Eyes WONK

• 1 Introduction #5 Eyes 01:47
• 2 Eyes 04:00
• 3 Rollin’ 04:21
• 4 Orange Mug 03:37
• 5 Sweeter, More Bitter 03:17
• 6 Filament 03:37
• 7 Skit 1 -  Behind The World 01:36
• 8 Mad Puppet 04:03
• 9 Blue Moon 03:42
• 10 Signal 04:10
• 11 Esc 03:45
• 12 Skit 2 - Encounter 01:40
• 13 Third Kind 03:07
• 14 Depth of Blue 03:48
• 15 If 03:46
• 16 Skit 3 - Resolution 01:31
• 17 Heroism 03:18
• 18 Fantasist 04:51
• 19 Nothing 03:37
• 20 Phantom Lane 05:05
• 21 Skit 4 - Prayer 01:35
• 22 In Your Own Way 05:16
• Total Runtime 01:15:29

Info for Eyes

Tokyo experimental soul band WONK’s latest album EYES is the group’s most creative endeavor yet. The hefty 22-song album tells a narrative about the modern phenomenon of online “filter-bubbles” and “echo chambers.” In a world where SNS and the online realm is such a huge part of our lives, these “filter-bubbles” and “echo chambers” are worrying phenomena, when sites and search engines personalize our online experiences to the point that we only encounter information and opinions that reflect and reinforce our own beliefs, ultimately shutting out alternative perspectives.

For WONK, this concern has been on the members’ minds for a while. The concept for EYES was born while the band created the EP Moon Dance, which includes five songs also featured in EYES. The art book for the special edition features CG images for each song and the book has an augmented reality function, which offers a futuristic experience to reinforce the album’s dystopian theme.

“For this album, the story came first,” recalls Hikaru Arata, WONK’s drummer and frontman. “We didn’t intend to make such a long album in the first place but when we wrote the story and songs for it, the album turned out to be this big. We split the story into pieces and assigned songs to each part.”

However, the band was not entirely sure about releasing the album in 2020. “I thought the sales wouldn’t be doing well,” Arata continues, laughing. “The way of listening to music has changed [these days]; the majority of people enjoy listening to music song-by-song because of streaming services, not as a whole album. We really wanted to express this concept as an album though, leaving business strategies such as marketing aside. We focused on how to deliver the story and the message.”

Though the band completed EYES amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing didn’t hinder the recording process too much. “There were a few things we had to work on individually due to the pandemic, but we don’t usually make songs by getting together and jamming anyway,” Arata explains. “Usually, one of us puts song ideas into data, then the rest of us add some arrangements to it and shape it into a song. Then our bassist Kan Inoue and I record drum and bass, which, for this album, was one of the few processes we actually did together.”

“I was reminded of when we released two albums at the same time, Castor and Pollux, in 2017,” keyboardist Ayatake Ezaki says. “Towards the end of the album production, it was really tough to finish two at the same time as we had a lot of songs to work on. It was a situation where, if someone falls, we all fall. But we managed to get through it as a band. I felt the same way this time but I am proud of the album.”

WONK

WONK
Formed in 2013, they released their first album "Sphere" in 2016. Their music, which freely interprets jazz, soul, and hip-hop, has been highly praised by music media. They have performed in Paris and Berlin and have appeared at many major domestic festivals. In addition to remixes with José James and Oscar Jerome, an official cover of The Internet, and participation in a Thelonious Monk tribute album, they collaborated with Kiefer and 9m88 in 2023, anticipating new developments both domestically and internationally.

This album contains no booklet.