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I didn't think I'd get the next installment of the Work Release Program ready so soon after 「風の歌を聞け」, but I did! Restraint is the second full-length album, and the first track gets posted on Monday, May 25. The album has 13 tracks, so the whole thing should be up by August.

You can preview two of the tracks from the album on Myspace, Facebook and iLike.

— Posted May 18, 2009 08:59:01

One of my keyboards -- a Kurzweil PC-88 -- has an acoustic guitar sound that I really like. At the time I hammered out the main motif for this song, I had very rudimentary guitar skills. So it's really more of a keyboard hook than a guitar hook.

I sketched out two ideas back in 1999 and fooled myself into thinking I needed something for a chorus and a middle section. So the ideas stayed in my notebook untouched for five years before I came back to them. At that point, I realized I didn't need much else, just one more idea, and the song was finished.

I wish I knew that back in 1999.

As usual, I set the first phrase of the melody to the first line of lyrics I felt fit. Then I let that line dictate everything else. By the end, I had a song about memories and histories.

The instrumentation of this song is sparse, but the tempo is pretty quick. So I don't really consider it a slow song. Quiet, maybe, but not slow.

— Posted Jun 29, 2009 07:46:00