Japanese film-maker, pianist and composer Norio brings arresting folkloristic imagery to sonic life, for London imprint SWIMS. Featuring vocalist Satomimagae (RVNG Intl.).

"About 'The monster which makes dawn'

I create documentary films. Traveling across Japan and beyond, I immerse myself in the everyday lives of different places, weaving the fragments I gather into a single story back in my hometown.

When I visit these places, I often find a gap between what I imagined and what truly exists. Distance distorts information, time keeps flowing, and information itself breeds overconfidence. Within that illusion, people mistake themselves for something exalted and dismiss what they cannot understand. That sense of dissonance has always stayed with me.

One day, I came across a story in Shigeru Mizuki's book about a Chinese spirit called 'The monster which makes dawn'. With overwhelming power and an almost childlike innocence, this being seemed to mock my tangled thoughts, its two enormous eyes shining in the dark.

From that moment, countless stories began to form within me - and I began to give them sound."

1. Kui
2. Kehai (feat. Satomimagae)
3. Visions
4. Plastic Bag
5. Calavera
6. Inspirations
7. Kotae
8. Blackboard
9. Pendulum
10. Kasanari
11. Enenra
12. The Storm Before the Calm
13. The Monster Which Makes Dawn (feat. Satomimagae)