It’s more music meant to be listened to at home, on the couch. I wouldn’t say it’s music for listening in nature, while walking – that would be a bit pointless. There’s no more beautiful ambient than the sounds of nature itself. At home, however, it works perfectly.

I don’t really like listening to music while moving through space. I prefer to listen to what’s happening around me. Very often, whenever I can, I escape to the sea or to the forest – though actually more often to the forest. And sometimes I see people walking through the woods wearing headphones, listening to something, and I think: “Why?”. There are such beautiful sounds around – birds singing, the wind in the trees. Especially now, in spring, when nature sounds at its fullest.

Recently I worked with this music – I was sitting at my computer doing something very tedious, and it worked amazingly well as background sound. We also played it in the club before, and it created a really great vibe.

Let me check what we have here. For sure, the playlist includes the project aus isoda, Aus, Kenichiro Isoda. It’s their latest album released by a European label.

It’s beautiful environmental music – a bit new age, a bit ambient, with a lot of field recordings and natural sounds. Very sentimental, very charming record. One of my favourites and one of the ones I took home.

The project moves somewhere between ambient, downtempo, experimental music, jazz, and techno. They really do very specific things. We also have a compilation of their tracks from the second half of the 1990s – a mix of techno, house, and ambient. A very interesting release.

That wall is essentially a collection of records I recommend, that I simply like, or that triggered some positive emotions in me. I felt they had to be there because they’re just good. And the selection changes quite often.

From the playlist, there is actually only one record on the shelf… well, sorry – there is also Otonoma by Midori Hirano on pink vinyl. It was released by the American label Thrill Jockey. The playlist also includes a track by pianist and producer Cinna Peyghamy.

I’ve never limited myself to one genre of music. I listen to almost everything, and many things move me. You can see that in my record collection and my curation.

That’s how it is with records – some things you just have to keep. There is also Hinode Tapes – a record that is basically out of circulation. It’s a local project by Piotr Kaliński, aka Hatti Vatti. Pure local goodness.

Right now my shelves are full of ambient because I’m at a stage where this genre is closest to me. But a few years ago it was completely different – I was mostly into ethnic music, especially African music. Around two or three years ago I was totally immersed in those sounds. Everything revolved around Africa, traditional music, and stylistic hybrids. I’m especially drawn to electronic music inspired by ethnic traditions – I love those combinations.

I also feel that ambient has become particularly necessary for people today. We live in very overstimulated times. Everything is fast, instant – Instagram, reels, short-form content. Everything has to be 30 seconds long, otherwise we lose attention.

I recently read that for many people even Instagram posts are already too long. People aren’t able to read full texts anymore because they immediately scroll further. And you can see this trend in music too – albums are getting shorter. A record used to last 45 minutes or an hour; today it often ends up around 30 minutes.

Ambient music works differently. It’s environmental music – sometimes it reveals space, sometimes it fills it. And that’s exactly why it’s so special to me. I feel that ambient can build new emotions and even generate memories, as if it recolours them and gives them a completely different dimension.

Meanwhile, Hiroki Takahashi, who runs Kankyo Records and a small shop, is doing incredible things. Inspired by Japanese aesthetics and Hiroshima, he creates beautiful releases – cassette tapes with ambient and new age music, mostly by Japanese artists.

The most interesting part is that the whole process starts with scent. First an essential oil is created, and only then is the music and entire release built around it.

For the last few years, since Japan became so popular, this music has finally had its moment. And that’s great, because previously very few people knew it. Of course, there were people deeply into it – digging, discovering these recordings – but it remained a niche. Today it reaches a much wider audience, and I’m really happy about that.

But with Japan, you also need to read about it and learn to understand it in order not to approach it carelessly. It’s about respect for the place and its people.

I also feel a bit sorry for them because overtourism has become a huge problem there. Many people come just for content and photos, completely ignoring the surroundings and local culture.

What impresses me most is the Japanese approach to work and everyday responsibilities. It doesn’t matter whether someone is a bus driver, train conductor, or traffic officer – everyone performs their role with full commitment.

You look at it and think: “wow”. Even a conductor walking through a train carriage does everything with incredible care and respect for others. There is a strong sense of responsibility and focus.

On one hand, Japan seems perfectly organised, although I realise reality is probably more complex, and I’m not sure I could live there permanently. But I’m fascinated by their precision and the way they approach tasks. It feels like when a Japanese person takes on something, they give it 100%. And you can really see, hear, and feel that.

I think my fascination with Japan started with music.

I think it all started with one record by Hiroshi Yoshimura. Probably Surround. That was one of the first moments when I really got deeply into this world.

Surround is an extraordinary album because it was created as music for the home. Yoshimura often composed on commission – designing music for specific spaces, products, or experiences.

In the 1980s, Shiseido released a perfume and asked Yoshimura to create music for the campaign. That’s how the album Air was born. And for me that is absolutely amazing – that’s why I love Japan, because things like that simply happened there.

We are talking about the 1980s, and Yoshimura created a full ambient album for a perfume advertising campaign. Beautifully released, designed as a complete experience. When we were last in Japan, I managed to get a copy of it.

It’s funny, because I run a record store, yet my personal collection isn’t very large. It used to be much bigger, but over the years I sold a lot of records.

Air in Resort is music full of field recordings, natural sounds, forests, and water. In a sense, it works more like a space or atmosphere than a traditional album.

And that was the beauty of that approach – music became part of a larger experience. A soundtrack for scent, place, or a specific moment.

I often find that some records affect me much more strongly than others. And that’s exactly why they become so close to me. That was the case with the new album by aus isoda.

This music became a kind of soundtrack for returns – very sentimental returns to my travels in Japan. Suddenly images started coming back, specific places, emotions. It’s incredible how strongly music can trigger memories.

On the surface, very little seems to happen in these tracks, but that’s exactly where their strength lies. This music opened new layers of imagination and memory in me. It worked very intensely, yet very gently at the same time.