Wool Strings

Today’s artist is one I have great respect for. The Japanese one-man orchestra Wool Strings is Ryohei Ameda, a man who constantly is on the search for new ways to express himself musically. Those of you who downloaded our compilation “A Good Crop” may already have heard the beautiful “Shirley Poppy” from Wool Strings. Wool Strings have so far self-released two brilliant EPs, “the Tree Gate EP” and the new “Picture in the night”, both available from Wool Strings’ myspace.

Wool Strings’ music moves back and forth in the area between indiepop and experimental music, and in a clever way he always manages to make it both highly accessible and quite challenging at the same time. I’m always hearing new things when I listen to his music, always experiencing something new. On some of his songs, he has mixed his music in a way that makes me take off my headphones just to check if that element was a part of the music or if it is a “real life sound” outside of the headphones…

The melodies of Wool Strings often reminds me of Belle and Sebastian or some sweet 60s bubblegum pop group, even if his music is far from both of these. When I heard his first EP, I was struck by his amazing melodies and the soft, breezy sound he had on his songs. I love these songs, and I’m always kind of amazed when I listen to them. Pure beauty.
On his new EP, he has taken a different approach (remember I said he was constantly looking for new ways to express himself?). The melodies are still very much there, – still beautiful, but this time, he seems to have worked even more on the accompanying music. His arrangements on “Picture in the night” are very interesting, and I don’t think I have heard something like this before. It is quite complex, but still extremely accessible, very nice, kind and friendly music. Beautiful!

So, head over to Wool Strings’ myspace page and have a listen. You will not regret it!

Here’s a song from Wool String’s latest EP;

wool strings – air fountain

About Knut

Knut started this blog in 2005. He loves music, writing, art, design, reading, movies, aquariums and coffee. Knut is from Norway.