Review Summary: A cloud, an angel, a pillow, and a breath of fresh air.
Blissfulness; ever so fittingly insinuated by sleepiness. A new day, so young and naïve, is at its most delicate during its smallest hours, as innocent and as imaginative as a child. A dream is a very fragile blessing, easily tattered by any efforts made to be recollected or made real. As such, it enters us so carefully and so silently as to not be seized that its arrival is such a seamlessly passive event. Like it never even happened, our subconscious is taken to another realm, one that exists only inside ourselves. When we dream, bubbles float out from our breaths, feathers fall down onto our faces, and tiny pictures fade in and out of the background. Outside of the dream, our bodies are slowly recharging, and just like our dreams, our sleep can be popped like a bubble; the feathers blow away in a quick gust, and the pictures revert back to their original shape, such as your dresser, the ceiling fan, and the bathroom door.
And while sleep is just as quick to run away as any dream, it also enters the body just as stealthily and as secretive. Trying to go to sleep? What if you aren’t tired? Perhaps a bedtime story? Some TV? Or maybe a lullaby? Ambient project Lullatone is the married couple of Shawn Seymour and Yoshimi Tomida, and with their sweet and gentle sophomore release
Little Songs About Raindrops, they have painted a minimalist’s picture of pure blissfulness. As you have probably guessed, they do lullabies; twinkly, adorable lullabies. Their music is very simple, usually fronted by the xylophones played by the Missus and backed by the Mister’s electronic ambiance. Spoken word is uncommon, typically only showing up in one of the album’s interlude tracks. As music, it has a breezy, child-like atmosphere that achieves a fine, delicate feeling of sedation. As a lullaby, its ultimate goal is to put you to sleep, but why not simply bask in the faint imagery that ascends before your eyes like the bubbles from a dream? In the shape it takes, the music from
Little Songs About Raindrops is certainly inviting to the world of sleep. What better position for sedative music to be in than a stepping stone to the most powerful form of relaxation and dreaminess? Sleep doesn’t have to be your destination, but there is a world to be explored here. And while it suggests a step further into its sphere, it ends up being a dream of its own, only very real. And, just like sleep, it enters you very soothingly and gracefully as to not disturb, and then insinuates a blissfulness of its own.
