"ASH IN THE RAINBOW" is Haco's most crafted album yet. Her voice is interwoven with the cellos of co-star Hiromichi Sakamoto's 'cellos, starting with a massive bout of what sounds like classical strings and soprano voice forged into ambient before transforming into skewed but delicate Japanese pop, with equal parts of kitsch and experimentalism. The exquisite arrangements feature bowed saw, plunked pizzicato, and complex and seductive noise-scapes. With the help of lo-tech gadgets, songs like 'Channelling' posit a post-human persona, which the likes of Laurie Anderson can only dream of. The whole album is imbued with a magical, Zen sense of wonder, and a terrific economy of means.