「空気」を彫刻する環境音楽の先駆者、吉村弘がハウスメーカーの依頼で手掛けた、生活空間を彩る究極の音響アメニティ。

美術館の館内音楽『Music For Nine Post Cards』や、公共施設のサイン音など、日常に潜む音のデザインを数多く手掛けてきた吉村弘。彼が「住空間のためのアメニティ」として1986年に発表した本作は、音楽と音の境界線を心地よく広げる試みだ。足音やエアコンの振動、カップを叩くスプーンの音と同じように、生活の背景として溶け込むように設計されている。

世界的に評価の高い名作『GREEN』とほぼ同時期に録音されており、二作は対をなす「陰と陽」の関係とも評される。窓の外から聞こえる都会の雑踏と混ざり合うことで、聴くたびに新しい響きを発見できるはずだ。生活の一部として機能するよう磨き上げられたミニマリズムが、静寂の中に確かな彩りを与える。当時のオリジナル盤は海外市場で15万円を超える高値で取引されることもある貴重な音源が、待望のヴァイナルで復刻。

A1. Time After Time
A2. Surround
A3. Something Blue
B1. Time Forest
B2. Water Planet
B3. Green Shower

Repress!

If Surround can be listened to as music that’s as close to air itself, allowing us to enter each listener’s sound scenery, or as something that exists within a new perspective, expanding the middle ground between sound and music, and transforming it into a comfortable space, it would be much appreciated.
— Hiroshi Yoshimura

Originally released as an album in January 1986, Surround was recorded by Yoshimura as a commission from home builder Misawa Homes, intended to function as an “amenity” designed to enhance the company’s newly built living spaces.

In his original notes for the album, Yoshimura recommends that Surround be placed in the same family of sounds “as the vibration of footsteps, the hum of an air conditioner, or the clanging of a spoon inside a coffee cup.” And, as he suggests, “with the addition of city noise from outside the window,” you may hear Surround in a completely new way.

A pioneer in the field of environmental music, Yoshimura’s previous works included Music For Nine Post Cards (1982), originally produced to be played back inside a museum space, and designing sound environments for public spaces and subway systems. Surround was recorded almost concurrently with the acclaimed and popular GREEN (1986); the two albums are described by Hiroyoshi Shiokawa in his liner notes as being Yoshimura’s yin and yang.