FOLLOW MUSIC

Yellow Magic Orchestra’s concept of connecting pop, dance music, and Far Eastern folklore quickly becomes synonymous with technopop in Japan. The band’s members also occur in each others solo recordings and cooperate with other musicians. 49 minutes with Apogee & Perigee, Friends Of Earth, Miharu Koshi, Ryuichi Sakamoto & The Kakutougi Session, and more.

After years of increasing harshness on the dancefloor culminating in Gabber, round 1992 the time has come for exploring more friendly grounds. 55-minute mix from the advent of personal computers for everyone and the internet – with tracks by Acid Jesus, The Black Dog, Cylob, Like A Tim, and others.

Aware of musical traditions and eager to incorporate the latest technology in his productions, Haruomi Hosono is one of the most versatile and influential figures in Japanese popular culture. 44-minute program with various collaborations and solo works by the co-founder of Yellow Magic Orchestra – realized between 1975 and 1995.

The second program about turning ideas into sound: a politician’s elusion becomes poetry, music of the collective subconscious is transferred into a dreamy landscape, and insects’ microtonal sounds get rhythmic. 36 minutes with pieces by Blancmange, Graeme Revell, Gregory Whitehead, Holger Hiller, and others – realized between 1967 and 2011.

Owing to a straightness rooted in punk, new things and personalities get invented everywhere and all the time in West-Germany’s music scene of the eighties. 53-minute program with Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle, Holger Hiller, Ingrid Wiener & Chor, Martin Kippenberger, and others.

“Listen to your world. It may be more interesting than all the things you buy to escape from it.” 46-minute program that proves Sasha Frere-Jones’ observation from 1999 right – with field recordings by Alejandra & Aeron, Bill Fontana, Chris Watson, Félix Blume, and others, made between 1958 and 2018.

Free of artificial ornamentation, well balanced, and designed with love for detail, some eighties Japanese ambient music resembles the concept of the countries' traditional gardens. 51 minutes of music striving to enhance environments – with works by Haruomi Hosono, Inoyama Land, Masahiro Sugaya, Yasuaki Shimizu, and others.

Reminiscent of a certain time or place, these tunes are for a chill-out zone. 49-minute program with memories and fantasies by Cluster & Eno, Geir Jenssen, Graeme Revell, Muslimgauze, and others, realized between 1970 and 2014.

The other ambient – made for listening. 53-minute program with slow-paced music by Jocy de Oliveira, Laurie Anderson, Paul De Marinis, Yasuaki Shimizu, and others – made between 1968 and 2013.

“The ecological catastrophe begins rehearsing in the sixties”, writes Allen Ginsberg in 1970; and for more than half a century, political systems are unwilling to fight that development. 45 minutes with sounds of protest – uttered between 1969 and 2020 by Appleblim, Diane Di Prima, Leslie Winer, Piero Umiliani, and others.

During the seventies, musical traditions are being rediscovered in Japan. By blending them with their own preferences, artists create new sound worlds. 48-minute program with works by Akio Suzuki, Haruomi Hosono, Jun Togawa Unit, Toshi Ichiyanagi, and more, realized between 1969 and 2000.

Observations from the Land of the Free. 52-minute program of artistic snapshots by Amiri Baraka, Ann Magnuson, Culturcide, Henry Rollins, Negativland, Peter Roehr, and others – produced between 1966 and 2002.

In the late sixties, women composers start mixing various kinds of sonic material. Often their idea of intermedia art has a link to human life. 88-minute program with Christina Kubisch, Eliane Radigue, Frankie Mann, Ruth Anderson, and more.

10 pieces about the mysteries, realities, and prospects of airwaves. 30-minute program with works by The Android Sisters, Dan Lander, Negativland, Phil Harmonic, and others – made between 1960 and 2004.

With reel to reels, poetry reaches the next level in the 1950s. Language could get arranged in completely new ways. 37 minutes with Ernst Jandl, Henri Chopin, Neil Mills, Sten Hanson, and others – realized between 1956 and 1991.

For some, the piano is the instrument of instruments. Here are ten good reasons why. 40-minute program with works by Charlemagne Palestine, Graeme Revell, Henry Cowell, Johanna Magdalena Beyer, and others – composed between 1912 and 2017.

Letters and numbers as material for expression. 40-minute program with ideas by Brion Gysin, Demetrio Stratos, Henri Chopin, Lawrence Weiner, and others – invented between 1917 and 2006.