In Another (Black Ice Vinyl)

Masahiro Takahashi - In Another (Black Ice Vinyl)

On his sixth LP In Another, Toronto-based, Japanese-born, musician and composer Masahiro Takahashi (髙橋 政宏) continues the collaborative expansion of his sonic universe that listeners witness on his 2023 release, Humid Sun. Here he enlists a rotating ensemble of ten guest artists from Toronto’s vibrant music community, including his labelmate Joseph Shabason, who also serves as the album’s co-producer and engineer. Spurred by his longtime admiration for chamber pop spanning the High Llamas and Free Design to the Beach Boys, Takahashi deviates from the underlying processes of his past two outings, trading Ableton sequences for lead sheets, focusing on creating robust melodic and harmonic foundations first. This difference is audible straight away; the album opens with a dialog between upright piano and plucked double bass that’s so gentle and transparent you can hear the breath of the players. A1. I'm your mirror A2. Queen West Butterfly A3. Dreamies A4. No Kings A5. Humans B1. Useless Tree B2. A forgotten hill B3. Sky, Ocean & Creatures B4. Soundwalker B5. Cat Only Knows