Mellow Cello Podcast

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Episode 91 Jigs and Figs Aug 05, 2026

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Episode 91 Jigs and Figs Nick Takenobu Ogawa

This episode comes from the Youtube Livestream on Dec 11 2025. It starts off on a slower more melancholy note, with a nice lyrical arco line that serves to tie together some of the pizzicato and staccato meanderings. The next piece has a bit more depth, but keeps in the same melancholy meandering vein, with a more dream like quality to some of the Arco figures. The third piece is more driving, with an uplifting repeated Arco figure that’s really amplified by the staccato bass and the whole piece goes to some nice places. The fourth piece and final piece starts off fairly meandering, but then eventually finds some interesting darker and more mysterious spots. If you’d like access to twice as many Mellow Cello Podcast episodes please consider subscribing on bandcamp!

Episode 89 Hoot and Holler Oct 03, 2025

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Episode 88 Too Much Tylenol Sep 23, 2025

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Episode 88 Too Much Tylenol

This episode comes from the Youtube livestream on September 23, 2025. It’s been a while since I’ve posted a new episode, and I appreciate your patience for that. Things have been busy as I’ve adjusted to parenthood, and as I’ve accumulated a backlog of livestreams I’ve become intimidated by trying to parse through them and go through each jam to give my thoughts. I thought I’d just skip to the chase and post this episode as soon as I finished in order to just give my rambling thoughts as they’re fresh, or as fresh as they can be after jamming them out a bit.

The first piece is an experiment in playing in 5/4 live, which I never do. I’m working on a new quartet based on the Japanese tale of Kaguya hime, which tells the story of a moon princess born in a shining bamboo grove, pursued by 5 royal suitors who she gives 5 impossible tasks, and then returns to the moon to forget the old couple who loved and raised her. It’s a deliberate departure from Momotaro, which I recently turned into a quartet. There is a lot of declarative action in Momotaro, and in the Moon Princess I’m trying to stay more vague and ethereal, driven more by emotion than action.

Staying vague is its own challenge, and a bit of an exhausting one, so this stream was fun being able to get out some more rhythmically declarative sounds, which I think is how the rest of the session goes.

The third piece is a bit darker, and I really like the minor chords I arrive at here, and really tends to embody some of my angrier feelings about the sheer stupidity of some of the news recently. After this piece was done I joked that it was called “Tylenol Blues.” There’s a real satisfaction in being able to say something musically that feels a bit much to spell out in words, suffice to say that the sense of foreboding and anger that this piece evokes is no accident.

The final piece is much lighter, and was a fun catharsis and release after exploring my darker feelings about things. I’m really happy about some of the layered arco and love the scattered driving and washy movement it creates.

Episode 83 No Requests Feb 05, 2025

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Episode 83 No Requests Nick Takenobu Ogawa

This episode comes from the YouTube stream on August 13 2024. Things begin with a lighthearted feel to the beat and progression, and eventually turn into a nice thematic arco melody that has a running feel to it. The second piece has more of a dirge to it, albeit a lively one, which eventually bridges into an “Oni island” style of eery dissonance, that really drives things forward. This one may be keeper, especially with some selective editing to take out the meandering and pace things along more deliberately. The third piece is a more major back and forth sounding venture that has some nice swirling arco parts, with a nice bass line that develops and then some more dreamy elements towards the end. The next piece continues in a similar back and forth vein, but with a more minor and driving feel to it, with a trill pattern that makes the whole piece sound more inquisitive. The final piece is more upbeat and is more bass driven in its groove, and has nice jammy feel to it.

Episode 81 Post-Covid Jan 13, 2025

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Episode 81 Post-Covid

This episode comes from the Youtube livestream on July 30 2024, and as the name suggests was at a time I had just finished recovering from Covid. I can hear in the initial song a sense of relief in my recovery, and things open up like a dawn breaking, with some gradual brightness slowly being shed on things. The second piece eventually takes on a bit of a desert oasis characteristic to the sound, once the arco parts come in, and not without some strange encounters to boot. With the third piece I realize that I was trying out an idea I had of recording several pieces to the same drum loop, so that multiple pieces could be edited together into a single cohesive piece, either that or I was still suffering the effects of brain fog. The third piece has more chordal movement and more bounce, and if I do edit the pieces together this would serve well as a chorus if I do decide to try to combine things. The fourth and final piece (a shorter episode due to covid fatigue) is a nice darker exploration, that has some nice heroic travails and epic moments.

