Haruomi Hosono, Tatsuro Yamashita & Shigeru Suzuki — Kiska
Pacific · 1978
Label: CBS/Sony · Genre: City Pop / Jazz Fusion · From: Tokyo, East Asia
Pacific is a 1978 instrumental album made by three musicians who would go on to define Japanese music in very different ways: Haruomi Hosono, shortly before founding Yellow Magic Orchestra; Tatsuro Yamashita, already deep in his solo career; and guitarist Shigeru Suzuki. Each composed their own tracks and the result is a perfect document of the era — lounge, exotica, jazz fusion, and proto-electronic music dissolving into one another over the Pacific's imagined horizon. Kiska, Yamashita's contribution, is five minutes of shimmering, unhurried guitar jazz that feels like watching the sun set over water.
Did you know: Pacific was the first release in the CBS/Sony Sound Image Series — a concept series intended to create aural mood paintings. Cosmic Surfin', Hosono's contribution to the album, was later recorded by Yellow Magic Orchestra on their debut, connecting Pacific directly to the birth of electronic pop.
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