長谷川白紙 (Hasegawa Hakushi) is quite possibly one of the most talented composers of all time. Pulling influences from improvisational jazz, breakcore, electronic, and pop music, the music they are putting out is quite literally unlike any other.
I remember discovering their music during the pandemic, when online music shows really began to pull forward into the mainstream as a viable alternative to in-person events. They had been given a prime spot during one of my favorite events of all time: Secret Sky, 2020, hosted by Porter Robinson in place of his normal Second Sky festival in San Francisco. I remember the feeling I got hearing that set for the first time. It was frankly mind-blowing; I'd never heard anything like it. They spoke quietly, thanking Porter and the viewers for giving them the opportunity to play here. Then they began, and my God how they performed.
They began their set with a live rendition of what is currently one of my all-time favorite songs: 毒 (Doku), from their 2018 EP, Somoku Hodo. This song is quite literally everything I have wanted to be hearing in the scene and didn't realize I needed; chaotically panned organ chords, then an explosion of colorful sounds, bombastic breakcore drums and mind-blowing sense of creativity. Live vocals are always either a hit or a miss, and Hasegawa singing live is certainly a lot different than their recorded vocals. But just listen to the original song instead of the live performance and you'll understand what I mean when I say that Hasegawa is an incredible vocalist. The live version does them no justice; but it doesn't really need to because you're just mesmerized watching this guy play a keyboard like they're in a DJ competition. Playing chords at breakneck speed, manually controlling the tone drift (I think that's the correct term for it?) with a ball-tracker on their left... it's incredibly cool.
A couple of songs later, they jumped right into the title track, 草木 (Somoku). It starts chaotically, clashing chords and drums that seems to pulsate with an almost non-chalant lack of rhythm and a playful, constantly shifting tempo; then immediately is stripped away into the opening chords. The song bursts into color immediately, and Hasegawa's lovely voice fills your ears completely. Chords alternate, drum patterns change erratically, and halfway through there is an incredible trumpet solo that precedes the 25-second-long buildup back into the chorus. Which, by the way, is an incredible buildup. It feels just ripe with tension, boils and explodes with incredible timing. The payoff is absolutely worth every second.
2/3 of the way into the set, they play track 5, キュー (Cue), which is groovy and fun to drive along to. It feels perfect for exploring the city at night, getting lost in all the flashy neon lights. He even sings parts in English:
The sound of music / The crying of the air
Midway through, the song begins to disintegrate. Hasegawa employs the drifting tones of a live performance, and then the drums cascade in a chaotic bombardment of clashes and hits, before almost immediately pulling itself back together. But past this point, the song feels completely at war in its own head, almost ready to fall apart by the end, as Hasegawa pounds at the keys, hammers them with the weight of every emotion they employ.
They didn't have the time to perform another song from the EP in their set, but I also really enjoy 它会消失 (Ta hui xiaoxi) from this EP, an almost 7-and-a-half-minute electronic jazz groove that bubbles and pops with a playful energy all throughout. Oh, and if you enjoy the nerdy aspects of music like me, this song's in 8/4 time. Go knock yourself out.
Though I consider Somoku Hodo to be a real work of art, the majority of tracks Hasegawa played during their set are from their 2019 album, Air Ni Ni.
The first song they play from this one follows right after Doku: 砂漠で (Desert). This one leans heavily into Hasegawa's breakcore influences, and essentially is just breakcore with a jazzy twist. Jazzcore. Hasegawa uses the tone drift again, and in the incredible buildup, they play out this wildly addictive noodly jazz organ solo that is just so fun to listen to in every way possible. Doku was the incredible opener to the set, but Desert was the track that immediately sold me. That's when I knew there was something so much more to this guy.
Right after, he drops into o (__*), which delves even deeper into breakcore, turning into something playful and groovy all at once. 2 minutes in, it collapses into a barely-held-together swing rhythm, then Hasegawa hammers out this incredibly fucked-up and masterful synthesizer arp, at time dissolving in to an unrecognizable mess of sound, and other times sounding like it came from the carnival. And it just keeps getting noisier and faster and more intense as it practically races towards the end, shifting in key and playing drum patterns so fast it almost constitutes as extratone at parts.
By contrast, the next track 怖いところ (Scary Point) doesn't even last for two minutes. It restrains itself wonderfully, in controlled bursts of color, though Hasegawa can't help but discordantly hammer on the keys in a couple section throughout the song. It's just fun to do.
A couple of songs later, he drops into my second-favorite track on Air Ni Ni, 風邪山羊 (Cold Goat). Its electronic percussion is jazzy and groovy but borders almost on pure braindance with how completely bit-crushed and synthesized it sounds. Then Hasegawa throws in some organic (or maybe faux-organic) drums in. Midway through this short track, out comes the organ and a short and restrained, but in no way less cool melody is played. It ends almost as quickly, but in that short time it occupies (just like Scary Point) it sticks around in your head.
