Satisfyingly jittery bit from Seki Yuka (関ゆうか), an artist originally from Chiba, Japan. Yuka is an educated jazz pianist, and you can definitely hear she’s honed an ear for playful experimentation. “cedar tree” plays like delirium or daydream. I imagine myself sitting on a train at 7:30am, still only half-awake, starting to doze back off, when suddenly my eyes shoot open and my train car is crowded with a forest of sea reeds (cedar trees could work too), but those reeds or trees aren’t actually plants at all, they’re also commuters, crowded on the train and impatient like the rest of the mortals. The scene continues to play, I imagine a whole mundane world inhabited by these anthropomorphized plants; they’ve got ties and glasses, difficult toddlers, medical anxiety, dreams of returning to their rightful places on the beach or in the forest. Suffice to say, I’m finding that Yuka’s work has an almost fragrant quality–the way only a familiar smell can, her music suggests for me surrealist scenes that feel as if I’ve actually lived them.

“cedar tree” is from Seki Yuka’s recent album alphabets, out now for streaming or on bandcamp.

関ゆうか / Seki Yuka – “cedar tree” (sc)