Kanky Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980-1990 / 2CD book edition

Description

This is a pre-order. Item will be shipped (with any other orders) on or around 15 February 2019.

Kanky Ongaku2CD deluxe book edition

Light In The Attics Japan Archival Series continues with Kanky Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980-1990, an unprecedented overview of the countrys vital minimal, ambient, avant-garde, and New Age music what can collectively be described as kanky ongaku, or environmental music. The collection features internationally acclaimed artists such as Haruomi Hosono, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Joe Hisaishi, as well as other pioneers like Hiroshi Yoshimura, Yoshio Ojima and Satoshi Ashikawa, who deserve a place alongside the indisputable giants of these genres.

In the 1970s, the concepts of Brian Enos ambient and Erik Saties furniture music began to take hold in the minds of artists and musicians around Tokyo. Emerging fields like soundscape design and architectural acoustics opened up new ways in which sound and music could be consumed. For artists like Yoshimura, Ojima and Ashikawa, these ideas became the foundation for their musical works, which were heard not only on records and in live performances, but also within public and private spaces where they intermingled with the sounds and environments of everyday life. The bubble economy of 1980s Japan also had a hand in the advancement of kanky ongaku. In an attempt to cultivate an image of sophisticated lifestyle, corporations with expendable income bankrolled various art and music initiatives, which opened up new and unorthodox ways in which artists could integrate their avant-garde musical forms into everyday life: in-store music for Muji, promo LP for a Sanyo AC unit, a Seiko watch advert, among others that can be heard in this collection.

Kanky Ongaku is expertly compiled by Spencer Doran (Visible Cloaks) who, with a series of revelatory mixtapes as well as his label Empire of Signs (Music For Nine Postcards), has been instrumental in shepherding interest in this music outside of Japan. Together with Light In The Attics celebrated anthologies I Am The Center and The Microcosm, Kanky Ongaku helps to broaden our understanding of this quietly profound music, regardless of the environment in which its heard.

This is the2CD edition, with poster and slipcase.3LP is available here.

• First-ever fully licensed collection of this music outside of Japan
• Extensive liner notes and artist bios, including an essay by Spencer Doran
• 3xLP with deluxe Stoughton tip-on jackets, slipcase & poster
• Vinyl pressed atRTI
• Cover photo by Osamu Murai features buildings designed by Fumihiko Maki
• Product Shots by Jean-Claude Vorgeack

Tracklist:

Tracklist:

1. Still Space – Satoshi Ashikawa
2. Glass Chattering – Yoshio Ojima
3. Nemureru Yoru (Karaoke Version) – Hideki Matsutake
4. Islander – Joe Hisaishi
5. Ear Dreamin’ – Yoshiaki Ochi
6. Variation III – Masashi Kitamura + Phonogenix
7. Park – Interior
8. Nube – Yoichiro Yoshikawa
9. Meet Me In The Sheep Meadow – Yoshio Suzuki
10. Ishiura (abridged) – Toshi Tsuchitori
11. Tomoshibi (abridged) – Shiho Yabuki
12. Chaconne – Toshifumi Hinata
13. Seiko 3 – Yasuaki Shimizu
14. Apple Star – Inoyama Land
15. Blink – Hiroshi Yoshimura
16. See The Light (abridged) – Fumio Miyashita
17. Praying For Mother / Earth Part 1 – Akira Ito
18. Breathing New Life – Jun Fukamachi
19. Snow – Takashi Toyoda
20. Loom – Yellow Magic Orchestra
21. A Dream Sails Out To Sea – Scene 3 – Takashi Kokubo
22. Umi No Sunatsubu – Masahiro Sugaya
23. Original BGM – Haruomi Hosono