experimental ambient texture
Osakan Michio Ashida’s understated demeanor fails to betray the sometimes jarring, sometimes euphoric sensibility of the music he creates as Jubokko. “There are many good classical musicians. They can already write every song.” He’s speaking in a hushed voice as the Midōsuji Line pulls into Namba Station. “I want to try something different.”
With little reverence for consumer-friendly trends, easily-digestible song lengths, or traditional notions of the sorts of sound that should be committed to recording, Jubokko crafts soundscapes meant to draw attention to the hidden textures of everyday life.
This fixation with texture combines productively with an attentiveness to detail that enables him to sculpt simple sounds into colossal sonic landscapes, often evoking images of cataclysmic mass extinction or post-heat-death oblivion. At times, his music conveys a sense of euphoria through the mundane, capturing the essences of everyday objects and presenting them in a new context.
“On every level existence is simply altered arrangements of texture. I am interested in looking closer and examining these simple truths we usually dismiss.”