Photo: Ryo Noda

We’re thrilled to hear that Japanese vibraphonist, multi-percussionist, and composer Masayoshi Fujita has a new album on the way. A longtime favourite of ours, he has an extraordinary ability to conjure vivid landscapes and otherworldly atmospheres through sound. Following 2024’s Migratory, Fujita is now ready to share a new full-length album, Forest of Tranquility, out on November 13th through Erased Tapes. Originally composed as the soundtrack for Expo 2025’s vast living nature installation in Osaka, the album finds Fujita exploring the relationship between music and the natural world. Conceived as a peaceful sanctuary where visitors could escape the noise of everyday life and reconnect with their surroundings, Forest of Tranquility features seven long-form pieces that unfold like the changing rhythms of a day in the forest. Fujita explains:

“They had a biorhythm – in the morning you start a little bit slowly and with a little bit more space, and then around noon you get a little bit more active. Then in the afternoon you get more settled and calm, and around 6 o’clock you are more active, before revisiting calm.”

Having moved from Berlin to rural Japan in 2020, Fujita has found a close connection with nature, and that sense of wonder runs throughout the upcoming record. His marimba, vibraphone, and percussion are interwoven with field recordings of birds and frogs, atmospheric drones, and the sounds of Armenian duduk, played by Hayk Karoyi, and Japanese shō, played by Mattias Hållsten. The album’s underlying inspiration reaches beyond the forest itself. “I had this image of nature being a portal to the universe,” says Fujita. “The idea I have lately about nature is that it makes us aware of the universe that exists beyond it.”

Fujita has already shared two wonderful pieces from the album, the immersive opener ‘Portal to the Universe’ and the velvety and gentle title track. ‘Portal to the Universe’ was conceived as the final piece of the day, evoking a dark night. “I had the image of a very dark night sky in my head for that one… It feels like you are slowly drifting in the vast universe and the sea of memory”, remarks Fujita.The title track evokes the first light of day and the quiet awakening of the forest. As Fujita puts it, “This song was the opener of the day. The feeling of birth, a soft beginning of a day in the forest.”

Listen to both singles below.