Yosi Horikawa: Impulse (Borrowed Scenery: 2025)
For the second of my “albums released in 2025 which you should really listen to before the year is out” recommendations, Yosi Horikawa¦s Impulse is a no‐brainer. I¦ve been following Horikawa¦s output ever since Wandering was released in 2012, and I¦m happy to say that this latest album holds up against the high bar set by its predecessors.
Each Yosi Horikawa album has its own feel; Vapor, in 2013, was accessible and familiar, driven by beats and sonic textures; Spaces, in 2019, was more experimental, leaning into Horikawa¦s use of field recordings and elevated a sense of place. Impulse lands somewhere between the two, but is more than just a compromise; rather, it feels like a refinement, a honing in on a feeling and a sound.
Favourite track: Some of my favourite Yosi Horikawa songs are the ones which make use of vocals, but I think “Snow Bird” deserves special mention for taking its vocals not from a human but from a bird. Of course, this is an appropriation of bird speech for human ears, but it serves as an important reminder that we are far from the progenitors of melody or sound. Computers and technology may give us the ability to arrange and understand these things in a different way, but this music is, in some way, just a new form of appreciation for what has always been there.