Ambient music was initially a concept proposed by Brian Eno in 1978 as an ambience that highlights the uniqueness of the environment in a particular space. Now, the term is used ambiguously to refer to music with a minimalist and peaceful sound, and can include everything from electronica and background music to environmental music. While Eno’s music communicates an image without invoking a clear concept in the music itself, an innocuous effect of the resurgence of ambient music in the 2010s is that by reinterpreting sounds designed solely for environmental music as a part of ambient music, it can now be enjoyed as a musical piece rather than as a purely practical piece. I believe the value of Japanese environmental music is being rediscovered in the same way.

It could also be said that the significance of sound designer Yutaka Hirose’s second album Nostalghia, his first in 36 years, has been newly discovered through this trend.The recordings used in this album were originally recorded from 1987~’91 to be used to play in public facilities. Since Hirose himself repurposed and “musicalized” those recordings to create this record, Nostalghia has been redesigned as contemporary music. In addition, although the album itself is not intended to be played solely in a specific space, each song on the record is presented for a separate space. – It feels unnatural to call this ambient music.

Originally, there were seven CD’s worth of previously unreleased recordings. With the help of music supervisor Tatsuto Inoue of Fushigi Ongakukan and artist Toshiya Tsunoda to select the songs and with musician Taku Unami mastering the record, Nostalghia finally saw the light of day. The finished product not only sounds unlike ambient music, but also sounds alien to Japanese environmental music. In the second half of this two-part interview, Yutaka Hirose speaks about Brian Eno, Sound Process Design, Nostalghia’s “fear,” and coming up with the term “Japambient.”

Part One here

The changing image of Brian Eno

– When did you first come across Brian Eno’s music?

Hirose: I first learned about Eno when I had just started middle school. At the time, I was listening to his Roxy Music era and his early vocal albums, which is why he gave me a strong glam rock or prog rock impression. That was my default image of him, which is why I was confused when I first heard Ambient 1: Music for Airports (1978). The Japanese version of Discreet Music (1975) wasn’t released until the 80s, so my first encounter with Eno’s ambient works was Music For Airports.

It was Ambient 4: On Land (1982) that changed my image of Eno. I was wildly impressed. Unlike Music for Airports, there’s life in On Land’s sound. Featuring several musicians like John Hassell, the sounds on that album are as colossal as the Earth’s foundation. I was in complete awe.

– How did you perceive that type of tranquil music before Eno popularized the term “ambient music”?

Hirose: Although the term “ambient music” wasn’t used, music that sounded similar existed. Terry Riley’s In C (1968), Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells (1973), Steve Laihe’s Drumming/Music For Mallet Instruments, Voices And Organ/Six Pianos (1974) were some examples of minimalist music. Riley had been using tape loops since the 60s, so the technique used in Eno’s Discreet Music wasn’t all that new. The key was that Eno introduced “ambient music,” a different, new, unique style of music.

I was more interested in the Obscure record series over the ambient series. I was heavily influenced by Gavin Briars’ use of strings and acoustics in The Sinking of the Titanic (1975). The concept of the Obscure series was to promote experimental music. Eno was bringing contemporary and experimental composers to the forefront as a producer. I think his experience doing that morphed into the ambient series.

Working at Sound Process Design

– You got to know Satoshi Ashikawa right before his death in a tragic car accident in 1983. You even brought your own tapes to Sound Process Design, the company which Mr. Ashikawa built.

Hirose: I met Mr. Ashikawa when I went to the Harold Budd concert in Japan (1983), which he organized. I listened to Harold Budd’s music on records before, but this was the first time hearing him live. I was intrigued by his unique sound, and that led to listen my listening to Mr. Ashikawa’s records. Afterwards, I thought it would be nice to give Mr. Ashikawa a gift when I met him again, so I brought my own tapes.

– What was most appealing about Mr. Ashikawa’s music?

Hirose: Probably how he forms his music around singular notes and silences. Mr. Ashikawa’s Still Way (1982) uses harps, pianos, vibraphones, and other instrumental components to create singular notes, or points, in his music. I think that’s how it differs from Eno’s ambient music.

– After the release of Nova in 1986, you made music to be played in different science and history museum spaces and other facilities as a part of Sound Process Design. What was the reaction to that type of music back then?

Hirose: It was only meant to be used for the museums, so I didn’t get any direct feedback. I just kept doing my job.

– Since the 1990s, the term “sound art” has been used to refer to the presentation of sound in spaces. How did you feel about such trends?

