The soft, simple, and charming sounds of a music box make it the ideal format to be paired with Hiroshi Yoshimura’s minimalism. The melodic sequence of notes—that repeat with overlaps—mimic gentle waves, like coming into consciousness after waking on a lazy weekend morning.
Unlike a blaring alarm clock or waking just to get to work, the ideal morning is one in which a hazy subconscious can transition into a clear awake-ness—the clarity coming at its own pace, and for its own sake. Perhaps that’s why Soft Wave seems to tap into something child-like, where leisure time was not only more available, but able to be experienced with less adult-responsibility guilt. The sound of a music box, already a vessel for nostalgia, becomes a mind massage reminding us to wake in our own time.