KIKAGAKU MOYO announce new EP 'Stone Garden' & share new track

June UK tour & Green Man performance confirmed.Tokyo's sitar-led DIY psychedelia group delve into their more experimental side with new EP.

(Photo Credit: Carl Osborn)

Following last year’s highly praised album ‘House In The Tall Grass’, Tokyo’s Kikayaku Moyo have announced plans for a new EP and summer European live dates.

The EP ‘Stone Garden’ will be released on vinyl & digital on April 21st via the record label the band run, Guruguru Brain. Today they share a first taste with the mesmerizing & invigorating sitar-led track ‘In A Coil’.

Stone Garden started in a basement studio in Prague with a nearly continuous session over several days and nights. The original concept was influenced by the raw and seemingly endless jams of psychedelic pioneers. The freeform songs that emerged from these sessions were refined over several months at the band's home in Tokyo, where each song was sculpted into an uncommon form.

Compared to the relatively song-based House In The Tall Grass, Stone Garden is a window into Kikagaku Moyo’s more experimental side. While improvisation is essential to their songwriting process it can take on many forms. This record enabled the band to experiment not only with instrumentation but also atonality and a playful approach to mixing. The unexpected results have become five unique songs each woven together through the same process.

Kikagaku Moyo (translated as “geometric patterns”) started in the summer of 2012 busking on the streets of Tokyo. Though the band started as a free music collective, it quickly evolved into a tight group of multi-instrumentalists. Their sound encompasses a broad spectrum of influence & elements of classical Indian music, Krautrock, traditional folk, and 70s Rock. Most importantly their music is about freedom of the mind and body, and building a bridge between the supernatural and the present. Improvisation is a key element to their sound.

They run their own record label, Guruguru Brain, focusing on releasing underground artists from Asia, including Kikagaku Moyo.

Pre-order Stone Garden here: gurugurubrain.bandcamp.com/album/stone-garden

Kikagaku Moyo are:
Vocal/Guitar: Tomo Katsurada
Guitar: Daoud Popal
Sitar: Ryu Kurosawa
Bass: Kotsuguy
Drum/Vocal: Go Kurosawa

Kikagaku Moyo European live dates:
June
05 - IT – Ravenna - Beaches Brew Festival
06 - IT - Torino - Blah Blah
08 - FR - Clermont Ferrand - Raymond Bar
09 - FR - Rennes - Jardin Moderne
10 – BE - Antwerp - De Singel
12 - DE - Cologne - King Georg
13 - DE - Munich - Milla
14 - CH - Lausanne - Romandie
15 - CH - Zürich - Zukunft
16 - DE - Maifeld Derby Festival
17 - DE - Freakvalley Festival
18 - NL - Best Kept Secret Festival
19 - FR - Paris - Espace B
20 - UK - London - Moth
21 - UK - Manchester - Deaf Institute
22 - UK - Leeds - Lending Room
23 - UK - Brighton - Hope & Ruin
24 - FR - Lille - La Malterie
25 - LX - Luxembourg - Rotondes
26 - DE - Nuremberg - Z Bau
27 - DE - Leipzig - Ut Connewitz
28 - CZ - Prague - Theremin
29 - DE - Berlin – Badehaus

August
27 – UK – Green Man Festival

Stone Garden track list:
1. Backlash
2. Nobakitani
3. Trilobites
4. In A Coil
5. Floating Leaf

Praise for House in the Tall Grass (2016, Guruguru Brain):
“A potent brew indeed” - Prog
"A captivating album that delights with every twist and turn.” - 9/10, Future Music
“A seductive mix of pastoral folk, motorik beats, psychedelic ragas (sitar is key) and gnarly ‘70s rock, transposed to the Japanese landscape.” - 8/10, Uncut.
"Sitars, Krautrock, folk, 1960’s-style psychedelic and shoegazing to bewitching effect” – **** MOJO
"A fuzzed out guitar excursion…belies the cruel confidence of a sudden storm” – The Line Of Best Fit
“Delicately beautiful, this is a real trip” - Clash
“The torchbearers of Japanese psychedelia… making transportive music with the aim of freeing both the mind and body” - i-D
“A poignant balance of folk, pop, and jam-band influences, adapting them to fit within the context of modern music” - Stereogum

Links:
Kikagaku Moyo on Facebook
Guruguru Brain web site
Guruguru Brain on Facebook