Photo Credit: Eri Inoue

Bajune Tobeta is turning silence into a compositional tool. The Tokyo-based composer, producer and acoustic researcher shares “Memories,” the second single from his upcoming album, ‘Anechoic,’ out August 14 via CROIX Co., Ltd. / electric sheep.

Across five tracks, ‘Anechoic’ explores the space between sound and silence, drawing from contemporary classical composition, lo-fi electronics and piano to build something both intimate and expansive. Stationary Travels has already called the project “mesmerizing and immersive.”

The album takes its title and opening track from the anechoic chamber, a room engineered to absorb every reflection of sound. Tobeta, who studied under Ryuichi Sakamoto and has spent decades researching the relationship between sound and human consciousness, translates that concept into music, fusing orchestral instrumentation with electronics to treat silence itself as an active part of the composition.

“Memories” leans into a delicately layered lo-fi sound, evoking classic-era Ninja Tune through subtle beats, layered electronic textures and fragments of piano. It follows the Christian Fennesz collaboration “After the Silence.” Tobeta explained the idea behind the track: “In a room where the outside has gone quiet, the first thing to surface is memory.” He’s described building the song from layered textures and fragments, mirroring the way memories tend to assemble themselves once everything else goes quiet.

The album’s title also draws from Haruki Murakami’s novel ‘Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World,’ whose two interwoven narratives, the dense sonic life of contemporary Tokyo and a walled, silent inner realm, find a musical counterpart in the anechoic chamber itself, a space that strips away outside sound to reveal what’s underneath.

The record closes with “Satie’s Dream,” an original piano piece reimagining the legacy of Erik Satie, whose concept of “furniture music” proposed sound meant to dissolve into the background of daily life. Tobeta poses the question of what Satie might compose today, surrounded by the ambient noise of the modern world. Earlier on the album, that same lineage resurfaces through “Gymnopedie (AOKI takamasa Remix),” a reworking of Tobeta’s solo piano performance of “Gymnopedie No. 1” by electronic artist AOKI takamasa, known for releases on raster-noton, Stroboscopic Artefacts and commmons, the label founded by Sakamoto.

Tobeta’s acoustic research has led to collaborations with ANA, Hoshino Resorts and Fitbit, designing sound environments for hospitality, aviation and daily life, alongside game music credits including the Katamari Damacy series for Bandai Namco. ‘Anechoic’ stands as the artistic distillation of a career spent studying how sound shapes experience.

The album was mastered by Denis Blackham, on Fennesz’s recommendation, and is distributed by The Orchard.

Anechoic Tracklisting:

“Anechoic”

“Memories”

“After the Silence” (with Christian Fennesz)

“Gymnopedie” (AOKI takamasa Remix)

“Satie’s Dream”