An'archives presents Hanabi, a crucial collection of material from legendary Japanese folk singer, actor, and writer Kazuki Tomokawa - ten songs of devastating emotional power drawn from his three most recent albums, showcasing an artist performing at an ecstatic peak six decades into his extraordinary career. This meticulously curated compilation pulls highlights from Tomokawa's Japan-only releases on Modest Launch: Vengeance Bourbon (2014), Gleaming Crayon (2016), and Going To Buy Squid (2024) - albums that have remained frustratingly difficult to access outside Japan until now. Hanabi serves as both essential introduction and welcome reacquaintance with one of Japan's most significant and uncompromising musical voices.

Tomokawa's story reads like a blueprint for artistic dedication over commercial consideration. Emerging on the Japanese folk circuit in the early 1970s - including a legendary appearance at the 1971 Folk Music Jamboree - he released five stunning albums in that decade that established his reputation as an expansive, lyrical performer whose music could pivot from pensive melancholy to righteous fury within a single song.

When his recorded output slowed in the 1980s, Tomokawa immersed himself in theater, acting, and painting, only to return with renewed ferocity through his association with the revered P.S.F. Records, which unleashed a torrent of albums across the 1990s and 2000s. Many of these featured collaborations with free jazz luminaries including long-standing partner Toshiaki Ishizuka (Brain Police, Vajra, Cinorama) and the late double-bass improviser Motoharu Yoshizawa. That experimental spirit permeates Hanabi, from the romantic drift of "Night Play" - where Tomokawa's impassioned vocals float over lush string arrangements - to the ferocious "To The Dead Man," featuring rising free jazz saxophonist Harutaka Mochizuki in blazing dialogue with Hiromichi Sakamoto's swirling cello and electronics. These are songs that exist in the liminal space between folk tradition and avant-garde experimentation, anchored by Tomokawa's voice - an instrument capable of channeling both profound tenderness and apocalyptic rage.

As Michel Henritzi observes in his illuminating liner notes, Tomokawa remains "a poet who cries out, opening the darkness and shadows with his song, throwing handfuls of ashes from lives that have fled into the wind, to us, his fellow human beings." This is music that confronts mortality, celebrates resilience, and refuses easy consolation.

★ Limited edition of 550 copies on black vinyl
★ 3-color silkscreened jacket (green, red & black) with obi strip
★ Available in black, tan, clear blue, or textured white obi variants - includes inserts and envelope with 10 lyric cards
★ Features liner notes by Michel Henritzi