Episode 79 RUNNING ITS COURSE Nov 22, 2024

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Episode 79 Running Its Course Nick Takenobu Ogawa

This episode comes from the YouTube livestream on July 23, 2024. Things start off in darker space and then gradually get lighter and more hopeful as the piece progresses, with somberness in the beginning that opens up into a lighter hearted feeling. The second piece is a bit of a sonic reset, the likes of which typically comes later in the stream, but I felt the need to do early on to get the feel for things right. These types of open ended melodic meanderings are nice because they don’t require too much thinking about form, and are more incidental and a collection of harmonies. Third piece reminds me of something I can’t quite place my finger on, but in any case has a lyrical quality to it, with its call and response structure and slightly melancholy vibe. The fourth piece has a jaunty progression, but almost seems like something more upbeat that’s happening in slight slow motion, like the dreamy action of a slowed down super 8 family film. The fifth piece is an underwater journey into some mysterious spaces, with lots of nice color and curiosity. The sixth piece unfolds nicely, and has a tinge of an older sound, slightly bluesy, slightly desert epic, with a couple of brief Nirvana quotes. The final piece has a bit of a nostalgic feeling to it, like the end credits of a 90’s family movie, but with a bit more of a psychedelic tinge to it at times.

Episode 77 Pardon the Interruption Nov 08, 2024

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Episode 77 Pardon the Interruption Nick Takenobu Ogawa

This episode comes form the youtube livestream on June 26 2024. Things start off with a nice mellow flow, with a repeating arco figure that sets the mood off the bat with a bit of sass. The second piece takes a little while to develop, with some missteps along the way that give things a bit of an unsettled vibe, but it eventually lands somewhere, and achieves a bit of a watery flowy space. The third piece has a nice flow throughout and I really like the build at the end. The fourth piece has some interesting ‘self-sampling’ that I resorted to after some technical difficulties. I enjoy this effect, because without the attack of the initial part of the note, it becomes difficult to tell what instrument generated the sound. The final piece eventually gets some nice long legato arco layers as a bed for some pizzicato exploration.

Episode 75 Tip Toeing Oct 28, 2024

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Episode 75 Tip Toeing Nick Takénobu Ogawa

This episode comes from June 18 2024. I’d just loaded some new drum loops and as a result there’s a freshness to this episode that’s pretty fun. I really like the contemplative nature of the opening track that develops into something a bit more confident and forward marching with a nice closing theme. The third piece, has a lot more immediate structure, and I’m happy about the way I split up the energy of the different parts, most of which is driven by the nice ethereal background set early on. The fourth piece takes a while to develop into what it eventually becomes, which as it happens turns out to be a take on a previous progression which I used in the upcoming album, although I don’t think I realized it at first. The fifth song takes on a bit of a darker tone, with some really nice darker arco lines that create some nice big ethereal spaces. The sixth piece is brief and has an almost reggae feel to it, if that’s possible with cello I search a bit for a ‘chorus’ progression to relieve the searching nature of the initial progression, but don’t pursue it very far. The final piece develops into an exploration of different driving arco figures and layers,

Episode 73 Till June Oct 28, 2024

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Episode 73 Till June Nick Takénobu Ogawa

This episode comes from the livestream on May 16 2024, the last one before a brief hiatus from streaming. Things start off with the throwback sound of the earlier days of streaming, with a percussive loop created on the cello fingerboard, and the piece develops into a nice acoustic exploration with some nice vernal arco layers. The next piece uses the preloaded percussion sounds I have, and expands on some of the ideas from the first piece, with more effects, and takes things to a more developed place. Things take on a slightly darker tone for the third piece, but with some nice bluesy forward movement in the bass line, which then propels the arco. The fourth piece is a bit jauntier and more upbeat, but not without a sense of wonder, and this piece has some nice development. The fifth piece has a bit of an explorative vibe, with a bit of an eery alien world sound to it, like the theme for some funky otherworldly space exploration. The 6th and 7th pieces are related, and I think at the time I had a concept of being able to edit these two together somehow, which I may eventually do, as the 6th has a brighter sound and the 7th explores a bit more somberness, but both pieces have the same beat and could be intertwined with some production magic. The eighth piece has a bit of a western showdown vibe to it. The final piece has a bit more cosmic brightness, with some fun pizzicato and arco parts popping out of the background radiation.

Episode 71 Vibin Sep 10, 2024

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Episode 71 Vibin Nick Takénobu Ogawa

This episode comes from the livestream on May 7 2024. The first piece gets off to a nice vibey start, with some nice development, especially in the rhythmic arco sections. The second piece explores some slightly darker sounds, but warms up a bit and becomes a more driving piece. The third pieces is a bit more laid back and jazzy, delving into some slightly more avant gard with a more stabbing bowing style at times. The fourth piece develops some nice arco themes once things get going, and feels a bit like a mystery being unraveled. Keeping with the mystery theme the next piece reminds me a bit of some sort of heist movie bass line, with some jazzier elements with the chords. The 6th piece is a bit more halting in it’s progression, but then has some nice running arco elements. The final piece has some nice lilting elements and ends things on a slightly dreamy and pleasant sounding note.

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