KiMiMi - ИМА (Ima)

Conatala / Calax - LP
Japan, 2026
Experimental / Avant-Garde / Contemporary

Released on Conatala, the in-house label of our favourite Tokyo record store, Pianola Records, ИMA is the musical outcome of a long architectural project Japanese musician Shin-ya Ohno was involved with. ‘ИМА (Ima)’ aims at capturing layers of time, by passing down recordings of construction work that spanned over two decades as well as the presence of people inhabiting the ‘Arimasuton Building’― a self-built experimental structure started in 2005 by architect Keisuke Oka and located in Tokyo's Mita district.  Phenomenal music, generous, lyrical, conceptually and musically recalling Virginia Astley’s From Garden Where We Feel Secure or the intimacy of C.W. Vrtacek's Learning To Be Silent, meshed with field recordings: people working, laughing, talking, living. A record design to document life, no less. A blessing.

Shin-ya Ohno handles a very diverse range of instruments (including the gaida, an ancestor of the bagpipes he studied in Bulgaria, accordion, guitar, flute, ukulele, piano, foot-pump organ, melodica, xylophone, ...) with which he creates gorgeous and intricate arrangements that serves as a binder for the vast array of sounds he collected during his time at the Arimasuton construction site: hammers and steel beams, lunchtime chatter, melodies of instruments played by others and the sound of cars passing by. 

KiMiMi’s creative process is characterized not by planned construction, but by chance, intuition and the passage of time: fragmented recordings are layered, set aside for a time, then unearthed again. Through this repetition, the music naturally takes shape. And like with Turner Williams Jr.'s recent Vipérine album, chance gives birth to unexpectedly harmonious compositions, that exhales a warmth not dissimilar to that of Tori Kudo's wonky Maher Shalal Hash Baz ensemble.This resonates perfectly with the construction process of the Arimasuton Building, which was notably improvised, layer by layer, without any kind of blueprint.

‘ИМА (Ima)’ marks the current stage of KiMiMi’s sonic journey and represents an attempt to transcend the boundaries between architecture and music, documentation and creation, the individual and the community. The clamour of the city, the tranquillity of manual labour, laughter,... music that reflects the very passage of time in which people live. Highest recommendation.