LIVE REVIEW – MAYA ONGAKU + HEDGEHOG: YES BASEMENT – 10/09/2026

Gigs are commonly places of communion, sweat, uncomfortable proximity to strangers, ringing ears and spilt beer. However, with Maya Ongaku’s most recent album Nothing Space Music representing their attempt to reconnect with silence and find beauty in the spaces between noise, it is hard to know how it would translate to a live setting. In […]
There are numerous records in my collection that include the command “Play Loud” on their sleeve. It does not appear far-fetched to imagine Maya Ongaku’s latest conveying the suggestion that it should be played quietly. After a period of international touring in support of their decidedly undemonstrative debut album ‘Approach to Anima’ where the audiences […]

ALBUM REVIEW – MAYA ONGAKU: NOTHING SPACE MUSIC

Maya Ongaku - Approach to Anima

ALBUM REVIEW: MAYA ONGAKU – APPROACH TO ANIMA

For lovers of gently woozy psychedelia, the news that its prime exponents Kikagaku Moya’s 2022 album ‘Kumoyo Island’ would be their final release was a terrible blow. Ambling to the rescue come an unlikely set of superheroes in Maya Ongaku, a trio hailing from the seaside region of Enoshima, an island 50km south-west of Tokyo. […]