Hirose: I had stopped making sounds after the 90s. I was no longer listening to trends, let alone hopping on them. Maybe it’s because I moved out of Tokyo, but I had cut off all information.

 Echoes of “nature = fear” in Nostalghia

– You could’ve exhibited these works as sound installations, but instead, you created an album. Why did you choose to release Nostalghia in CD and LP formats?

Hirose: In 2019, I reissued Nova with We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want. After that release, I was approached by a lot of people asking me if I would want to release an album of my unreleased tapes. Considering my age and the possibility of death, I decided to put out an album of things I worked on from my late 20s. I obviously didn’t want to release anything as is, so I processed and edited it a bit, and added my present self into it. I was especially particular during the mastering process, which resulted in the final product.

– The mastering was done by Taku Unami, correct?

Hirose: Yes. We actually changed the mastering a couple times. We had a more aggressive master and a more quiet master. The aggressive master sounded too metallic and harsh, so upon discussing it with Mr. Unami and Toshiya Tsunoda, we decided on what you hear today.

– In recent years, we’ve seen a new age revival and a resurgence of ambient music. Through that trend, Japanese environmental music has been getting rediscovered abroad, and has been getting reimported into Japan. You could say that environmental music that was meant for soundscapes is now being redefined as ambient music. How do you feel about your music, that was initially created to be heard in specific spaces, being listened to as ambient music?

Hirose: I released it intending for it to be a spatial music album. In the LP, all nine songs are meant for nine different spaces. Nostalghia isn’t only made up of serene sounds that symbolize ambient music. It also includes rather harsh, grating metallic noises and muddy soundsl. Spaces and nature don’t just possess nice, gentle elements. It also has a scariness to it. I actually think there are more scary factors than not. I want listeners to understand that aspect of it while listening, too.

– You’re saying that sounds of nature aren’t the superficial sounds you imagine them to be, like bird calls or flowing water. You think the disturbing sounds of the drone from Nostalghia is a more accurate depiction of nature?

Hirose: Precisely. That was intentional. The producer had asked me to include natural sounds. Since I was still in the trial-and-error stage while making Nova, I obliged. But Nostalghia is different. The first song, “Seasons,” puts an end to the Nova era, and takes the music to the next level. Looking back, it was a fear I had towards nature. For example, people often pray at shrines to make sense of natural disasters, to calm mother nature down. Perhaps I was trying to express that sentiment through sound.

On the category “Japambient”

– In the liner notes, Tastuhito Ito uses the term “Japambient.” How do you feel about terms like these?

Hirose: I think they’re interesting words. If there’s “Japanoise”, why not “Japambient”? It makes it easier to explain to a foreign crowd. No matter how much we try to explain that it’s spatial music, they might interpret it as ambient. People are quick to categorize things.

– I think there are a lot of foreign listeners who want Japanese elements in Japambient music. Do you think there are any commonalities between music of different Japambient and Japanese environmental musicians? For instance between your, Mr. Ashikawa’s, and Mr. Yoshimura’s music?

Hirose: There are similarities, like how we think about Japanese seasons. We’re heavily impacted by  the changing humidity and atmosphere we experience here. When foreigners listen to that, they may interpret those elements as Japanese sensibilities. Even if we use Western instruments or Western music theory, the subtleties in the notes might have a Japaneseness to them. That being said, I didn’t make Nova or Nostalghia with the intention of incorporating Japanese components. But it’s possible that some Japanese elements were put there subconsciously.

Yutaka Hirose
Sound designer. Born in 1961 in Kofu City, Yamanashi Prefecture. Released album Nova as part of Misawa Home’s Sound Design Research Lab series “Soundscape” in 1986. In the same year, Hirose joined Sound Process Design, a company started by Satoshi Ashikawa, and worked on the sound design for projects in several cultural and commercial facilities. In 2019, Hirose re-issued Nova. Released by Swiss label We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want, the record included a bonus track with unreleased recordings and gained worldwide attention. In May of 2022, Hirose released Nostalghia, his first album in 36 years. Hirose plans to release Trace Sound Design Works 1986-1989 with the same label on July 1st.

Translation Mimiko Goldstein

The post How the “Japambient” Works were Born – Yutaka Hirose Interview – Part Two –<br>How the Sounds of “Nature = Fear” Differ From Both Ambient and Environmental Music appeared first on TOKION - Cutting edge culture and fashion information.

