Konata Kanata [Vinyl]

"Konata Kanata" is the Tokyo-based trio Hontatedori's second release, following their 2013 self-titled debut LP on Japan's Compare Notes label. Taku Unami, Moé Kamura, and Tetuzi Akiyama are better known as solo performers and in their numerous collaborations than they are in this unique, lovely trio - at least until now.

Kamura's delicate voice floats amidst the mercurial two-guitar landscape of Unami and Akiyama in crystalline settings that erase the separation between art and pop. Some listeners might liken them to a considerably more reserved version of various Dagmar Krause-led groups such as Slapp Happy and the Art Bears, via their use of miniatures - tantalizing scraps of song - that are one of the legacies of musical modernism.