Electronic musician Koji is a bit of a mystery. Apart from a growing discography found online, there’s not too much information “out there” about the Japanese artist. His latest release, Ne, sounds like the soundtrack to a pastoral RPG from the late 1990s (Harvest Moon 64 comes to mind, and not without cause). It’s an autumnal delight, featuring mostly lo-fi piano recordings floating over woodwind synth loops and the like. Weirdly, though, as soon as a certain song begins picking up a pattern, Koji fades out and ducks into the next track on the album. Still, what time he spends building melodies is very rewarding for the listener. “Yuunagi” taps into Kurosawa’s aesthetics, and “Day” has something of a Hyrulean sense of harmony. “Gisiki” is the sort of lilting gem one might put on for a long walk in a forest. (Sandy)
Africa & Byzantium considers the complex artistic relationships between northern and eastern African Christian kingdoms and the Byzantine Empire from the fourth…