Marco Lucchi continues his "Radure" series of conceptual releases with this fourth installment, centered on the Japanese word "iki" - a term (like the more familiar wabi-sabi) that is uniquely cultural, lacking a direct translation in our tongue. In one sense, it expresses a perception of an idealized aesthetic quality of ordinariness.

Lucchi composed a series of tracks inspired by "iki" and then recruited other artists to build onto this oeuvre with their own contributions. This release represents only a facet of that project.

Visit the download page to stream or download this album.

Track List:

1. Iki 7
2. Iki Impro 1 (with Akemi Takeya)
3. Iki Impro 2 (with Akemi Takeya)
4. Iki Impro 3 (with Akemi Takeya)
5. Iki Impro 4 (with Mori Chieko)
6. Iki Impro 5
7. Iki Impro 6 (with Gina Berrett)
8. Iki Impro 7 (with Akemi Takeya)
9. The Iki (with Alex Cortex & Faune)
10. Iki 0

The first track, "Iki 7? is a live performance on piano by Marco Lucchi of the original Iki theme. Following this are numerous variants and interpretation performed by Lucchi and others.

"iki" is a japanese word that means detachment, grace, beauty, breath, life (and many other things...)

it is related to the geisha's world

when i read the book by Kuki Shuzo about the "iki" i found many relations to my thoughts and feelings

so i start to compose some tracks dedicated to the "structure of the iki", finding myself using old materials (weird tapes, piano sketches, turntables and even voice) i recorded many years ago when i first feel the wing of beauty and grace over me

then i put some of these tracks on my myspace page and contacted some artists to play with or to add original tracks

the final result is the fourth step of my "radure" project

-Marco Lucchi