Time brings bizarre artifacts ashore. Today, Hiroshi Yoshimura is considered one of the central figures in the history of Japanese electronic music. Yet, ten years ago, his works were almost unknown outside the professional musicians’ circles.

Hiroshi Yoshimura was an outsider in show business. Having played in the electronic group Anonyme and recorded a track “Alma’s Cloud” commissioned by the NHK in the 70s, he later chose to do private commissions and experiment with sound design. His works would sound in train stations, hotels and airports, museums, and fashion shows. He was one of the pioneers of kankyō ongaku, Japanese environmental music. If one wants to get acquainted with his music, it’s worth trying to start with GREEN.

First released in 1986 on AIR Records, the disc has never been reissued until recently. Many years later, some fans pulled GREEN out to Youtube, which algorithms started suggesting it as Brian Eno-relevant, and the album gained a new audience. They were so many that Discogs was offering up to $1,000 for the original edition. Independent labels got interested in Yoshimura’s work, and the Light In The Attic even opened a WATER COPY division to release this CD.

Yoshimura once said that applicably to this work, green is not just a color but “the comfortable scenery of the natural cycle.” But he didn’t specify what exactly the scenery hides and why one may need comfort. Recorded in the heart of Tokyo, GREEN is not only about the inside. It is also about what permeates from the outside. There are so many latent dynamics and sharp, nervous tension, no wonder it’s not grass on the cover but zygocactus. It has claws.