Audiopile Review: Provocative statement: the ‘progressive’ hippie underground and the DIY punk movement had a lot in common. Frankly superfluously provocative statement: In ambient music, choons are as important as vibez. What does all this have to do with Hiroshi ‘Green’ Yoshimura’s 1983 ambient classic ‘Pier & Loft’? Well, ambient music was very much an outcropping of progressive rock. And just as punk-tolerant prog rockers like Robert Fripp, Annette Peacock, and the godlike Peter Hammill embraced home recording and self-releasing, the hippie-dippiest wing of ambient music – new age – was very much a DIY scene. Yoshimura hardly seemed like a hippie or a punk (being more closely tied to Japan’s relatively buttoned-down kankyō ongaku scene). But ‘Pier & Loft’, his most home-brewed tasting album, is radiant with flower-power idealism and hot-wired with DIY attitude. The vibe is distinctly getting-it-together-in-a-blanket fort-with-a-Yamaha-DX7. But vibe isn’t everything. Following in the path of Brian ‘Godfather of Ambient’ Eno, Yoshimura was a phenomenal tunesmith. This album’s opening track, ‘Horizon I’ve Ever Seen Before’ must be one of the loveliest melodies ever written. No kidding! While Yoshimura’s albums were often lush and glossy, ‘Pier & Loft’ is as charmingly hand-crafted as anything the private press new age scene produced. It is guaranteed to provoke frankly superfluous levels of bliss.

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Self-released on cassette in 1983, Hiroshi Yoshimura’s Pier & Loft is a contemporary ambient holy grail, gaining a cult status decade after decade. On this album he brought his environmental music in different areas. Yoshimura had a class on its own, far removed from standard new age or electronic music being released at the time.