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or such a successful musician he has an unassuming, laid-back presence. While his fellow YMO bandmate, Ryuichi Sakamoto, has a more obvious worldwide pro- file, particularly as a film composer, Hosono has always seemed happier to remain behind the scenes. Although he has legions of fans, especially within Japan, he’s also regarded as a musician’s musician. Kickstarting the careers of many, at times it seems almost everyone in Japan cites him as an influence.
Hosono played in the UK with YMO at the end of the 1970s, early ‘80s, and then in 2008 as part of Meltdown on the South Bank. Despite previous invitations, these concerts were his first ever solo shows in Europe. So why now?
“I’ve never thought that much about playing concerts over- seas, but when I heard Light In The Attic were releasing the records and I got invited to the show in London, I thought ‘why not?’ Earlier this year, going to Taipei and Hong Kong and getting a great reaction from the audience, helped.”
Light in the Attic founder Matt Sullivan explained how the UK dates and releases came about: “Our focus as a label is archival work, trying to release things for the first time, or things that haven’t had the right context, they need liner notes and giving a little extra love. We’re deep into now what we call the Japan Archival Series and the first thing we did last year was a compila- tion called Even A Tree Can Shed Tears, a compilation of Japanese folk and rock from the early 1970s.”
“Then we’re in town because of a show at the Barbican in London celebrating the 16-year anniversary of Light In The Attic with a number of artists whose music we’ve reissued over the years including Acetone, Willie Thrasher and Linda Saddleback, and of course Haruomi Hosono.”
“Light in the Attic are reissuing lots of Haruomi Hosono records starting in August and September with his solo works that haven’t been released outside Japan and, for me, they’re masterpiece after masterpiece, one of the most criminally overlooked artists.”
“To start we’re releasing five records: Philharmony, Paraiso, Omni Sight Seeing, Cochin Moon and Hosono House. The first three for now only in the US, the other two in Europe as well and everywhere outside Japan. Hosono House was his first album, which came out in 1973 and Omni Sight Seeing is 1989. They’re going to look really nice. We’ve added liner notes with interviews, the lyrics translated into English, and a number of old photos, incredible shots, so we’re really happy.”
“He really has an incredible body of work, but one that is extremely varied in terms of genres and styles, things from exotica to ambient music to New Orleans sounds, Caribbean sounds. I don’t know a lot of artists whose work is that kind of broad and also cutting-edge the whole time. Even his new record is great. At 71 years old he continues to push the envelope which is beautiful to see. Hopefully we’ll do additional Hosono records in 2019 so it’s a long-term series.”
I wondered when Sullivan had first come across Hosono’s music. “My first time hearing him was through Happy End and the film Lost In Translation with Bill Murray. His was the only song that was by a non-Western artist. I didn’t go deeper, I should have done, but I met this collector and musician in Nashville called Jake Orrall, and he sent us a cassette of his favourite folk, country and rock songs of the 1970s out of Japan, which Even A Tree started from. Hosono was on there, and then Yosuke Kitazawa, our co- worker at Light In The Attic was already in tune with the music, so started playing me Bon Voyage, Tropical Dandy, Paraiso and all these other sounds. It was like getting punched in the face. How did I not know about this? It was like a well opening, fascinating, and I haven’t got through the whole catalogue yet. It’s giant. He just did the soundtrack to this movie Shoplifters, a Japanese film, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, The guy’s incredible.”
Hosono is often described in these terms as a pioneering influ- ence on so many types of music. How does he himself view this? “I don’t think I’m a pioneer. I’ve never tried to be a pioneer, just did what I wanted to do, but for these forty or fifty years, as I’ve start- ed doing all these different types of music, the world gradually caught up with what I was doing and I slowly built up a fan base. But all this time I’ve just been doing what I wanted to do. I haven’t had to answer to anyone or tried to be a pioneer or anything like that, just play my own music.”
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