Like ascending halfway between earth and heaven, which way to look? How to feel? Few artists manage to conjure up such complex feelings through so little material as Kagami Smile, pouring vulnerability and intimacy into these six tracks all revolving around the theme of loss and how we come to process it.

The definition of ‘ambient’ by Eno as being something that can be ‘as ignorable as it is interesting’ has been held to scrutiny as genres evolve and adapt to their political and social climates. Accept Pain is an instruction and an admittance. Duets between murky field recordings and glistening synthesis provide a comforting but doleful cocoon from which to view reality’s inevitable pain and beauty, much like a sheltered moment under a shop awning during torrential rain. Just as (almost) any effective piece of art forges a connection between creator and consumer, the tools used on Accept Pain place artist and listener alike within this body of work both literally (the position of recordist/listener in field recording), and emotionally (the themes of loss and acceptance throughout this album). By becoming engulfed in this world, you bring your own loss, your own pain. This is a world of shared loss and shared healing.

This release is the first in CD format for Archaic Vaults. One for the car or the comedown.