Haruomi Hosono HHV Records 6 Items

Originally released in 1987 as a film soundtrack, this expressly ambient work by the Japanese composer is based on the Gagaku style of ancient Japanese court music, but with a shimmer of tones created by one person using a computer. Unlike much of Hosono's catalogue, here the synthesiser acts mostly as an atmospheric texture and instead focuses on traditional Japanese instruments, particularly koto, flute and drums. The truly striking aspect of this soundtrack is the layering of the instruments, which accumulate to the point of becoming unfamiliar: throngs of finger-beaten strings sound like a beehive of insects, waves of gentle hand percussion sound like the swell of inhalations and exhalations, the elaborate flute suggests the howl of the wind.

Medicine Compilation from the Quiet Lodge” features ultimate ambient music that invites listeners to another world, including masterpieces such as “Honey Moon”, which has a duo vocal with Akiko Yano, and was originally recorded on the album “Tropical Dandy” and the funky “Aiwoiwaiaou” with lively singing voices. The album was originally released in 1993 and is now issued on vinyl in Japan for the first time.

This was his first studio album in four years since his last album, "Endless Talking", and the first release since moving to Epic/sony Records. This work was the result of sessions and collaborations with Arabian musicians, with an inclination towards the 'world music' that was gaining attention at the time. Deployed often in pop culture as punchline, Hosono takes such sight-seeing and transforms it into a metaphor for sample-heavy electronic music, drawing from various cultures and weaving them together into a new holistic vision. Omni Sight Seeing is the clearest iteration of this concept, as he alights on Algerian raï, Martin Denny exotica, and acid house, too. It’s one part Jon Hassell-esque Fourth World, one part Duke Ellington “jungle music,” with Hosono’s singular outlook running through it all.

Haruomi Hosono is the legendary artist best known for his tenure in the seminal band Yellow Magic Orchestra. Hosono House Revisited is compilation of reworks of Haruomi Hosono’s iconic solo debut, Hosono House, celebrating 50 years since its release. This compilation sees musicians from the Stones Throw roster and beyond offer up their own interpretations of Hosono’s songs. Artists revisiting Hosono's songs include John Carroll Kirby ft the Mizuhara Sisters, Jerry Paper, Pearl & The Oysters, Sam Gendel, Cornelius, and more.

Haruomi Hosono's soundtrack for the movie "Undercurrent" (Director: Rikiya Imaizumi, Original story: Tetsuya Toyoda) has been reconstructed by his own hands! Now available on vinyl Note by Haruomi Hosono

”This is a re-creation of the images that accompanied the film "Undercurrent". For the film, I made the sound fragments as simple as possible, as close to the bare bones as possible. I thought that if I made the sound scape complete, there would be no room for it to blend into the film. Therefore, it was necessary to reconstruct the world of the music when putting the album together. However, I did not use any material other than what I created for the film. This is how I imagined "Undercurrent," a film where serenity and intensity coexist.

First ever vinyl pressing of Haruomi Hosono's full album N.D.E. Featuring Goh Hotoda, Yasuhiko Terada, Yasuaki Shimizu, Bill Laswell & François Kevorkian. Big TIP!

Ever since his days as a pioneer of Japanese electronic music in the 1970s, Haruomi Hosono has constantly pushed forwards musically. The 1990s was a particularly fertile decade for the Yellow Magic Orchestra co-founder. Following two decades spent creating and releasing innovative electronic pop, imaginary sound worlds and inspirational ambient music, Hosono established the Daisyworld label to showcase cutting-edge ambient, techno and electronica, while also embarking on a wide range of often overlooked collaborative projects.

N.D.E. - , one of the headiest, psychedelic, evocative and gently mind-altering albums in Hosono’s vast discography, is one such project. It formed part of a run of albums that saw the Japanese producer embrace contemporaneous influences – think Spacetime Continuum style ambient techno, DJ Spooky-esque illbient, weighty ambient dub and the ‘ambient house’ antics of The Orb – in his own inimitable, far-sighted style.

He was ably assisted on N.D.E. by an undeniably impressive roll call of collaborators, most notably no-wave hero turned ambient explorer Bill Laswell (who Hosono subsequently worked with on joint album Interpieces Organisation), NYC DJ/producer Francois Kevorkian, and fellow Japanese ambient pioneer Yasuaki Shimizu.

With such a stellar cast-list, it’s perhaps unsurprising that N.D.E. has achieved cult status over the years, despite being near impossible to find outside of Hosono’s native Japan. Remarkably, it never received a full vinyl release, with only five of the set’s cuts appearing on an ultra-limited sampler. Now Rush Hour is putting the record straight, delivering a DJ-friendly, remastered version that spreads that album’s seven tracks across two slabs of vinyl, cut at 45rpm.

N.D.E. remains an impressive, unearthly and otherworldly album. Its unique and distinctive sound makes use of multiple nods to Eastern musical culture – think Tabla rhythms, heady violin courtesy of guest musician Arun Bagal, and transcendental synth sounds – but also throbbing techno grooves, Pete Namlook style ambient electronics, spaced-out dub rhythms, bubbly melodies reminiscent of Warp Records Artificial Intelligence-era IDM output, trippy tribal drums, and immersive electronic dream-scapes that recall the greatest exponents of Japanese new-age ambient music.

Highlights are plentiful, from the Test Department-at-dawn brilliance of Bill Laswell co-production ‘Edge of the End’ and the sunrise-ready, dew-fresh dreaminess of ‘Aero’, to the surging ambient techno hedonism of ‘Strange Attractor’ – a near cult cut that remains a timeless slab of hallucinatory dancefloor excellence – and the slow-motion space-dub of Francois Kevorkian collaboration ‘Teaching of Sphinx’, whose oddly processed sounds and low-slung bass subtly reference the Orb’s earlier remix of YMO’s ‘Tong Poo’.

There’s also the impeccable, pleasingly experimental ‘Spinning Spirits’ – all addictive Indian rhythms, punishingly distorted bass, raw electronics and paranoid aural textures – and the sparkling bliss of ‘Heliotherapy’, a woozy chunk of sun-bright electronic hypnotism that encapsulates everything good about Hosono’s mid-90s productions.