Johatsu

Johatsu is a Japanese word which translates literally as 'evaporation', a word that describes those people in Japan who voluntarily, purposefully disappear from their lives, who leave their jobs and families and just vanish. It became a phenomenon in the 1960s and accelerated into the 1990s as Japanese society became increasingly debt reliant. Some people vanish on their own. Others employ the services of 'night movers', companies that exist to help people vanish without a trace. For whatever reason- debt, unhappiness, feeling trapped- thousands of Japanese people have deliberately disappeared. 

Johatsu is the title of David Harrow's new album, released this week. It's a beatless, ambient/ instrumental album created with piano, keys and modular synths, with layers of ringing drones, synth chords and notes, a full sound that lifts it beyond being ambient wallpaper. Some of the thirteen tracks on Johatsu evoke the feelings that the evaporated people might feel, before or after their act of self- disappearance. There's also a sense that these tracks are part of the ambient environment, a reflection of feeling and life and not merely the soundtrack to it. There's an unease about them, a disquiet, and also the suggestion of tension waiting to be released. Some of the titles are very Johatsu- As It Ends, The Night Movers, Between The Cracks, One Room, No Loyalty. Some are more oblique- Ace, Eel Pie. This is the album's opener, 60s...

No Loyalty comes towards the album's end, Japanese sounding instrumentation among the ambient analogue synths. In the end it's difficult to know where one's sympathies lie- with the disappearers, the Johatsu, or the people they leave behind. There aren't any easy answers. David doesn't provide any either but the thirteen tracks on Johatsu are highly evocative and a very complete piece of work. 

Johatsu is out on London label No Beats Aloud and can be found here.