Air - Alone In Kyoto

I’ve never been to Japan, but I can imagine that this comes pretty close to summing up a slow rainy evening there. It manages to convey a sense of loneliness and melancholy in a more complex way than many other songs that try this do. It’s something about the subtly intersecting melodies that creates this spirit, and whilst there is so much going on at once in this song, it’s by no means cluttered. It’s a combination of this and the natural feel to it (the glockenspiel, the guitar plucking): even the electronic sounds sound somewhat organic, that make it so poignant, and so fitting - in my imagination at least - of a slow calm scene in Japan.

Sounds A Little Like: Röyksopp meets Ólafur Arnalds.