Imagine being afloat in a sea both earthly and ethereal; a reflection of the stream on a mirror-like sky, somewhere between the worlds of memory and reality. Each aural texture instigates a chain reaction of visual memories moving non-linearly—going forward and back in your mind’s eye; timbers lingering on certain moods and feelings. 

This chaotic intertwining of tones and rhythms can be hard to get into at first listen of Inner Science’s Assembles 21-24  because it goes everywhere. It may seem that it lacks structured melody but the more you listen to it, it progresses into a perfect harmony. The tracks put you under a hypnosis that demands you travel through that sea of reminiscence. You can tell how Masumi Nishimura augments ambient sounds from nature; you can hear a wind chime from childhood, water coursing, a crackling, birds. It is a gorgeous synthesizing of real life; it is what ambience aims to be. 

The entirety of the Assembles carry with them different textures and sounds that evoke certain memories, maybe not in a cinematic way, but in more of seeing the memories and textures in your mind through VHS tapes. Moss Archives is the record label that gives these entrancing tracks the chance to shine. Based in Tokyo, Japan, Inner Science is Nishimura’s one-person band. He is described as a music-maker who creates tones and rhythms that aren’t really categorizable, which is to say, special. I believe the Assembles are in their own way inseparable. You can’t listen to one without the others and that’s why he included 21-24 together, because even though they are different in a myriad of ways, they coalesce perfectly once played one after the other. If you love ambient music and want to challenge yourself to explore more of the genre, this one’s for you.