Category: 1982 – other work

Bamboo Music

A common language in music

1982 started out with Japan on hiatus. Their Visions of China tour came to an end with a show at London’s Hammersmith Odeon on 27 December 1981, the dates having been overshadowed – at least off-stage – by tensions between band members, in particular between David Sylvian and Mick Karn. ‘Everyone has started on individual projects and Japan doesn’t exist for the next four or five months while we get on with other work,’ Sylvian told an interviewer the following March. ‘So most of what I do and what I think about revolves around what I’m going to do on my own…Steve [Jansen] and Mick [Karn] are doing session work at the moment. They’re performing with some Japanese artists who have come to England to record and Mick’s then going to do a solo single and I think Steve is too.’

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The Art of Parties – Methods of Dance – live

‘a new energy’

It seems that Masami Tsuchiya heard the music of Japan before the band discovered his. ‘I was very touched by Japan’s music from the very first album,’ he told Bamboo magazine, ‘and I told everyone about them – what great musicians they were. The word got around and Japan got to know about it’. Tsuchiya was a founder member of Ippu-Do, an outfit with an openness to European influences. Some sessions for their 1980 LP Real even took place at Hansa studios in Berlin, originating titles such as ‘German Road’, ‘Heidelburg Symphony’ and ‘Neu! (Changing the History)’ – tracks that boast a new wave sound with synthesisers, sequencers and vocoder vox accompanying driving guitar, bass and drums.

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Le Pollen – Demain

‘life is the art of encounters’

When Sadistic Mika Band broke up, Yukihiro Takahashi had a very clear vision of the musical direction he wanted to take as he launched a solo career that would span the coming decades. ‘I wanted to do something completely new,’ he confided in a radio interview in 2020 on the occasion of the re-release of his debut album Saravah! ‘I wanted to combine elements from new and old music from abroad as well as from Japan and create something unique.’

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Ghosts – live

‘some sense of nostalgia’

Sometimes it’s difficult to remember why you made a particular decision. Especially one that you wish you could change afterwards… It was late 1982 and I was in the final year at school. Important exams were looming the following year which would determine whether I would achieve my ambition of going to university, and if so, which one I might attend. My fascination with Japan had developed in the preceding months as the singles ‘Ghosts’ and ‘Cantonese Boy’ had been lifted from Tin Drum, catching my attention and drawing me to the album. The plethora of Hansa singles had got me exploring the back catalogue, and I was guided through by an enthusiastic friend.

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