Release Date: 15th April 2026
Format: LP
Label: conatala / Black Editions
Over a career spanning more than 30 years, Pianist Go Hirano has remained a singular presence within Japan’s extreme underground scene, quietly weaving a sonic world that continues to captivate listeners. Emerging in the 1990s, he released three albums on PSF Records―run by the legendary record shop Modern Music―as well as several self-released works.
What unites these recordings is not a pursuit of technical perfection, but rather an emphasis on improvisation and poetic sensibility as they arise in the moment. His music might be described as something that gently casts a fleeting beauty over the most ordinary of everyday moments.
The Habit is centred around a public recording made on 5 October 2020, using an upright piano at Pianola Records, interwoven with sketch-like miniature pieces created on synthesiser and recorded onto cassette recorder during the late 1980.
With a minimal instrumentation―piano, melodica, wind chimes, and percussion―and a restrained palette of tones, delicate melodies are spun quietly and unhurriedly. The expansive resonance of the piano drifts gently, blending with the surrounding sounds. Rather than presenting only the sound of instruments, Hirano carefully incorporates the atmosphere of the space and the subtle traces embedded in everyday life, transforming “imperfection” into a living form of expression.
His unadorned approach―capturing impulses that emerge naturally―and his unique sensitivity to the surrounding environment remain central to his enduring aesthetic. In The Habit, an intimate and melodic resonance, nurtured through long years and days steeped in sound, quietly breathes. Within it lingers a soft warmth and a modest, understated beauty.
Tracklist
A1. Echoes In The Sky
A2. Dawning
A3. The Habit
A4. Sleep Valley
B1. Ripplemark
B2. 水の惑星 [Waterland]
B3. Gray Forest
B4. Berry
B5. It will be filled with birds singing someday
Go Hirano - Piano, Pianica, Windchime, Percussion, Electronics, and Effects
Tracks A1, A2, A4, B1, B4 recorded live in October 2020 at Pianola Records, Tokyo
Piano Tuning and voicing by Emi Hatakeyama
Recorded by Makoto Oshiro
The remaining tracks were recorded in the late 1980's-2019 and remixed in 2019
All Songs written by Go Hirano
Mastered by Makoto Oshiro
Lacquers cut by Rashad Becker, Clunk Studio, Berlin
Artwork by Yukiko Ikeda
Front cover: "The Habit" 2020, Etching, 50cm x 45cm
Inner sleeve: "Beyond" 2023, Watercolor, 12cm x 12cm
Design by Rob Carmichael, SEEN
Produced by Peter Kolovos, Conatala & Rie Hirano