The Sound of Ambience

In a neighbouring town to Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, lies Miyota, known as one of Japan's top summer retreats. At the foot of the mountains, you'll find the Miyota Houses, a project Oono and his friends have been involved in since the start. This development features five dwellings surrounding a large plaza, with Oono's weekend residence in one corner.

The project began with four families, old acquaintances, cultivating a vast forest. They designed the area by making repeated observations, even camping out to study the water flow, sunlight, and plant growth. Oono moves between these locations based on his mood, often changing the music he listens to as well.

For Oono, design work primarily happens in the Aobadai, Tokyo office, where architectural models and material samples line the walls. In the office, you can hear various music genres, including ambient, but one genre is reserved for boosting the mood.

"I like games, so when I'm working on 3DCG designs, I often listen to game soundtracks. I play everything from indie games to big titles and tend to play them all the way through, so the entire game world and its BGM become ingrained in me. Game soundtracks are different from film soundtracks; they're designed for long listening and looping without getting boring, which is perfect. Sometimes, though, they get me unnecessarily excited," Oono explains.

Oono´s favourite games soundtracks are from Undertale, Cyberpunk 2077, Death Stranding, and other titles like Tatami the Clumping. This immersion in game worlds sharpens his design skills and influences his attention to detail in products around him.

Oono notes differences in the preferred placement of the speakers at his Miyota home and his office. In the office, he sits at a constant distance from the speakers, while in Miyota, he often moves around, whether in the garden or in the kitchen, and finds the music still sounds good from every corner of the house.

He finds it revolutionary that the app allows adjusting the sound direction, which changes the music's impression based on the space. Whether the speaker is in a square or arched space, or the walls and floor are made of different materials, the music's impact varies. This made him wonder about designing a space to suit the Beosound A5 instead of the other way around, reflecting the product's spatial philosophy.

Being portable and usable in various environments enhances the enjoyment of listening to music. Experimenting with different music and locations to find the best listening experience is one of its pleasures.

Some songs make you want to listen quietly, while others inspire you in the background. The playlist Oono has chosen for us may seem scattered, but when you listen to it as a single flow, you will discover its essence. From the morning when you wake up, through the hectic daytime, and ending the day with a lively dinner. The sound of the Beosound A5 delivers an even richer experience of the 18 tracks.