OUT: album '18 Short Stories' by Bymski
The idea of narrative is prevalent in every art form in different ways. In literature, the short story compresses this narrative structure into less space, distilling the sweeping narratives of longer novels into single-reading encapsulations of a feeling. And so it is, too, with Bymski’s newest addition to his prolific catalog of personal expression.
The project '18 Short Stories' was born in Japan during typhoon season, when Bymski was caught indoors during a downpour. Although only one sketch came out of his time there, the mood captured by Evil Snorer laid the foundation for a new conceptual framework. Instead of approaching his break-infused songs as long-form literature and trying to spin out a larger narrative, Bymski embraced his laid-back experimental side, treating each track as a distillation of a single feeling. And the more the sketches emerged, the more natural it felt to work this way.
The result isn’t so much a pre-conceived thread woven tightly through a full-length album, but an album’s worth of inner conflict, desire, hope and fantasy where the thread is Bymski himself. To add some additional twists to the mini-plots featured here, he took Pink Tank, a sketch from dear friend Oliver Remme, and developed in the style of the short-story format. And finally, he brought in the talents of dear friends Maya Wada and Saiko Ryusui to add their own colors (and the joy of collaboration) to the mood. Although these 18 Short Stories were always crafted as an a la carte collection of sonic treats, the unexpected sounds and structures just might tempt you to keep it playing until the end, discovering 18 of your own distinct moods as you go.