Ex Confusion – With Love
Ex Confusion is the preferred guise of Japanese musician Atsuhito Omori . Self- taught, Omori blends plaintive acoustic guitar and piano refrains with IDM techniques to produce swelling, nebulous ambience as meditative as it is reflective.
We have previously covered his album Embrace . With Love is a progression in the sense that these pieces feel more hopeful, more fulfilled than Ex Confusions’ previous outing. It’s all fairly understated still, minimalist drones become vistas loaded with elegance, charm and beauty. The longest track here, the lovely ‘Only An Angel’ clocks in at under six mins which is refreshing for this genre. No crashing climaxes to be found either. With Love is a graceful work, much as you might expect from a Japanese artist. Grandiose clichés are avoided. We’re not going onboard the Mothership here or looking down from the summit of mountain. Instead we might be watching children at play in the garden, or looking out of a train window as we journey through a foreign landscape.
When Omori switches to piano there is something of the Harold Budd but that may just be that gorgeous sustain rather than the compositional style itself. Certainly this collection stands alongside the ambient masters as easily as it stands alongside the likes of Stars Of The Lid . I can fully recommend this album.