Hiroshi Yoshimura | Artist

Hiroshi Yoshimura was a Japanese musician and composer born 1944 in Yokohama. He is considered a pioneer of ambient and electronic music in Japan. His music lies mostly in the minimalist genre of kankyō ongaku, or environment music, which employs soft electronic melodies infused with the sounds of nature: babbling brooks, steady rain, and morning birds. Yoshimura started to learn piano at the age of 5 and went on to graduate from Waseda School of Letters, Arts and Sciences II in 1964. Musically, he was inspired by the Fluxus movement, particularly Harry Partch, and the music of French avant-garde composer Erik Satie. He started the computer music group "Anonyme" in 1972 and in the 70's became inspired by Brian Eno, who had a similar minimalist ambient style. In 1978, he was commissioned by the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation to compose the piece "Alma's Cloud". Yoshimura was at the forefront of "environmental music", containing found sounds, graphic design, sound design, and visual poetry. He help solo performances of improvisational music and composed production performances for galleries, museums, building spaces and train stations. As a recording artist Yoshimura released 7 studio albums between 1982 and 2003 (he died in 2003). Standout albums include Wave Notation 1: Music for Nine Post Cards, Green, Soundscape 1: Surround, and Wet Land. Also highly recommended is the 2006 archival release Flora 1987. Yoshimura's music has received much critical acclaim. In 2018, Crack Magazine chose his albums Green and Music For Nine Postcards as numbers 1 and 7 of the most essential Japanese ambient albums. Malcolm Standing for Demo Magazine referred to Yoshimura as "one of the most influential and prolific of the artists to come out of Japan’s ambient renaissance.

Artist Website: wikipedia/Hiroshi_Yoshimura

Featured Albums: Hiroshi Yoshimura

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