounds that happened to be recorded in videos I happened to be shooting with my iPhone, such as the beautiful sound of the elevator motor at Haneda Airport that I happened to come across, the sound of metal rubbing against metal on the Shinkansen, and my dog's snoring. Through those process, I created the sound diary pieces and those became this album.

Lastly. What I would like to talk to you, most on this occasion is that this album does not contain any message or statement. We spend our days surrounded by anxiety due to political and social instability, the economy, and sad news. But I think there're too often opportunities such dissatisfaction in words or express it through sounds. Therefore, even in this current social situation, I have decided to leave the music without any message, and just suggest the sound to the listener.

As an editor or a facilitator, I often think about social value and social contribution. However, when it comes to making this album, I eliminate all of that and simply keep thinking about creating the sound. The results are included in this album. It serves no purpose, has abstract melodies and chords, and has almost no beat. It's just a piece of sound landscape, but it's a short piece, so I'd be happy if you could listen to it without thinking and immerse yourself.