Anchorsong Cohesion

‘Cohesion’ is the third full album from Anchorsong – AKA Tokyo-born, London-based electronic artist Masaaki Yoshida. Taking inspiration from Classical Indian Percussion, and ‘70s and /80s Bollywood film soundtracks Anchorsong creates a journey of psychedelic, danceable and free-spirited compositions that blur the boundary between rhythm and melody.

It was whilst extensively touring his previous album, ‘Ceremonial’, that Masaaki became deeply fascinated with percussion, and shifted his attention away from the African drums present on his last record to the music of the Middle East, South East Asia, and then more specifically to the sounds of India.

“The Indian percussion was the one I was most fascinated with, so I began to dig into that genre deeper, I started with classics like Ravi Shankar, and the more classical Indian musicians. But then I began to explore the world of Bollywood and movie soundtracks which is another world and the more I listened to composers like Sapan Jagmohan, Rajesh Roshan and Kalyanji Anandji, the more the concept of the new record began to form.

Choosing to work with traditional Indian instruments like the tabla and dholak, Yoshida wanted to use instruments that possessed melodic qualities, and could be tuned to work in the context of electronic music. He found that when Indian percussions mixed with other instruments they began to sound like a melody that blurred the border between rhythm and melody. The concept of bringing together contrasting elements and cultures is evident from the album’s title, ‘Cohesion’. HereAnchorsong has brought together musical traditions and sounds from across borders, forging a truly unique body of work.

Having reached new heights with ‘Ceremonial’ through accolades such as BBC 6Music’s #5 Album Of The Year, ‘Cohesion’ looks to build on such successes through the coupling of a comprehensive European tour kicking off around the release of the album.