Toshiya Sukegawa - Sukegawa: Music for Electronic Sound - Japan 2 CD

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Toshiya Sukegawa

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[The Long-Lost Ambient and Electronic Music CD Is Finally Here] Rediscovering the ambient works of master composer Toshiya Sukegawa! Masterpieces of music that once filled office buildings before fading into the urban landscape. ■Product Description (From the Manufacturer) Based on approximately 50 master DATs (Digital Audio Tapes) entrusted to us by Sukegawa, this compilation—released to mark the 11th anniversary of his passing—covers a wide range of works, from full-scale electronic music created at the NHK Electronic Music Studio to ambient music composed specifically to fill the spaces of corporate office buildings. Most of the tracks are being released on CD for the first time, and the collection also includes previously unreleased recordings. The Forgotten Master: About Toshiya Sukegawa Toshiya Sukegawa, like Toshiro Mayuzumi, Makoto Moroi, Joji Yuasa, and Toru Takemitsu, was part of the generation of composers in Japan who were among the first to seriously engage with “electronic music.” In 1954, while a student at the Tokyo University of the Arts, he won first prize and the Special Prize at the Japan Music Competition. Although he followed the traditional academic path and composed many masterpieces for piano, he eventually turned his attention to electronic music and, later, ambient music. The Global Reappraisal of “KankyoOngaku” In the late 2010s, music fans overseas rediscovered Japan’s 1980s ambient music as “KankyoOngaku,” and a compilation album bearing that name (2019) was nominated for the 62nd Grammy Awards (2020). Sukegawa’s “Biotic Music” has also garnered hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube and is steadily gaining popularity as it receives high praise from international music blogs. Ambient music fans around the world have rediscovered work that the music industry failed to recognize at the time of its release. This album is an attempt to shed light on this paradox. Pursuing “Practicality” and “Creativity” Simultaneously Unlike ambient musicians of that era—such as Hiroshi Yoshimura and Satoshi Ashikawa, who entered the field from the worlds of design and contemporary art—Sukegawa came from the realm of contemporary classical music academia. According to Sukegawa’s own definition, ambient music is “a form of music that prioritizes practical purposes while simultaneously seeking to create a new space for musical creation.” In 1986, in collaboration with music psychologist Yukiko Nuki, he produced *Invitation to the Stars*, believed to be Japan’s first alpha-wave-inducing music. The following year, he established the Bio-Sick Environmental Music Research Institute and continued producing music for Kajima Corporation’s office buildings and technical research centers for over 10 years. He composed by working backward from the performance characteristics of ceiling speakers and verified the response through employee surveys. This introduced an entirely new set of criteria to music production. Art is not something that shows reality; it is something that gives us dreams Although Sukegawa observed the cutting edge of contemporary music from the inside, at its core lies a conviction rooted in his wartime experiences: an aversion to irrational spiritualism and a trust in the power of machinery and science to bridge individual differences. For this reason, he actively uses machinery when necessary. And there is the idea that “art is not meant to show reality, but to give dreams.” This conviction was put into practice in *The Endless Morning* (included on DISC 1), a piece for “atomic-bombed piano” and strings themed around the atomic bombing of August 5, 1945. It is the masterpiece that made Toshiya Sukegawa’s name known throughout the world.