［Description］

Voices have been resonating since 3.11, the album worth calling “the new folklore of Japan.”
This album features 11 tracks that explore various local folk songs and traditional music from a new perspective.
Welcome to the world of old yet new roots music of Japan.

Including two new recordings (Recorded & Mixed By Naoyuki Uchida) and unreleased songs, a total of 11 tracks are featured. Following the earthquake disaster, there has been a gradual reevaluation of Japan's folk songs, regional performing arts, and festivals, and a compilation reflecting this mood has emerged! This is Japan's first-ever "New Wave of Folk Songs"!

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In the midst of daily labor, songs for work were sung. Songs and dances wishing for abundant harvests. Drum rhythms to soothe the souls of the deceased. Festive dances to enliven celebratory occasions. These mysterious stories, passed down through generations in each region, were cherished as important village performances in ancient Japan. In a time without TVs or the internet, these served as the village's entertainment and acted as an adhesive for strengthening community bonds.

For me, when it comes to such songs and rhythms, I don't feel a sense of healing or nostalgia, but rather an overwhelming energy and fresh vibration. Rhythms that dance with the vigor of Brazilian Blocos and carry a mysterious mood akin to the Gnawa of Maghreb. Beautiful melodies reminiscent of Andean Folklore. It's as if the vague concept of "<Japanese DNA>" within me is being stirred. When listening to folk songs and festival music, I find myself moved by the primal and universal energy that transcends ethnicity, gender, and era.

However, for me, "<folk songs>" was just an outdated keyword until a few years ago. In junior high, I was immersed in punk and hip-hop, soaked to the bone in a Western lifestyle, so folk songs and regional performing arts were completely alien to me. I believe many of the generations born and raised in this country since the 1970s might feel the same way.

Yet, perhaps the perspective through which we can perceive the beauty of Japan's indigenous rhythms and melodies allows us to feel or think in this way. It reflects a mindset where rhythm or beat is intricately tied to their identities. 

This compilation album features contemporary songs that attempt to create new music using our rhythms and melodies. Here, there is no nostalgia for pre-high economic growth in Japan, but a robust vibration that pierces through to the Meiji era, even to the Jomon period. It's not a symbolic or emotional "<image of Japan>". With respect to those who have inherited folk songs and regional performing arts in their original styles, I dare to overlay the image of "<new songs of Japan>" onto these songs.

With that said, let us embark on a musical journey through 11 tracks exploring the new Japan—.

(Written by Hajime Oishi, from the liner notes)