about the cassette

KOKEI NO AWAI is a hauntingly intimate exploration of memory, place, and perception, translated through challenging, abstract sound.

The title loosely translates to “Distance of the Scenes,” blending kokei (a view, a scene) and awai, a uniquely Japanese word that describes the subtle space or distance between things. This liminal concept forms the album’s core, where vivid everyday moments are abstracted, blended, and reimagined through sonic textures.

Inspired by the surprising harmony between seemingly unrelated places—a quiet mountain view from Kyoto’s Ginkakuji Garden and a bustling Yokohama supermarket with discounted deli food—Watari reassembles fragmented realities into a cohesive auditory experience. KOKEI NO AWAI is not only a reflection on space, but on how perception connects, or separates, those spaces.

The album unfolds like personal cartography: surreal and richly layered. While grounded in electro-experimentation, it weaves in elements of traditional Japanese music, offering moments of organic warmth and familiarity amid digital abstraction.

KOKEI NO AWAI invites the listener to look more closely at the world, to question the connections between scenes, to reframe the unnoticed, and to find beauty in the subtle space between.