marihiko hara & polar m - dance

After releasing their critically acclaimed debut album “Beyond”, Kyoto-based Marihiko Hara and Polar M (Masumi Muranaka) have embarked on a series of live performance around Asia region, including Korea, Malaysia and many places in Japan. Each time they performed together, the sense of how their individual sounds complement each other grew stronger. And with these live performances, their interweaving sounds have underwent subtle refinement – they become even more profound and exquisite, and far more interconnected.



While touring, the duo was also actively collaborating with dance choreographers. In early 2016, the duo was again commissioned to compose new pieces for a dance performance. It was during that time, their brand new 2nd album “Dance”, was conceived. Through their interactions with the talented dancers across Asia, these two very gifted musicians started to explore the meanings of “dance”. Gradually, they have come to realised that, everything in our daily life can be regarded as “dance” – the rhythm of the changing seasons, the cycle of life, the subtle movement of time, the weight of words, the shifting of emotion, all parts that form our lives, are indeed in themselves – a “dance”. And in this gorgeous new album, using their ever delicate sounds, the duo graciously illustrated this aesthetic interpretation of “dance”. Musically, the duo picked up where they left off in their very successful debut album - traces of refined post-classical, melodic folktronica, floating ambient, and glimpses of jazz, continued to be found in this 2nd album. What is more apparent in this new album is that the guitars had taken a more prominent role. As such, the sound textures and melody movements have become much richer and more diverse, which impeccably reflect the refinement that underwent for the musical style of Marihiko and Masumi. The duo’s good friend, Mia Cabalfin - a renowned contemporary dancer from Philippines, who lent her wonderful voice in the debut album, continued to feature in this album by performing the hauntingly beautiful spoken words in the album title track. This album is tastefully mastered by Tokyo’s renowned musician and sound engineer, Chihei Hatakeyama, and features photos by Ken Furudate, and designs by Seitaro Nishioka. In addition, the artist management for the duo is supported by the excellent people from Kyoto’s label and event organiser NightCruising.