Sven Wunder - Wabi Sabi (LP) 2020 (Mint (M))

Sven Wunder built this 2020 album around the Japanese aesthetic idea of wabi-sabi — beauty found in imperfection and impermanence — and chased it through an unlikely blend of instruments: Western concert flute and shakuhachi, Chinese guzheng, Moog synthesizer and Wurlitzer electric piano, all folded into eleven tracks that lean on Japanese min'yō folk melodies as much as jazz-rock. Released on his own Piano Piano label with support from the Swedish Arts Council, it's less a fusion experiment than a slow, deliberate study — the artist has described the whole record as “a deep inhale and a slow exhale.”