Audiopile Review: You may know Masahiro Sugaya from his contribution to the much-loved compilation ‘Kankyo Ongaku: Japanese Environmental, Ambient & New Age Music 1980-1990’. Just over a minute of tinkling, plinking ambiance, ‘Umi No Sunatsubu’ somehow manages to be one of the highlights of a very stacked comp. The truth is, though, if you hear more than a minute of Sugaya’s music, you can tell that his style is a little too restless and playful to fade comfortably into the background. His 1988 album, ‘The Long Living Things’, is the kind of hard-to-classify ‘80s electronic music that would fit nicely on Music from Memory’s early reissue roster, alongside the likes of Vito Ricci. The closest Japanese comparison might be to Yellow Magic Orchestra. While the prominent piano sometimes recalls Ryuichi Sakamoto, the YMO member Sugaya resembles most is surely Haruomi Hosono. There’s a jaunty, jazzy stride to these instrumentals that has a true kinship with Hosono’s whimsical idiosyncrasy. While ‘The Long Living Things’ may be idiosyncratic, we must confess that if (like all righteous people) you are a sucker for everything ‘80s and Japanese, this will absolutely hit the spot for you, no messing around.

***

Masahiro Sugaya, his name is now known worldwide as one of the leading artists of Japanese ambient, which has been re-evaluated worldwide in recent years. The Long Living Things, the album was released in 1988 by Japanese musician/composer Masahiro Sugaya for performing arts company “Pappa Tarahumara”, which he also belonged to, and has long been overlooked by all but a few enthusiastic music lovers.

P-VINE is honoured to have the honour of reissuing this great work on vinyl for the first time in the world. The second track ‘Umi No Sunatsubu’ was included into the Grammy-nominated album “Kankyo Ongaku” released by Light In The Attic. Minimalistic, interwoven soft sequences give his music a feeling of floating and warming, this sound is representing the very essence of the Japanese ambient. His compilation album “Horizon, Volume 1” was released on the label Empire Of Signs, which produces some Japanese ambient reissues, such as Hiroshi Yoshimura’s Music From Nine Postcards and Inoyama Land’s Commissions: 1977-2000.