N . D . E

Three decades into his storied career, when most artists would be entering middle age and easing off the gas, Haruomi Hosono kept up his intrepid explorations. His groundbreaking ’80s ambient work led to the kaleidoscopic pinnacle of omni Sight-Seeing. Soon after, Hosono forged further into club sounds in the ’90s. Barely six years along, N . D . E represents another highwater mark in Hosono’s astonishing discography. Working with the likes of Bill Laswell, Yasuaki Shimizu, François Kevorkian, and highlighting the hypnotic modal violin work of Arun Bagal, it’s a psychedelic mix of pulsations, squiggles, bells, bird calls, flickers, thrums, passing clouds, all of it ever so gently cohering into identifiable genres like downtempo or minimal techno. There’s the whimsy of “Heliotherapy,” the tabla-driven hallucinations of “Spinning Spirits,” all of it capped by gorgeous abstraction of “Aero.” It’s yet another gem in Hosono’s crown.