sol.ace_r

It has been a year since I made the album.
Said as a number, it sounds short, but when I look back, it feels like quite a long time.
Making music.
I released three single albums, and there are still many songs I haven’t been able to share with the world yet.

At first, that number felt a little heavy.
Thoughts like, Why did I write so many?
Why haven’t I released them yet?
But when I think about it quietly, those weren’t traces of failure or procrastination.
They were simply proof that I spent that much time on music.

Writing songs involves far more ambiguous moments than grand ones.
I don’t know if it’s going well, and I’m never certain if this is the right answer.
Still, I keep writing.
Sometimes I spend days clinging to a single melody, and many days end with deleting everything.
The songs that survived piled up as files, and some of them went out into the world as single albums.
I even made physical albums.
Not files on a screen, but objects you can hold in your hands.
They felt heavier than I expected.
Because they made it feel real—that the music had truly gone outside.

From the first single album, 12 out of 50 copies remain, and from the third single album, 11 out of 30 are still left.
Some have already gone to other people.
These albums were never for sale.
They were all gifts.
There wasn’t really a reason.
I just wanted to give them to people who might like this music, to people who supported me.
If I could meet them, I handed it to them in person;
if not, I sent it by courier.
Sometimes it went from hand to hand, and other times I sent it away, imagining the moment it would be left at someone’s door.
The methods were different, but the feeling was the same.

Looking back on the past year,
I wrote more than I thought.
At the time, I didn’t realize it.
I was only looking at the next song, the next project.
Only afterward did I understand.
Even though the remaining 67 songs haven’t yet come out into the world.

I believe the albums that are still here will find their place someday.
That a moment will come when they’re needed.
So I just leave them as they are.
Trying not to rush.

It’s hard to put all of this into words.
It’s not like I’m doing something extraordinary.
I make music, and I pass it on to people.
That’s how the past year went by.
And probably, the next one will be much the same.