The flight of the Trickster moves across the threshold into the magic world, traverses sea and sky, visits ancient islands, is tested in the tempest, is abandoned, and returns with stories to tell. Okazaki writes in the liner notes: “If Trickster was the introduction to the characters, the songs on this album are their children, bearing their features but finding their own way.

The album closes with a microtonal lullaby (“To Dream Again”). The music follows the Trickster character as it crosses a boundary (“Rise and Shine”), enters the unknown (“Dog Star”), visits magical islands (“Anthemoessa” and “Seven Sisters”), is caught in a storm (“Monstropolous”), abandoned (“The Castaway”), and finds a way home (“The Lighthouse”). The Sky Below adds a new chapter to the Trickster story, this time based on the classic form of an oceanic voyage. They exist outside of the mainstream, working from the margins, creating movement across the borders. They are creative in nature, using mischief and magic to disrupt the state of things, breaking taboos and conventions, opening doorways. He describes this inspiration in the liner notes for Trickster: “The trickster figure is an ancient archetype in human folklore. Trickster marked the beginning of a new approach to composition for Okazaki, one that is focused on mythology and storytelling and concerned primarily with narrative flow. But the resulting beauty is easy to appreciate.” The album received critics’ picks in both Downbeat and JazzTimes, who called it “an intellectually hefty album that feels weightless” and “a real breakthrough.” The album was described by the New York Times as “tenacious futurism,” by The Wall Street Journal as “a true concept album,” and by Pitchfork as “obviously complex, the work of virtuosi.

It is a sequel to Trickster, which was widely extolled and landed on many year-end lists of 2017 including Popmatters (“a mature work for the ages”) and the Los Angeles Times (“immersive, groove-heavy and ultimately immediate”). The Sky Below is guitarist Miles Okazaki‘s fifth album of original compositions, and his second album for Pi Recordings.

Miles okazaki trickster