music

Hochono House is a re-imagining of Hosono’s 1973 solo debut album Hosono House. Recorded 45 years after The Band-like sessions that produced the rootsy Japanese Americana classic, Hochono House is an entirely solo affair, with Hosono himself handling all the recording, engineering, programming, arrangements, instruments, and singing. It’s a perfect distillation of the various styles Hosono has cultivated over his 50 year career, from his folky beginnings through his techno-pop era, to putting his own spin on the music of his youth. Rather than it being an exercise in nostalgia, Hochono House instead sees Hosono pushing forward as always, acknowledging his past while hinting at another brand new phase of his career.

Cochin Moon (コチンの月, Kochin no Tsuki) is Haruomi Hosono's fifth solo album. Cochin Moon is a clear precursor to the groundbreaking synth and sequencer-dominated sounds that would come to define the iconic trio. Credited to Hosono and Pop Art legend Tadanori Yokoo (who created the cover art), Cochin Moon is a fictional soundtrack to a journey into unknown worlds, inspired by Hosono and Yokoo’s trip to India. Initially the album was to be a kind of ethnographic musical document, using found sounds and field recordings made by Hosono himself. Instead, after Yokoo introduced Hosono to the sounds of Kraftwerk and krautrock during the trip, Cochin Moon became something much stranger. Created almost entirely on synthesizers and sequencers with the help of future YMO collaborators Ryuichi Sakamoto and Hideki Matsutake, the music on the album is the perfect encapsulation of Hosono’s concept of “sightseeing music,” transporting the listener to an exotic place that may or may not exist. This highly sought-after album sees its first-ever official release outside of Japan.