YABUKI, SHIHO - The Body Is A Message Of The Universe

"A special, limited edition reissue of a rare and unusually dreamy electronic ambient new age album. Originally created and released in a small edition in Japan back in 1987 by the mysterious magician/musician Shiho. The Body Is A Message Of The Universe features floating shimmering synthesizer textures. Its unique and extraordinarily serene with shifting tone colors and spatial textures, bringing the listener to a special magic place. Theres also a haunting edge to parts of the album sounding like what could originally have influenced David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti when they composed the soundtrack to the original Twin Peaks series. Beautiful and captivating. Shiho, who loves to make improvisational music, began studying classic piano at the age of five. She says she gets inspiration from the celestial realms but she never considers melody.

Shiho draws a musical picture: Creativity is the unfolding of the unknown realms within the self. Through our chosen ways of expression, each of us is daily creating a unique universe, a unique environment. The universe created by each and every being in endless repetition are messages of the universe. The breath of this music, expressed from my present environment, flowing through a myriad of places as environmental music is my expression of The Body Is A Message Of The Universe."

Part of the album also saw a limited US CD release in the late 1980s which is hard to come by today. Although Shiho Yabuki continued her career in Japan, both as a musician and magician and became a pioneer of healing music in Asia, for most western listeners it was like Shiho was one of those mysterious artists who puts out an album and then is never heard from again. This is unfortunate, and something Subliminal Sounds hope to rectify. This release also features a couple of special tracks originally composed and recorded by Shiho in the late 1980s for the Japanese Kanebo Beauty Research Laboratory. In later years Shiho moved to Kumano city in the Mie prefecture to build the music hall Tennyoza from which there is a magnificent view overlooking the ocean. After the September 11 attack, she performed the memorial New York Prayerful Concert at several locations in New York. She also toured with the concert To Touch One Million Hearts at over five-hundred locations in Japan and abroad including France, England, and Korea. Comes on pink vinyl." - Subliminal Sounds.