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Jun 09, 2020 Spirit Fest By Mark Moody

Fortunately for us, the collective of Spirit Fest seems to have become the primary outlet for Tenniscoats’ Saya and Takashi Ueno and The Notwist’s Markus Acher. Joined by returning members Mat Fowler and Cico Beck, who lay down the foundations of many of the tracks, the group puts forth their third full-length, Mirage Mirage. Recorded between 2018 and 2019 in Tokyo and Munich respectively, the album is uncannily predictive of current times. If not in specific events, then certainly in the specificity of feeling. With members spanning continents, the songs speak more to humanity’s commonality than our differences, while spoken word snippets overlaid with wavery synths and shortwave static make physical distances seem all the more vast. At once stunningly beautiful, while also hitting depths of sadness not mined before, Mirage Mirage will likely be forever married to the time into which it was released.

If you have a nostalgic bone in your body, the opening “Yesteryears” will hit it hard. The song is a gently sung duet by Saya and Acher of bygone days, accompanied by a simple acoustic melody that is underlaid by playground sounds and an ancient grainy Code-A-Phone message. The album’s brightest moments come in its longest tracks. Ueno’s “Zenbu Honto (Every Thing Is Everything),” also sung by Saya and Acher in rounds of Japanese and English, has a 7- minute running time giving it room to fully blossom. The song gently chugs along like some steam powered machination from the Industrial Age and contends with finding the thread that connects us all: “I wish your song can look and see and find me.” In length, only the folky closer “Saigo Song” supplants “Zenbu Honto” and makes for a lovely departure.

With 15 tracks stretching out over an hour, there are many other highlights along Mirage Mirage’s path. It’s hard not to single out Saya’s vocals as the star of the show as her elevated moment on “Honest Bee” is one of the album’s finest. While the most poignant yet somehow playful moment comes on “Time to Pray.” The light percussion and cello bow bouncing on strings buoy her vocal. The only English line in the song, “It’s the time to pray,” is hard not to pin on the current global moment.

Acher’s best contributions come on the half-title track “Mirage” and the later “The Snow Falls on Everyone.” With more lyrics in English this time out, Acher’s non-native vocals carry an earnest innocence with them that meshes well with the music. “Mirage” speaks to the permanence of departures while “The Snow Falls on Everyone,”, like “Zenbu Honto,” maybe points to our collective struggle. It’s easily the best of any track here. The snow of the title hits us all and the song’s mournful passages include isolationist moments: “There’ll be days that I will not call friends.”

Perhaps there was no intent that Mirage Mirage be connected to the effects of a global pandemic, but with Spirit Fest’s international cast and the songs’ sentiments the dots are easy to connect. The album’s strong streak of nostalgia and caring are filtered through hazy clouds of sound that project the miles between us all. With closed international borders across the globe and isolation within them, Mirage Mirage longs for connectedness where it can’t be had. The gentleness of the music brings images of loved ones separated by miles that feel as enormous as the gulf of having to communicate with aged parents through panes of glass in order to keep them well. The beauty and sadness of it all is lovingly set down here to the permanence of recorded work. Saya says it best on the closing “Saigo Song”: “subetewa subishi, subetewa itoshii”—which translates to “everything is lonely, everything is dear.” It’s hard to assess if the green shoots of recovery are starting to show, but until that’s clear Mirage Mirage makes for a timely and timeless soundtrack. (www.spiritfest.bandcamp.com)

Author rating: 8/10