You bet your ass Japan's '80s-era incidental music is worthy of its own compilation
Next week, Light In The Attic will release Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980-1990, an epic 25-track collection that serves as a primer in the breadth of Japan’s contributions to minimal music, from ambient to New Age to avant-garde. While much of this music has drifted through the web for years, this collection marks the first time it’s been fully licensed and made available outside of Japan.
Produced by Visible Cloaks’ Spencer Doran, a Japanese music scholar, the collection highlights Yellow Magic Orchestra’s Haruomi Hosono and Ryuichi Sakamoto, as well as longtime Studio Ghibli composer Joe Hisaishi. Also featured, however, are lesser-known artists like Hiroshi Yoshimura, Yoshio Ojima and Satoshi Ashikawa, all of whom have had a huge, if less chronicled, impact on the genre.
“As this music continues to echo in modern times and resonate with a new generation of listeners, I’m very happy to help present a window into its universe,” Doran said in a press release.
