Go Hirano - The Habit

Go Hirano
The Habit
Conatala/Black Editions
Japan/USA, 2026
LP

A co-release between Tokyo’s Conatala and New York’s Black Editions, the core of The Habit is a suite of solo piano compositions—occasionally interspersed with wheezing, creaturely passages of pianica—recorded live at Pianola Records in 2020. Hirano’s approach to the piano is organized, limpid, and melodic, with just enough dissonant shading to keep things interesting: the beating wings required to achieve the sensation of weightless flight.

The record is rounded out with pieces recorded between the late 1980s and 2019, which add synths and percussion to the mix. These not only provide a weft to the album’s pianistic warp; they’re intriguing soundworlds in their own right. Take “水の惑星 [Waterland].” At first blush, it feels like a transitional piece, but the interplay between grainy analogue synths and woody, clattering percussion is a destination I’m compelled to keep revisiting. And the soaring closer “It will be filled with birds singing someday” reveals the synth play and pianism to be not opposed, but contiguous, divergent paths arriving at the same door.