Forgotten Treasures

Hiroshi Yoshimura “Music for Nine Postcards” (1982, Empire Of Signs)

Ambient

Available for the first time outside of Japan, Hiroshi Yoshimura’s 1982 ambient classic, Music for Nine Postcards will be the first release by the Portland, Oregon / Berlin based record label Empire Of Signs.

The label, founded by Spencer Doran of Visible Cloaks and Maxwell August Croy of Root Strata, worked with Hiroshi’s widow Yoko Yoshimura throughout the project.

Home-recorded on a minimal setup of a 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. His sound works took on many forms. Commissioned fashion runway scores, soundtracking perfume adverts, soundscapes for prefab houses, train station sound design. All existing not as side work but as logical extensions of his philosophy of sound. His work strived for and achieved serenity as an ideal.

“Music For Nine Post Cards” is available November 17, 2017 on Empire Of Signs through Light In The Attic

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John-Paul Shiver

John-Paul Shiver

SF Music Journalist who writes for @pulplab @sfsonicmag , likes more songs about buildings and food. He's written for several Bay Area Music publications over the past 15 years.