Hasegawa finishes the set with performances of a couple of other tracks on this album (which I highly recommend checking out as well, because I won't talk about them again): 蕊のパーティ (Stamens, Pistils, Parties); 悪魔 (Evil Things); and 山が見える (I Can See Mountains), but I personally will forever be miffed that I haven't been able to see a live performance of either あなただけ (Only You) or ニュートラル (Neutral). Now, in fairness, Neutral probably didn't fit the energy of the set; it's peppy, but also very withdrawn and quieter than the other tracks on this album. It's probably best regarded as the ballad track of the album, and though it has incredible flourishes and techniques in its composition, it's very much not the chaos of Desert, or even Cold Goat. Only You, on the other hand, really falls in line with big jazz ensembles and soaring brass lines. This is the perfect jazz concert song; it keeps a fun and steady beat that is almost an outlier among such an eclectic tracklist. Yet it more than makes up for this with that incredible brass line, and another chaotic jazz breakdown that collapses quickly into simple chords and chimes. Hasegawa's voice carries the rest of the bridge, propped up by a speeding up of the chords, playing in close groups of three or four now. Then it explodes again, back into the 50s big bands, modernized for Internet consumption. Right at the end, it completely disintegrates, each instrument sputtering out into the void before the last chord echoes out into space.
Air Ni Ni is, to me, the quintessential Hasegawa experience, and generally a very worth-it experience at that. But there's still one more album, that was released a little later.
Hasegawa, in all their jazz genius, took some J-pop and turned them into stripped-down piano/jazz covers. From covers of んoon's Freeway to Soutaiseiriron's LOVEずっきゅん (Love Zukkyun); Sambomaster's 光のロック (Hikari no Rock) to sakanaction's セントレイ (1000 & 0), I really do recommend giving every singl one of these tracks a listen (I especially love Love Zukkyun and Hikari no Rock), but they're not the tracks I want to talk about here.
I'm actually going to talk about the last two tracks. Track 6, Sea Change, is a 5min original composition (the only one on the album). It's somber and emotional, completely different from Air Ni Ni or Somoku Hodo. And right at the climax of the track, it... sounds like they're sobbing. It threw me off guard when I first listened to this track. I was like Oh Wow. As it stands, it's probably in my Top 5 favorite Hasegawa songs. Apparently, it's a creative use of vocal chops, according to the YouTube comments, but that only makes it better because I can't quite comprehend how exactly they did that.
Track 7, ホール・ニュー・ワールド (A Whole New World), is exactly what you think it is; a cover of A Whole New World, from Aladdin. This song will probably split many a listener. It's a really good track. But the reverb and delay on these keys... the low tones hurt my ears and are so destructive to speakers. I'm warning you, don't play this on any good speakers with subwoofers. Everything shakes and your ears will hurt. It's almost ironically hilarious, then, that this is probably the softest that Hasegawa has sounded. They play this organ with soft yet outspoken emotion, and their voice is almost a whisper at points. It's like you're right there, watching them play right in front of you. There's still a lot of jazz discordance, but the unbelievable reverb and delay adds another layer of intrigue to it. I'm listening to it right now! I have a thickly layered beanie on my head! And it still is overwhelming at points! At the end they stop playing and let the keys fade away on their own time, just letting their voice take up your ears entirely. It is unimaginably pretty, but understandably the hardest listen on this album.
After Bones of Dreams Attacked!, Hasegawa turned to more collaborations with other artists. One of their first major breakthroughs was, in fact, a collaboration: hikari by Pasocom Music Club. This is undeniably peppy and decidedly pop over jazz, even adding in elements of not just breakcore, but happy hardcore and oldskool rave hardcore. Fun rave chords mixed with a talented vocalist and two incredible producers was only sure to blow up, but it was when Porter Robinson got on the Hasegawa train that things really heated up.
Their most recent collaborations are super fun as well: Otogasuru, with Japanese producer yuigot spins itself a future-bass-inspired beat in the vein of yuigot's fellow producers on Maltine Records, and Sukuinote with Japanese musician and singer Yukichikasaku/men is very much a return to o (__*)'s IDM-inspired jazz/carnival percussion, and both the vocals of Hasegawa and Yukichikasaku merge together to form something just slightly discordant; uncanny valley given audible form. It's so incredibly fun and good.
Oh, and there's Uni which was used in a commercial for the Google Pixel 6. And some beautiful cello work from Seigen Tokuzawa, as well!
I hope you find some new favorites here. I love gushing about Hasegawa so much.Partially inspired by alt-J. Thank you fliphone! You're right, there should be more articles on E2 for more recent music. Maybe I'll make this an ongoing series of introductions to artists I like.