The Boy and the Tree is jointly inspired by Yokota's experience of Yaku-shima island (a world heritage site) and the anime Mononokehime, directed by Hayao Miyazki. Yokota moves outside the house again, heading deep into an ambient glade. In the real world itself he has indeed relocated away from Tokyo's nerve centre, getting slightly nearer to nature. This is readily apparent in the forest-like feeling that pervades the first few tracks, Yokota concerned with the steady accumulation of atmosphere, teeming with natural phenomena. He uses almost exclusively organic sound sources, but with an artificial slant imposed by the act of looping and layering. Slow-twang guitars are a popular choice, floating into the clouds beside a panoply of small folk instruments. Flute whorls and pattering bamboo, koto (or kora?), zither, sitar, gongs, gamelan cascades or prepared piano, all used to form cyclic patterns of wonderment, weaving a scintillating lattice. As the disc progresses, its bass presence grows and repeated voices creep in, with later tunes like "Red Swan" and "Future Tiger" developing the motion of a ceremonial procession, filled with handclaps and chanting, the density and intensity of Yokota's loops increasing by the minute. --Martin Longley