2022 repress. “Eiko Ishibashi’s sixth solo album, The Dream My Bones Dream, rides the rails into a partly envisioned, partly imagined past. Eiko’s previous songs-with-singing records explored the ambitions and intoxications of pop music — but never so dramatically as with The Dream My Bones Dream. Here, her songs open up into reflections upon the vast spaces that exist between people as close as family members — in other words, reflections on the things we spend our whole lives drinking and cursing about! When we’re not trying to forget what we were told about god, that is . . . It’s been four years since Car and Freezer, a time during which Eiko has been steadily working, writing for stage and cinema, playing live and recording (and hanging out with her no-goodnik boyfriend!). In 2016, she toured Europe and released Kouen Kyoudai (Editions Mego), a collaboration with Masami Akita. At Sinnerfama Lisbon later that year, she won the Best New Music Award for her soundtrack to The Albino’s Trees. In 2018, Black Truffle released Ichida, her collaboration with Darin Gray. Amongst all this abject jet-setting and debauched gadding about, the music of The Dream My Bones Dream started to gather. It began with the death of Eiko’s father. Going through family effects in the aftermath, she found photos from a time she knew nothing about: her father’s childhood. A taciturn man, he had never discussed this period of his life. Classic dad! As it transpired, it took place in an infamous setting of recent Japanese history, the occupation of China’s Manchurian region in the 1940s. In the light of this, questions about Eiko’s lost family history took on a larger resonance. No, not war crimes! Please try and keep your head out of the gutter. We’re talking about lyrical things here — the ever-changing relationships between people and places in our lives, okay? The music is richly conceived in cinematic arrangements with details referencing Eiko’s grandfather, who worked as a railroad man in occupied territory. The few images Eiko had to base her exploration on are set in shifting landscapes colored by the unreliable narrators of history. For Eiko, the train that ran through this rough terrain is now headed for her future, and only by accepting its past will she able to direct it through what is to come. Something to think about, yeah? We at Drag City are hopeful that this musical message will be blared down the main streets of Fascist Everytown, USA — at least until they come to get us! On The Dream My Bones Dream, as with Eiko’s previous albums, the diverse sounds within the musical arrangement and the qualities of Jim O’Rourke’s mix (off the couch and mixing again!) are crucial to the achievement. The Dream My Bones Dream is a record of exquisite musicality and deep emotions, a travelogue pointed towards a time hopefully better than the future we see coming down the line! Any eventuality where we can listen to The Dreams My Bones Dream would be preferable to that one.”