Ephemeral

Lovely gatefold CD sleeves with photographs by Tetsu Umehara.

Tetsu Umehara, a Japanese artist with German roots, returns to Small Méasures with his second full-length album, Ephemeral. This latest work continues to reflect his interdisciplinary approach, blending music, architecture, contemporary art, and performing arts into a singular cohesive vision.

Tetsu’s fascination with architecture, born during his childhood in Düsseldorf, heavily influences the album, allowing him to explore the interplay between sound, space, and memory. This approach, which documents the transient nature of sounds and stories within lived environments, is a continuation of the “music and placeability” concept first explored in his debut album, Handwritten

“I want to keep wandering, feeling the vast continuity of time, and continue encountering music anew.”

Throughout Ephemeral, Tetsu continues to investigate the spatiotemporal dynamics that recordings and writings evoke, capturing the human experience in an increasingly complex world.

Through the fusion of synthesisers, drum machines, guitars, vocals, samples, and field recordings, the album also serves as a soundtrack to his own journey, akin to a planner’s sanctuary or a sculptor’s mirror, reflecting the ever-changing, multifaceted nature of life.

“The more I make music, the more I think about music, the more I feel that, in reality, there may be no such concept as past or future.”