{"title":"Unknown Me","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"bitokagaku","title":"Bitokagaku","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe second LP by Tokyo ambient conceptualists Unknown Me began as a commission for historic Japanese cosmetic conglomerate Shiseido, conjuring audio approximations of seasons and scents, but soon flowered into its own refracted and rarefied environment: \u003ci\u003eBitokagaku\u003c\/i\u003e. Translated as “beauty and science,” the album is the foursome’s first composed solely with software, reflecting the collection’s utopian, laboratorial muse.  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom levitational electronica (“A Rainbow in Meditative Air”) and vaporous downtempo (“Dancing Leaves”) to planetarium reverie (“Kitsune No Yomeiri”) and AI IDM (“Retreat Beats”), the music moves like weather patterns in a bio-dome: dazzling, microcosmic, and delicately calibrated. Percolating synths crossfade with field recordings from Shiseido’s research division; the sound of streams and distant birds blur into a processed haze; clinical voices read lists of precious stones. It’s a vision of new age as soft robotics, of serenity streamlined by sentient systems.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUM’s team of engineers (Yakenohara, P-RUFF, H. Takahashi, and Osawa Yudai) cite an eclectic swath of inspirations behind \u003ci\u003eBitokagaku\u003c\/i\u003e – molecules, stars, Kenji Miyazawa, Akira Kurosawa, even “the sparkle of rainbows” – but their guiding artistic principle is as ancient as it is eternal: “beauty.”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Not Not Fun","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50445205307723,"sku":"2205449","price":25.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/a2345371249_16_f52e8e8a_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727034131"},{"product_id":"bishintai","title":"Bishintai","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe fourth full-length by Tokyo Metropolis entity Unknown Me, \u003ci\u003eBishintai,\u003c\/i\u003e is a sublime synthetic suite of cosmic wellness transmissions exploring “the unknown beauty of your mind and body,” appropriately named for a kanji compound meaning “beauty, mind, body.” A diverse cast of collaborators assist in actualizing the collection's uniquely urban expression of new age ambient, from psychedelic footwork riddler foodman to multi-instrumentalist institution Jim O'Rourke to Japanese underground shape-shifters MC.Sirafu and Lisa Nakagawa.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCrafted with software, synthesizer, steel drum, rhythm boxes, and robotic voice by the core quartet of Yakenohara, P-RUFF, H. Takahashi, and Osawa Yudai, the album unfolds like a holographic guided meditation, soothing but cybernetic, framed by subways and sky malls. Latticework electronics flicker with texture, glitch, wobble, and mirage, themed around sensory perception and body parts.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Not Not Fun","offers":[{"title":"Black | LP","offer_id":50456304746827,"sku":"1121571","price":21.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/a1543498531_16_bc1c3dae_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727197523"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/de\/collections\/unknown-me.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}