Kodama explores the fantastic and obscure in his debut solo release on Rarefied. The tracks ‘2D’ and ‘Honeyed’ dissolve purple-dusk rhythms into both wax and digital. The Barcelonian mastering engineer and producer has been teasing a solo outing since his first appearance on 2020’s ‘no one’s out of time’ compilation, which was followed by ‘Shades of Violet’. The latter included his smile-provoking track ‘Talk More’ alongside Rarefied mainstays Soukah, Sibla, Mob Killa and others.
Since we talked about his Cronauer EP on Subaltern Records, Kodama (& Soukah) also became the second artists to be released on Infernal Sound’s new digital catalogue after Japan’s Karnage. Pushing further still, he joined the critical Encrypted Audio roster with a 3-track EP back in March this year. Having successfully released a range of styles and BPM’s while maintaining that Kodama elegance, where has he decided to take 140’s most mysterious label?
First up, ‘2D’ balances the sun perfectly on the horizon and splays twilight harp plucks across the water, massaging the brick and mortar of the Santorini ocean-view restaurant with humbling low-end. Then ‘Honeyed’ moves deeper into ancient alleyways, blending ethereal mysteries into house and garage alcoves. Kodama scores this single with signature slices of sultry guitar riffs, piano walkways and sweet, foreboding ambience. Sun-roasted skin, ocean-salted hair and the faint memory of sun-cream toasted into sweat; the evocations of this EP are the closest I’m getting to a vacation this year.
