MASAKO, Dreaming Northern

When it comes to listening to, meditating on and appreciating the way new age music taps into and has the power to awaken and transform our hearts and souls, it’s important to set all distractions aside and simply let the artist’s music tell the story. We should know a little bit about the artist, sure – but in an information hungry world, sometimes their busy, illustrious history and sea of previous accolades can affect the purity of the experience.

With veteran Japanese born pianist/composer Masako, her bio seems deliberately sparse. We learn that she started piano lessons at age four, has played everything from classical jazz and rock, and before moving to the U.S. played keyboards in a popular band in Tokyo. It’s clearly more important what she’s meant to the genre over the course of nine beautiful, inspiring album since she began recording with Tom Eaton and Will Ackerman at the latter’s legendary Imaginary Road Studios in 2011. While Masako’s 12 total awards include Album of the Year from the Zone Music Reporter for her 2020 collection Hidden Flowers, it’s perhaps more significant that Ackerman – a Grammy winning new age pioneer – has said of Masako: “Her music is the holy grail of recording and production for me.”         

One of the great revelations of Masako’s deeply soulful, magnificently conceived and produced and continuously engaging ninth album Dreaming Northern is the subtle way she weaves elements of her background and mindset about life into the music. This begins with the thought-provoking album title, which is not connected to any particular piece but sets the tone of the overall aesthetic of the 12-track collection.

Masako explains, “I can’t live in the South for health reasons. My main residence is in the Hudson Valley, about an hour north of NYC – but even that feels too far south for me. I get sick really easily, so my heart is always drawn to the Northern forests. Northern New England is such a huge source of inspiration for me, so most of my records are based on the nature there. Also, thankfully, “I’ve been able to go back and forth between New York and New Hampshire lately, which has been a lifesaver for both my body and mind.”   

Based on these physical and spiritual necessities, there was really no other option than launching her career deep in the forests of Vermont with Ackerman, Eaton and the illustrious musicians on call for every harmonic coloring Masako chooses to vibe with. Beyond simple melodic grace, seductive rhythmic flow and artful texturing of sonic elements, what I love most about Dreaming Northern is the way she reveals key aspects of her life past and present in her compositions.

Listeners can certainly enjoy the glorious journey from the cleverly titled opener “Mamabear Dreams” (her elegant, subtly whimsical take on the positive aspects of motherhood and choice to raise children) to the eloquent, impressionistic penultimate piece “Between the Two Trees” (a thoughtful musical “painting” about trees changing with the seasons). Yet her ability to convey these inner truths through song confirms her as a master narrative storyteller.

Interestingly, those two aforementioned gems, which merit many repeated listens and meditations over, are the only two solo piano pieces on Dreaming Northern. The other 10 tracks find Masako fulfilling her vision for the project via collaborating with co-producers Ackerman, Eaton and some of the new age genre’s (and beyond) most prominent creative artists – including flugelhornist Jeff Oster, violinist Charlie Bisharat, guitarist Vin Downes, cellist Eugene Friesen, percussionist Jeff Haynes, bassist Michael Manring, EWI player Premik Russell Tubbs and ethereal vocalist Noah Wilding.

It's pure joy to fill in aspects of Masako’s life via the sweep of her eclectic tunes. On the spacious, dreamy “One by One” – featuring Jeff Oster’s wafting, ambient horn and Eaton’s hypnotic synth textures – we gain insight into the pianist’s struggle with multi-tasking at home while trying to focus on her music. On another reflective, tenderly lyrical solo piano offering “My Old Abbey,” she rediscovers the unique, long forgotten time in her life when she considered becoming a Catholic nun.

As the emotion of the song builds, she is surely pondering what might have been had a nun who was very influential in her studies had not been transferred and her religious studies had not ended.

Masako shares her lifelong feeling of joy in the presence of happy kids at play – perhaps invoking memories of her own childhood - on one of the album’s most affecting, charming and sweetly wistful pieces “October Children,” buoyed by the actual sounds of children, the dual presence of Friesen and Bisharat, who convey different moods (haunting to cheerful) via their tradeoff soloing, and Wilding’s gentle vocalizations. The pianist also taps into her effortless chemistry with Friesen and Bisharat, employing the same tradeoff, mood swing dynamic on “Stairs in the Sky,” a lovely, contemplative piece with gentle percussion that guides our thoughts heavenward.

Most of the other compositions on Dreaming Northern tap into Masako’s keen ongoing connection to nature, specifically the love for the multi-faceted landscapes of New England that always inspires her to dream Northern. Featuring Eaton’s ambient synth textures, Friesen’s passionate cello and Tubbs’ soaring EWI, her sparkling, whimsy filled “Our Bluebird Day” feels like a symphony dedicated to the snowy slopes skiers gravitate to from all over. Accompanied only Eaton’s synth sweetening, Masko gets to the heart of what Dreaming Northern is about on “Shape of the Clouds,” a thoughtful ballad about the fascinating UFO-like cloud formations in her refuge of New Hampshire, and “Dancing in the Snow,” an exuberant celebration and appreciation of the region’s beautiful and very long season of snowfall.   

Though not directly connected to the theme of the of the album, the tracks “But It Is Life” and “Agiochook” illuminate important elements of Masako’s stylistic palette in very different ways. After creating piano centered music for over ten years, she’s recently begun to feel attracted to pieces with strong ensemble arrangements – a vibe she tapped into most recently on “Walk Together” from her 2024 album Lost there Found here.

Though we hear her piano early on in “But It Is Life,” the rhythmically seductive, free-flowing piece is equally a showcase for the rich acoustic guitar work of Vin Downes, Michael Manring’s inimitable basslines and Tubbs’ adventurous EWI flute sounds. Equally fresh and off the beaten path compared to most of Masako’s works is her closing piece “Agiochook,” a heavenly ambient and sonically surreal ode to Mount Washington (whose original name meant “The Place of the Great Spirit”) on which she gives the reins to Eaton, Tubbs and Wilding. She originally planned to add piano but felt the piece was perfect without it.  

Dreaming Northern is another new age masterpiece from Imaginary Road, laying a powerful foundation for more creative expansion by the wonderfully inventive Masako in the future.