As the 62nd Grammy Award nomination of the compilation album Kankyo Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980-1990 (2019) illustrates, Japanese environmental music of the 1980s has recently made a comeback. Satoshi Ashikawa, who passed prematurely in 1983 at the age of 30, was someone who had made a mark on the world of Japanese ambient music. While incorporating contemporary music and Murray Schafer’s theory of Soundscapes, he created his own “music as a landscape.” Not only did he create serene and discreet music, he designed sounds that could be utilized effectively in everyday life, and started his company in 1982. A tragedy occurred the following year after he started his company Sound Process Design. After Ashikawa’s passing, Munetaka Tanaka took over the company and continued Ashikawa’s legacy, working on sound design for cultural, commercial, and transportation facilities. One of the sound designers on those projects was Yutaka Hirose.

In 1986, Hirose released Nova, the only musical album to come out of the Misawa Home Sound Design Research Lab’s “Soundscape” series. Although the record remained out of print for a period, Hirose assisted with the resurgence of ambient music, and re-issued the record with bonus, previously unreleased recordings on the Swiss label We Release Whatever the Fuck We Want, in 2019. The re-issue of Nova, a record that holds as much significance as Midori Takada’s Through the Looking Glass (1983) and Hiroshi Yoshimura’s Music For Nine Post Cards (1982), amassed a great deal of attention. Now, Hirose has completed his second album Nostalghia, his first in 36 years.

Nostalghia is an album made up of two LPs, including one CD with seven tracks and another with nine. The album includes recordings based on works created after the release of Nova and newly edited versions of environmental sound designs recorded between 1987 and 1991. Thus, this work is a combination between a valuable archive and a brand new musical release. In part one of this two-part interview, Hirose speaks about the changes in his creative process post-Nova, and his background in free improvisation and free jazz.

From notated music to improvised production

– The recordings in Nostalghia were recorded from 1987-91, after the release of Nova in 1986. What was your objective for those recordings back then?

Yutaka Hirose: They were initially created for stereophonic sound. I wanted to build sounds based on space rather than do something musical. Nostalghia was created from two left and right channels. But at the time, the sounds were built from eight unmixed channels with disparate sound sources randomly playing in history museums and science museums. The sounds were intended to be constantly changing, and were to be played at specific facilities. I had no intention of listening to it in stereo back then. I ended up creating a two-channel mix solely to keep a record of it.

– Nova was released as a part of “Soundscape,” Misawa Home’s environmental music series. The concept was to make music to play in a specific environment. How do your new record differ from Nova?

Hirose: For Nova, we used sheet music and input each note into a computer. Afterwards, during the mixing process, we added environmental sounds to build atmosphere. But in Nostalghia, I didn’t use sheet music or input anything into a computer. Instead, I added notes improvisationally. For example, I recorded a number of melodies and phrases that I played improvisationally, and designated each sound lump a “group.” I used each “group” and composed them as if I were splicing them together.

– Why did you change your approach?

Hirose: I’ve always liked improvisational music, but it also took a lot of time inputting notes into a computer. So much so that I thought that would be all I would do for the rest of my life (laughs). I thought it would be faster if I played the notes myself then selected and spliced the notes together afterwards. There was also more freedom that way. Instead of pre-selecting notes by writing them out, this album was created much more freely by playing the sounds, combining notes that I thought would fit together, adding effect A to one and effect B to another, then splicing and shifting them.

In Nostalghia, I wanted to focus more on the sounds themselves rather than melody. Since people have a tendency to get caught up by a melody, my intention was to create a sound organically. I wanted be able to hear the sound objectively, to let it speak directly to people’s souls, or to create a space in which people can enter into the world of sound.

– Was being able to create interesting tones an advantage of creating music improvisationally?

Hirose: Yes. I usually lay down the foundation of my work first with low end and keep adding layers of harmonics until I end up with high end notes. If you think about that, it’s important to consider how those tones are created, and how they affect my playing. My playing is influenced by the tones I hear. In other words, the timbres of the sounds lead where the music goes. If you start inputting that into a computer, it has to be notated properly which then makes it difficult to come up with interesting tones. Instead, the instrumental elements tend to come to the fore. Even synthesizers end up sounding like instruments. I wanted to try something else for it to not end up that way, which is how I ended up improvising.

Being influenced by Derek Bailey’s tone in his teens

– You mentioned earlier that you’ve “always liked improvisational music.” Which musicians did you like specifically?

Hirose: I’d say I liked most of the music released on Incus records. I listened to artists like Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, and Tristan Honsinger a lot. And Anthony Braxton. I listened to Bailey’s Lot 74 – Solo Improvisations (1974) in my teens, and even went to the MMD trio (Min Tanaka, Milford Graves, Derek Bailey)’s 1981 performance in Japan.

