“Now, we’re all under stress. What music do you need to get rid of it? You can find it with this.”
– From the liner notes to ストレス・クリニック<自信がつく> (Stress Clinic)
Couldn’t have said it better myself. You see, much like many of you, I am not immune to the stresses of life. And lord knows, lately, I’ve gravitated toward the more “esoteric” side of my healing music collection. Today you get to hear one release that’s been quietly gathering some repeated listens: Hajime Hyakkoku and Akihiro Yūki’s ストレス・クリニック<自信がつく> (Stress Clinic), released in 1993.
Now here’s a question for you: Would you really want me to describe how it sounds? If the answer is: “Yes.” Let me do my best to paint that picture.
ストレス・クリニック<自信がつく> (Stress Clinic) was part of a series of “self-help” albums spearheaded by noted Japanese stress guru, Ichiro Kamoshita. Before he went on to become the Minister of the Environment under Yasuo Fukuda, Ichiro was a pioneering cardiologist who attempted to find the link between stress and high rates of Japanese cardiological problems. His notable quest to spur the Japanese government to treat mental illness as part and parcel of what leads to physical ailments and vice versa, would lead him to author hundreds of popular how-to books providing guidance on what one needed to get “better”.
It was under Ichiro Kamoshita’s tutelage that the Apollon record label tried to create a sort of choose-your-own adventure musical collection that’d allow the listener to find music that would exactly lead them to some kind of musical stress relief. Whoever ran across the “Stress Clinic” collection would pick up the CD and turn over the case to find a flow chart charting you to a specific kind of stressor (and the corresponding album you’d need to listen to find relief).
Do you easily get frustrated? Are you having trouble sleeping? Are you lacking in confidence? Unmotivated?…Having troubles in the bedroom? You can imagine which one I picked…For others, there’s another album made just for you. The point of this music was decidedly not so simple. It was to use healing music – in this case alpha wave 1/f fluctuation music – to release the tension of quotidian life.
If what you’re thinking that what you’ll hear amounts to adult crib music, I’m not going to dissuade those thoughts. Under the collected works of the notable Ken-Ichiro Isoda, Hajime Hyakkoku, Akihiro Yūki, and Kiyoshi Yoshikawa (to name precious few), soothing, quite melodic ambient music – featuring that glorious pink noise everyone, apparently, needs – piped through your speaker to ease your mind.
On ストレス・クリニック<自信がつく> (Stress Clinic) I notice a distinct choice by its musical directors, Hajime Hyakkoku and Akihiro Yūki, to hit on a musical palette that I would describe as “praise” or “worship” music. What this means is a lot of bell-like tones, a lot of resonant or vowel synthesis – it’s as if they heard Vangelis’s Chariots Of Fire soundtrack and realized, “Hey that’s a good way to motivate people to not be so dour.”…yet they still had to create a “New Age” album after all.
So, Chariots Of Fire plus make all of those ideas more languid, atmospheric, and spectral – that’s this album to a T. However, does that maketh an album a good album and not merely background muzak?
Well, if pulling this album out on a great, stress-free day, on my own volition, to dedicate some time to write about it, and share it with you doesn’t show you my sign of approval: May I kindly point you to that flow chart above where you can find a more appropriate answer?