Six years. Has it really been that long? Yes, it has been nearly six years since I first wrote about the late, great Masahide Sakuma. It was back in 2016 when all we’ve ever experienced from Masahide came from a certain light. And now, I feel it’s time to share with you something just as special (but in a different light). Stepping out in front of the music, In A Garden ~ 創造の庭で proves that as a singer-songwriter, Masashide had something equally as long-lasting to make.
For me, Masahide’s music has always held a certain “autumnal” quality to it. Of all the records I’ve put on, from Lisa to 1992’s Sane Dream, all of them covering myriad styles and ideas have been tinged with a certain melancholia, wistfulness, and coziness to them.
Ever since Masahide parted ways with his original band, The Plastics, it’s felt like every solo album has been created to showcase gorgeous melodies, songs, and ideas, he couldn’t quite explore producing music for others like dip in the pool, P-Model, and Boøwy (bands he’s more known for). And by the start of the ‘90s it had been nearly half a decade since Masahide put his name in front of any music as he would on 1987’s 黒いドレスの女 (A Woman In A Black Dress) soundtrack.
The duo releases of this album and one called REPLAY～再生 aimed to rectify a certain hole missing in the Japanese music landscape. Under the influence of Berlin-era Bowie and/or Before And After Science Eno, it seems, Masahide aimed to create two albums – one an “alternative” record where he would lend his vocals (a first) to immediate pop songs and the other a purely instrument album with longform songs that harkened to his ambient and neoclassical beginning. Of the two, personally, I’ve ventured most to In A Garden ~ 創造の庭で.
While on REPLAY～再生 Masahide would take all the arms – producing, writing, and creating, on In A Garden ~ 創造の庭で he gives up the production reins to dip in the pool’s Tatsuji Kimura. Tat’s let Masahide focus on playing, creating, and putting out all these more immediate ideas out there. This welcome change of pace allows Masahide to sound the loosest and to project something that he couldn’t before.
Singing in a baritone that feels in league with new-style crooners like Ian Curtis, Bowie, Nick Cave, and others, Masahide plays a part that’s quite novel and interesting. On the title track, together with Miyako Koda, they seem to create an update of both “Heroes”, Modern English’s “I’ll Melt With You” and something from OMD’s high New Wave canon. At the start of that new decade, it appears that Masahide had taken stock of that future in sound and wanted to stake his post forward with it – to create a New New Wave.
I mean we know how many current bands have taken inspo from Roxy Music, its offspring and Bowie, much of current “indie” rock bears their stamp, but to do it differently and (most importantly) brilliantly, that’s a tough hurdle to climb. Spirited songs like “Yin & Yan” and “You And Me” do a great job at adding tinder to dying embers but gorgeous songs like “Nukeru Karada” (co-written with Miyako Koda) and “Will” take interesting detours from his new house sound. On the former, it’s a haunting ambient ballad that’s like little else in his oeuvre. On the latter, it’s a surprisingly warm, gorgeous guitar-led instrumental song that seems to have roots in the music of Felt and other like-minded jangle groups. Sprawling. That’s how this album starts to feel at this point.
“Auf Wiedersehen” keeps the welcome rocking sound of the album alive by taking it to more interesting territories, in this case mixing mutant funk in with the grander experiment. Then the Godley & Creme/Moonriders pop of “Dancer” gives way to Masahide’s greatest Thin White Duke imitation, one “Nudism”. Once again joined by Miyako, together, they build a sexy, sophisticated soul-cum, alterna-rock scrabble that positively moves and delights.
In A Garden ~ 創造の庭で for all intents and purposes, begins as an “okay Boomer” kind of album — laced with equal sorts of nostalgia that hit on myriad points in Masumi’s creative upbringing — but ends (rightfully) gracing us with all of his leftfield ideas and reimaginings that expand elsewhere, pointing toward a unique voice that was felt in whatever he did. Those two final songs “Brazil” and “If…” speak perfectly to what was unnecessarily locked in his vaults waiting to be cajoled by friends and family to get out in his own voice.