Bailey’s shows were extremely interesting. He opened my eyes to different uses of harmonics. It was really fun to watch him play. I could enjoy his music sincerely since my first listen, without ever rejecting it. A while after, Evan Parker came to Japan and had a great show at the Nippon Seinenkan Hall in 1982. I could listen to his circular breathing sax solos forever; it was so satisfying to listen to. There was barely any audience there, though (laughs).

– Have you ever felt there were ambient elements in Bailey’s music?

Hirose: His tone was so captivating. To me, his nonlinear approach to improvisation felt more ambient than chaotic. I never really listened to ambient music, though. I started listening to ECM in high school and grew interested in free jazz after that.

– ECM was created in 1969, and represented artists like Bailey who created eccentric works. They continued to build an aesthetic label/sound throughout the 70s. Did you like the works from that era?

Hirose: I liked Bailey and Dave Holland’s duo record Improvisations for Cello and Guitar (1971) and Paris Concert (1971) by Chick Corea’s jazz group Circle, which Braxton was a part of. But within ECM, I actually really liked Eberhard Weber, Steve Kuhn, and the like. I loved their sound, and simply thought their music was pretty.

Most ECM works are not very lively, meaning they work in spatial settings, as well. You can listen to it naturally, you can listen to it as sounds, and you can enjoy it without putting emotion into it. You’re able to enjoy the music in different ways because there’s no specific climax to the music. The way I listen to sounds is more free, and has changed dramatically through my exposure to ECM.

Being conscious of the free jazz structure during the creative process

– In Nostalghia’s liner notes, Toshiya Tsunoda writes that the record was “conscious of the free jazz structure.” What specific structure was that referring to?

Hirose: The first song, “Seasons,” is the most obvious example. Most of its structure is free jazz, and is mostly improvisational. There are a bunch of detailed elements scattered throughout. It’s made to not repeat the same thing from start to finish. Some good examples with similar structures are Albert Ayler’s New York Eye and Ear Control (1966) and several of Don Cherry’s albums.

I also like contemporary music even more than I like improvisational music, and listen to artists like Iannis Xenakis and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Stockhausen came up with a technique called “group composition.” Instead of keeping track of individual sounds via total serialism, you utilize different groups of sound by scattering them and tracking their changes. Instead of categorizing structures of individual sounds with serial composition, it categorized things into groups and scattered them. I talked to Mr. Kakuta about how we were conscious of that sort of approach and of other free jazz structures.

– Speaking of free jazz, you often mention that you like Masahiko Togashi’s albums and listen to them a lot.

Hirose: That’s true. When I was reading Swing Journal, I thought I would try listening to Japanese jazz as well, and not just Western jazz. The record I stumbled upon first was Mr. Togashi’s. I used to listen to Spiritual Nature (1975), Guild For Human Music (1976), and Essence (1977) a lot. Mr. Togashi’s music is very Eastern, very Japanese. That caught my eye, and I got really into the drumming and percussion elements of his records. They sounded like falling water droplets; it was very comforting to listen to.

– How about Japanese free jazz musicians like Yosuke Yamashita and Masayuki Takayanagi?

Hirose: I used to listen to Yosuke Yamashita. But I never got to Masayuki Takayanagi back then. As far as I know, none of it was even playing on the radio. I just listened to the music that I happened to stumble upon.

– How about people in the 1980s, musicians like Masabumi Kikuchi, Yoshio Suzuki, and Yasuaki Shimizu, who incorporated ambient sounds from a jazz perspective?

Hirose: I didn’t know them back then. I never encountered them.

Yutaka Hirose
Sound designer. Born in 1961 in Kofu City, Yamanashi Prefecture. Released album Nova as part of Misawa Home’s Sound Design Research Lab series “Soundscape” in 1986. In the same year, Hirose joined Sound Process Design, a company started by Satoshi Ashikawa, and worked on the sound design for projects in several cultural and commercial facilities. In 2019, Hirose re-issued Nova. Released by Swiss label We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want, the record included a bonus track with unreleased recordings and gained worldwide attention. In May of 2022, Hirose released Nostalghia, his first album in 36 years. Hirose plans to release Trace Sound Design Works 1986-1989 with the same label on July 1st.

Translation Mimiko Goldstein

The post How the “Japambient” Works were Born – Yutaka Hirose Interview – Part One –<br>From Notation to Improvisation, or Free Jazz Structure and Contemporary Music appeared first on TOKION - Cutting edge culture and fashion information.