Geinoh Yamashirogumi - Akira OST

Geinoh Yamashirogumi - Akira OST (30th Anniversary Edition)

Milan Entertainment

Having been promised towards the end of last year, we finally see the reissue of one of the most sought after soundtracks of all time - that of 1987's Manga classic Akira. Not simply precious for it's rarity (only a handful of original vinyl and CD copies remain, fetching astronomical sums) it is a bona fide masterpiece. Yamashirogumi's forward-thinking blend of electronic and traditional instruments, new-age ambience, vocal ad-libs and experimental jazz, coupled with his extraordinary skill as a narrative composer, evoke a soundscape as dramatic, detailed and compelling as the film itself.

This repress also includes the composer's 'Symphonic Suite', composed in advance of the film. Indeed, some of the film was even altered to fit the composition, an unusual step that attests to the brilliance of the score.

Get it from Juno (UK), Discogs or any good stockist.

If you're interested in learning more about Anime soundtracks, check out the wonderful AnimeonVinyl Youtube page

Hiroshi Yoshimura - Music for Nine Post Cards (1982)

Hiroshi Yoshimura

Music for Nine Post Cards

Empire of Signs

EOS01LP

Lovely vinyl repress of 1982's ambient masterpiece

Despite his status as a key figure in the history of Japanese ambient music, Hiroshi Yoshimura remains tragically under-known outside of his home country. Empire of Signs – a new imprint co-helmed by Maxwell August Croy, Spencer Doran and distributed by Light In The Attic – is proud to reissue Yoshimura’s debut Music for Nine Post Cards for the first time outside Japan in collaboration with Hiroshi’s widow Yoko Yoshimura, with more reissues of Hiroshi’s works to follow in the future.

Working initially as a conceptual artist, the musical side of Yoshimura’s artistic practice came to prominence in the post-Fluxus scene of late 1970s Tokyo alongside Akio Suzuki and Takehisa Kosugi, taking many subsequent turns within Japan’s bubble economy afterward. His sound works took on many forms – commissioned fashion runway scores, soundtracking perfume, soundscapes for pre-fab houses, train station sound design – all existing not as side work but as logical extensions of his philosophy of sound. His work strived for serenity as an ideal, and this approach can be felt strongly on Music for Nine Post Cards.

Home recorded on a minimal setup of keyboard and Fender Rhodes, Music for Nine Post Cards was Yoshimura’s first concrete collection of music, initially a demo recording given to the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art to be played within the building’s architecture. This was not background music in the prior Japanese “BGM” sense of the word, but “environmental music”, the literal translation of the Japanese term kankyō ongaku [環境音楽] given to Brian Eno’s “ambient” music when it arrived in late 70’s Japan. Yoshimura, along with his musical co-traveler Satoshi Ashikawa, searched for a new dialog between sound and space: music not as an external absolute, but as something that interlocks with a physical environment and shifts the listener’s experience within it. Erik Satie’s furniture music, R. Murray Schafer’s concept of the soundscape and Eno’s ambience all greatly informed their work, but the specific form of tranquil stasis presented on releases like Nine Post Cards is still difficult to place within a specific tradition, remaining elusive and idiosyncratic despite the economy of its construction. This record offers the perfect introduction to Hiroshi’s unique and beautiful worldview: it’s one that can be listened to – and lived in – endlessly.

Buy here: https://lightintheattic.net/releases/3538-music-for-nine-post-cards

Drumcell - Hypoxia

One of those minimalist synth gems that sold out the moment it was released, Hypoxia is one of the many 'homages' to sci-fi soundtracks from yesteryear, sonically dripping in all of the appropriate analog goodness. Recorded to tape from single takes upon a Buchla synth, then run through an analog reverb "with no post-production or overdubs", the two songs that comprise this 12" are beautiful and repetitive in equal measure, harbouring a dirty, earthy aesthetic born of the subtle drifts of oscillators on tape.

Limited to 200 pressings, Hypoxia comes in an assortment of five colors "carefully crafted by hand-mixing the vinyl materials. The clear plastic case is silk-screened with the Drumcell sigil in red ink and includes a 12x12 lithograph of Drumcell artwork created on a circuit-bent video processor". Marvellous.
Seems to be unavailable everywhere, but rumour has it Transmission will get a few more in soon.

http://transmissionrecords.co.uk/shop/drumcell-hypoxia/