Taku Hirano is known for playing on some of the largest stages in the world. From Fleetwood Mac and LeAnn Rimes to Stevie Wonder and Dr. Dre, his touring résumé spans decades, genres, and continents.
Crystal Forest, his first Feed Originals release set apart from his pseudonym, is not about scale. It is about space.
In addition to his performance career, Hirano conducted graduate research at Berklee College of Music focused on the history, science, and market viability of functional music for wellness, work that directly informs the album’s structure.
Designed as functional ambient music for focus, relaxation, and calm, the album reflects a different kind of virtuosity. Not density. Not speed. Intention.
“I don’t see this as background music,” Hirano says. “I see it as functional music with purpose. It’s designed to support focus, relaxation, and intentional routines in a very specific way.”
An intentional approach to ambient music
Unlike playlist-driven ambient releases, Crystal Forest is structured as a continuous listening experience. Flow, pacing, and emotional continuity were central to its design.
Listening, for Hirano, is active.
“The main difference is in the listener through focus and aim,” he explains. “Listening becomes a practice in which the music is used as a tool for purpose. My goal is to compose music that can help facilitate mindfulness and intent.”
From Akai Masa to Taku Hirano
Hirano has been one of the earliest contributors to Feed Originals, the wholly owned label and catalog within Feed.fm’s commercial music streaming ecosystem. Under the name Akai Masa, he has composed more than 300 tracks crafted specifically for wellness outcomes, generating over one million streams across platforms including Pandora and Amazon Music.
“At this point, I have composed over 300 tracks as Akai Masa,” he says. “Now, writing as myself, it is an interesting dichotomy of feeling some pressure to create something new and a bit of a liberation in terms of trying new things. The Taku Hirano tracks will lean more into frequencies and rhythm as my understanding of their powers has evolved, with the intention of drawing the listener in and meeting their needs.”
In Crystal Forest, the world-class percussionist shifts the spotlight away from spectacle and toward stillness, without sacrificing depth. It is ambient music grounded in elite musicianship, cultural reverence, and functional design.
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