You can’t know how much you need this album in your life until you hear it. Of course it makes sense: the perfect unfolding geometry of Bach’s compositions for keyboard, violin and cello have always been almost magical in their brain-soothing qualities, so to play them with the even gentler tones of the marimba is a completely logical way to emphasise that. But there’s way more to this than this than just some borderline new age chillout aid – although played quietly it might actually actually be the best music to work or study to ever made. Kuniko’s playing is careful and exacting, but also full of expressive micro-gestures and unbelievable understanding of the variation her instrument is capable of, so if you zoom in on the playing it will grip you as fiercely as any more obviously grand performance. So while this can indeed soothe the mind and soul, if you give it your full focus, its really powerful stuff.