Lo Recordings continues its Skintone Edition with a reissue of Sakura, Susumu Yokota’s most cherished album. First released in Japan in 1999 and later on The Leaf Label, it quickly became a landmark of ambient music—praised by the likes of Brian Eno and Philip Glass and warmly embraced by listeners worldwide.
Yokota described the work as an attempt to express the four emotions—joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness—and the album’s movements reflect that shifting landscape. Sakura drifts with dreamlike ease: hushed guitar loops dissolve into glistening drones, fragmented voices shimmer and vanish, and sudden pulses of rhythm appear like ripples on still water. Tracks such as “Saku” and “Tobiume” use washed-out guitar textures to conjure cascades of sound, while “Uchu Tanjyo” blends tribal drums with ancient chants, and “Hagoromo” builds hypnotic patterns from acoustic loops. Even its deviations—like the jazzy “Naminote” or the thumping “Genshi”—add to the sense of unpredictability, keeping the serenity alive but never static.
Reviewers have long noted the album’s ability to balance beauty with strangeness. Compared to the minimalism of Steve Reich, the fragility of Lucid, and the emotional warmth of Vidna Obmana, Sakura remains deeply its own—music that feels like memory, ephemeral and impossible to hold, yet profoundly moving. One critic wrote that the record “transports the listener elsewhere through fragile sounds and field recordings,” while another observed that Yokota “doesn’t compose so much as set his music in motion,” allowing it to unfold with grace and inevitability.
This Skintone Edition reissue (Volume 1) presents Sakura on limited 2×12″ petrol-blue vinyl, CD, and remastered digital. The vinyl is housed in a reverse-board sleeve with die-cut window, custom fonts, and inserts including a double-sided poster. All audio has been remastered to reveal more depth and texture in Yokota’s soundscapes.
Release dates:
Sakura vinyl & CD ship October 3, 2025.
Digital remaster available September 26, 2025.
Skintone Edition Vol. 1 box set restock ships November 10, 2025.
More than two decades on, Sakura feels as vital as ever. It’s an album that doesn’t force itself on the listener but slowly transforms the air around you—music that confounds, soothes, and inspires in equal measure. For those who know it, this reissue is a chance to hear its petals bloom anew. For those discovering it, it may become the record you return to whenever you need a sense of stillness and wonder.
