Self-released on cassette in 1983, Hiroshi Yoshimura’s Pier & Loft earns the distinction of being both his most hard to find record (Discogs prices pointing upwards of $100 now) and also, surprisingly, his most accessible. The problem, of course, has been finding actual audio of it. On this release he took his environmental music somewhere new. You see hear this in tracks like “Signal F”, “Wavy-Patterned Ice Cream”, and “The Sea In My Palm” bristling with a playfulness far removed from standard new age or ambient music being released at the time.
If you had to chose an environ to play this cassette, one wouldn’t find it hard to place it in an impeccably-designed beach veranda, forming the stage for the bluest of skies days, with the wispiest types of cloud cover. I say this with utmost seriousness: this is breezy music of the best kind. What’s left? Well, the remaining tracks continue showing Hiroshi’s expanding view of minimal music. “Tokyo Bay Area”, using the barest of reverb and simple FM synthesis, prods some of the most utterly languid gorgeousness out of some of the most oft-derided ingredients.
Personal favorite “Kamome Dayori” takes a bass groove looking for a funky home somewhere far more beatific. Once the introduction of the homiest of swirling organ sounds circles in, and bell tones plonk at your heart space, this is quite possibly the only thing you need to start brightening your day. At the end of the day, this is intelligent music for those who never lost that kid at heart. I can only imagine Cluster must have felt the same way many a moons ago, back in Dusseldorf. Anyway, enough of my own daydreaming, more Hiroshi soon…