On Solitude by Hiroshi Ebina

A record for an overconnected world, On Solitude by Hiroshi Ebina captures the quiet hum of disconnection, the pulse of digital fatigue, and the grace of stillness rediscovered. Across drifting rhythms and vaporous synths, he traces a new emotional landscape between ambient reflection, dream-techno clarity, and what he calls post-digital minimalism.

Ebina’s third album for KITCHEN. LABEL unfolds as a quiet rebellion against hyperconnectivity, reflecting on being unseen not as isolation but renewal, a way of hearing oneself again in a world that never stops speaking. The work finds kindred spirit in Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days, its rhythm shaped by the poetry of routine and the lightness of repetition. With On Solitude, Ebina invites listeners to pause and observe how their mind and heart respond to sound, rediscovering parts of themselves that everyday life leaves unheard. Each piece becomes an inner dialogue, an intimate encounter with memory, emotion, and thought, accessible only in stillness.

Musically, On Solitude expands beyond his earlier works into a more textured field of motion and tone, somewhere between the slow cadences of post-classical composition, the warm circuitry of dream-pop, and the luminous bloom of soft techno. “The Village in the Sky,” featuring Hinako Omori, one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary electronic music, opens the album in a breath of quiet radiance. “Your Mind is Like the Ocean” unfolds with tides of resonant synths and low-end drift, evoking turbulence and calm in the same gesture. “Saudade da Memória Perdida” layers fragile music boxes like fading childhood echoes, while “One Step Closer to Awareness” pulses with hypnotic clarity, a moment of awakening disguised as rhythm.

The record’s latter half dissolves language altogether. “Transience / Permanence” and “Quiescence” suspend time in spectral piano tones, while “Hokokuji Bamboo Forest” filters environmental sound into a delicate ecology of tone and wind. The closing track, “A Silent Room,” features marucoporoporo, a rising artist shaping Japan’s new ambient generation, whose gentle vocals lend a human warmth to the stillness, like the trace of breath in a quiet morning.

On Solitude will be released on 20 February 2026 in limited-edition winter grey vinyl, CD, and digital formats. Mastered by Joseph Branciforte at Greyfade Studio, New York. Featuring artwork by Chizuru Masumura, an established Japanese painter whose works have been shown widely across Japan.

Hiroshi Ebina is a Japanese sound artist creating electronic/ambient music.

Hiroshi has a unique multi-disciplinary background, ranging from composing ambient music, performing gagaku, the traditional ritual music in Japan, as well as photographing minimalist landscapes in cities and nature.

hiroshiebina.com