After this year’s Sónar Festival in Barcelona, we declared Yosi Horikawa one of the event’s big winners due to his excellent live performance at the SonarDôme, which put his uplifting and enticing music on full display. We also suggested that great things were on the way from the producer, and now it appears that that prognostication is due to bear fruit sooner rather than later. “Bubbles” is wildly original and imaginative, with the bulk of the song’s textural sounds provided by what seems to be recordings of small objects being dropped (possibly an homage to a classic Aphex Twin song). The songs’ subtle melodies blend with the babbling pitter-patter to create a cool and soothing bit of artful easy listening. “Bubbles” is being released by the First Word imprint on two separate records—a four-song EP from Horikawa called Wandering and a 12-song compilation from the imprint put together by label boss DJ Gilla. The Wandering EP (whose title track we offered up for download last year) is out now, and can be purchased over on Horikawa’s Bandcamp, while the compilation will be released as a free download on July 4.

Bubbles