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Before VANITAS命死 ventured off into the varied vaporwave releases exploring Yakuza organizations, tabletop games and Habbo Hotel servers, he set his sights on the premise of artwork installation and grand spaces with masterpieces covering the walls. The two projects, High Renaissance at the Modern ART Museum! and Music for Museum Dates, present a fascination with curated experiences. This isn’t surprising. Gallery spaces have often drawn the focus of artists and creatives before this one. Showcasing artwork and, in turn, becoming a space alive with a kind of haunted artistic value themselves, they draw a curious interest. VANITAS命死 has explored this artistic value through his skilful blend of vaporwave, plunderphonics, and future funk.
But, five or so years since those releases, he manages to return and refine that fascination once more in 野外博物館 (Open air museum). This space is different, unrestrained by walls and ceilings. As such, the release is full of lingering slushwave that pushes out beyond the confines of a closed museum space. With five tracks pushing further than a 10-minute runtime, the listener is taken for a long stroll in a meditative space.
Entering this inviting space with 荘厳な land art (Majestic land art), the listener takes their first steps into what will become a kind of sonic infinite perspective painting, introduced through sloshing sounds of flowing water and glossy synths that climb down like hesitant rays of light through grey cloud. As guests in this space, the listener acclimatises to the surroundings, coaxed into a calm openness by the thoughtful melodies. It is at this point that the beauty of the pieces that adorn the outdoor space begins to sink in. Pulsing percussion and looming bass lines around the 3:30-minute mark and enticing horns at five minutes. There is a pervasive tranquillity but also an elusive sense of the space as one in which to awaken the mind.
After that, 彫像に囲まれて (surrounded by statues) situates itself in an overtly laidback area, statues fade partly into the lush overgrowth. Stone columns and stoic faces shrouded in the beauty of the space and the inevitable clawing of time. Sharp monkey calls and birdsong permeate the cool air, the harsh din of humanity’s beginnings bouncing off of the solid structure of mankind’s exalted glory.
Named after the land sculpture from Andy Goldsworthy, Taking a Wall for a Walk, 1990 and its colossal 23-minute length takes the listener away from the previous bust-filled spaces and heads into the lively scenery of the leafy area, represented by the mesmerising trail of synth pads and flushed water flows. The sharper fuzz of the choppy percussion and trilling synth bass adds layers to the relaxation, perhaps representing the stone wall that Goldsworthy works into the solemn, liminal aura of the overall landscape.
通路沿いの月明かり (Moonlight along the walkway) continues to sink the listener into the project’s tranquillity with cold-tempered textures and glimmers of natural sound floating like dewdrops. The stillness – even more prevalent now – evokes a feeling of encroaching night. The melodic throughline is steady but awe-inspiring, trustworthy like the stalwart stars that appear above the exploratory space. Once again, VANITAS命死 finds the necessary atmosphere through which to appreciate artwork and scenery. The mood that is created coaxing a thoughtfulness that isn’t overstated.
Though the artist hangs back, arranging things in a comfortable but open way, a sense of conclusion does hit with eco-残忍主義 (eco-cruelism). The closer lifts the listener off of the well-kept floor of the open air museum and towards the exit. Punchy drums are soothed with trickles of water. A last flourish in this place where focus and receptiveness to artistic effort has been rewarded with a deep and sustained sense of calm.
VANITAS命死 presents an artistic atmosphere, adorned with plants and home to all manner of animals. The slow and lounge-esque tracks gently guide the listener. The artist’s ever-rich instrumentation, like an informative text accompanying an abstract art piece, soothes us with its intricacy. It also feels safe to say that the artist is increasingly one of the most solid vaporwave and vaporwave-adjacent producers working at the moment. Time after time, VANITAS命死 provides expertly-produced music paired with interesting and accessible concepts.
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