Kazuko Hohki – Vista

Cherry Blossoms Fall – The Cicada’s Song

‘universal and timeless themes’

Upon This Fleeting Dream featuring David Sylvian and Kazuko Hohki is the fourth album from Twinkle³, the trio of Clive Bell, David Ross and Richard Scott. Their debut, Let’s Make a Solar System, was released back in 2009. ‘Twinkle³ started as a studio-based project for Richard and myself,’ David Ross told me. ‘At that time Richard was already immersed in electronic music and had a recording studio, while I was just finding ways in.

If I Leave No Trace – Empty Handed

‘visceral and compelling’

Early on the Twinkle³ album featuring David Sylvian and Kazuko Hohki, Upon This Fleeting Dream, a torrent of fizzing electronic sound tears from one speaker to another, followed by what seems to be the crackle of a spark leaping between contacts. Synthetic beeps and the fragments of a beat escape from a swirling mix. Soaking in the sounds that accompany Sylvian and Hohki’s readings of ancient Japanese poetry, it’s evident there is something distinctive happening in how synthesisers are deployed.

Throughout the Frosty Night

‘dawn is waking’

The first time this listener was introduced to the playing of Clive Bell was as part of Richard Barbieri and Steve Jansen’s short-lived dalliance with overt pop for their 1987 album as The Dolphin Brothers – Catch the Fall. Here Bell adds such exotic sounds as those of the khene and Thai flute to the title track and the seductive ‘Love That You Need’. These traditional wind instruments bring a sense of unspecified Eastern location to the songs, their authentic sounds being reminiscent of those that Barbieri and David Sylvian had worked so meticulously to muster from their analogue synthesisers for Japan’s China-influenced pinnacle, Tin Drum.