Takashi Kokubo - A Pioneer in Sound/Composition & Eco-Ambience

Born in Japan in the mid 50s, “environmental” sound composer and New Age ambient pioneer, Takashi Kokubo began creating music while tastefully bending the razor sharp traditions of what was accustomed and accepted in Japan during this time in its history. Having been active with early outfits throughout the 70s such as Stomu Yamashita, Ryuichi Sakamoto and The Bach Revolution, it wouldn’t be until the following decade that Kokubo would release his groundbreaking debut as a solo musician entitled “Digital Bach” in 1980. Setting his sights on a truly colorful journey both in sound and composition, Kokubo makes a harrowing contribution to the late, haunted composer by eagerly straddling the divided line between organized chaos and intoxicated romanticism. Through sophisticated tech and calculated patterns, “Digital Bach” initiates the eternal blue flame that lays dormant within. A perfect introduction to what would become an intricate explosion in Japan’s extravagant music history, Kokubo stirs the echos of a prolific genius caught in some cosmic vacuum in cold space. A mind shattering relationship between the organic world and the plastic palaces of life and death, the 1980s truly became the decade for existential mayhem and carefully articulated bliss into the artistic ether or creativity.

A fugitive in the shadows who splits wicked atoms effortlessly via holy collaboration with natural world elements and subliminal rage, the futuristic composer sets out on an aluminum voyage through a silvery matrix both in depth and customization. A liquidated horizon whose strengths are portrayed through a soft portrait while carefully whistling into some old sacred wind, Kokubo followed up “Digital Bach” with 1985’s “The Poets of Bauhaus” before establishing his very own laboratory of sound called Studio Ion. Throughout the remainder of the decade the composer would go on to receive the Grand Prix for his achievements in both video and art/design and as the 1990’s neared, Kokubo would inhabit one of the most unique and treasured times in his career. Between ‘92 and ‘93, the composer released a total of ten albums know as the “Ion Series”. A collection of brilliant works both captivating and insightfully intelligent, this would soon become the decade where Kokubo released a significant body of work that would stand the test of time as the millennium neared and his career, a continuation of excitement into the natural world of music, would flourish and preserver.