Album of the day #9 - Marginalia VI
May 12, 2026
Listen along: Spotify | YouTube
Last year, my partner Felix and I traveled through Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four major islands. We stayed in Kumamoto for a few nights as a home base for several hiking destinations, such as Mount Aso and Mount Karakuni. Near our hotel, there was a a cute little coffee bar called Gluck Coffee Spot. It opened unusually early for Japan, making it the perfect spot to start our day before driving out to Mount Aso.
The next day, I returned to Gluck Coffee Spot by myself to start my day before hiking up Mount Karakuni. For a long while, it was just me and the barista, making small talk about his method for making pourover coffee and his goal of opening his own coffee shop one day in his home suburb in Tokyo. This calm, early-morning chit-chat was complemented by a tranquil, meandering piano record, accompanied by field recordings of wind, rain, birds, and insects. After sitting in quiet for a while, I asked him what the music was. This is how I was introduced to the Marginalia series.
In 2016, Japanese artist and musician Masakatsu Takagi began documenting improvisational piano sessions from his home studio in the mountains of Hyogo prefecture. By opening all the windows, the piano play becomes an accompaniment to the rich soundscape of the world outside: the pitter-patter of rain, the rustling of leaves in the wind, and the chirping of birds and insects all contribute to the symphony. Once in a while, you can hear Takagi humming along or perhaps his young son running around the room.
He publishes the recordings unedited on his Bandcamp page immediately after recording them. (As I am writing this, he published Marginalia #225. Today was a rainy day in Hyogo, but the birds sound happy.) As Takagi states on Bandcamp:1
I opened all the windows to welcome the sounds of nature and played the piano without any sort of preparation : no overdubbing, no writing, no editing, no fixing… just as it is. What you are listening to now are raw, improvised piano recordings where the sounds of nature and the musical notes are recorded at the same time, in harmony without any discrimination.
I love to think that nature might also listen to my piano.
The nature is the melody. The piano is the harmony.
The recordings are also released in a more conventional LP format as compilations, such as the titular Marginalia VI.
What makes the Marginalia project special is that it blurs the line between performing, improvising, and documenting. Each release captures the day’s weather, the changing seasons; the slow but steady passing of time. These recordings have the ability to not only relax and soothe the listener but to transport them to a hyper-localized time and place and root them in that moment.
I especially enjoy the compilation Marginalia VI because it opens with my favorite bird call from Japan, the mating call of the Japanese bush warbler, a birdsong I grew very fond of as we hiked through the mountain countryside of Kyushu.
Happy listening,
Max
