b. Japan. Norihide forges ‘laptop folk' music that is graceful, melancholic and likeably austere, as if elegiac for empty rooms. As well as issuing music via Carpark Records (the New York, USA-based label behind releases from Kid 606, Greg Davis and Takagi Masakatsu), Norihide is a certified Shinto Priest in his native Japan. Shintoism is the indigenous religion of the country, marked by the veneration of nature spirits and of ancestors. Norihide has previously studied computers in university and played guitar in a rock band. His songs are, more often than not, played on acous...