Satoshi Ashikawa 芦川聡 | |
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Birth name | Satoshi Ashikawa |
Born | May 7, 1953 |
Died | July 28, 1983 | (aged 30)
Genres | |
Occupation(s) |
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Instrument(s) | Synthesizer |
Years active | 1974-83 |
Satoshi Ashikawa (芦川聡) was a Japanese musician, composer, producer and record store owner. He is considered one of the earliest flag bearers of ambient music in Japan. [1]
Ashikawa graduated from the Department of Sociology at Tokyo's Keio University in 1977. [2] His first musical performance was at Sōgetsu Kaikan Hall in 1974 and he participated in performances at many galleries and cultural spaces across Japan during the late 1970s. [2]
Ashikawa founded the record and book store Art Vivant in Ikebukuro, Tokyo in 1975. [2] The shop was one of the first in Japan to import Brian Eno's Ambient records alongside a niche selection of avant garde and ethnographic LPs, and became a hub for the influential kankyō ongaku (環境音楽) 'environmental music' scene. [3] Ashikawa's keyboard piece 'Still Space' was later featured as the opening track on Light in the Attic's compilation Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980-1990. [4]
In 1982, Ashikawa co-founded the record label Sound Process with colleague Munetaka Tanaka, [3] which soon grew into a sound design consultancy firm and book publisher. [5] The label released three LPs as part of the Wave Notation series: Hiroshi Yoshimura's Music For Nine Post Cards (1982), Ashikawa's Still Way (1982) and Satsuki Shibano's Erik Satie (France 1866-1925) (1984). Still Way was Ashikawa's only full-length release and featured celebrated percussionist Midori Takada alongside harp, piano and flute players. Ashikawa described the album as "intended to be listened to in a casual manner, as a musical landscape or a sound object... not something that would stimulate listeners but music that should drift like smoke and become part of the environment." [6]
The album received a resurgence in popularity thanks to online sharing in the late 2010s and was reissued on CD and vinyl in 2019 by WRWTFWW Records. [6] Crack Magazine included the album in their list of '7 essential Japanese ambient and new age records', [7] FACT called it "a record of chilly, beautiful stillness", [5] and Exclaim! named it an "ambient masterpiece". [8]
Ashikawa was killed in a car accident the year following the release of Still Way. [1]