Japanese Mountains from Loom by The Orbweavers

This song is about wanting to escape the city. It is about trying to deal with general worry, nightmares and stress. The Japanese phrase at the end of the song translates as ‘please do not worry’.

The arrangement features a Japanese koto (a traditional zither / harp) we found at a second hand shop. The koto didn’t come with any bridges, so we couldn’t play it at first. We had to wait years before we found bridges. For the recording we just made up a tuning for it, as the bridges are moveable.

Kotos are made from Paulownia tree wood, which is lightweight, fine grained and has high water resistance. The wood is also used to construct chests for storing kimonos - providing protection from humidity and mildew, it is used to make surfboards in Australia. Paulownia features in this song, along with other favourite trees - maple and cedar.

Tracklist

6.	Japanese Mountains	3:44

Lyrics

Japanese Mountains -
Please receive me,
I want to leave here.

Run through the cities
Crying and weeping,
There’s nowhere for sleeping when it’s light all the time,
Don’t ask about sweet dreams,
They’re not the ones that follow me,
Crying and weeping,
I run through them all.

Maple and cedar,
Paulownia,
Maple and cedar,
Seeds on the wind.
We all have our secrets,
And the ones who betray us,
But everything’s made up of
darkness and light.

Shinpai shinaede kuddasai

Credits

from Loom, released October 28, 2011

License