Interior – Design
Released in Japan on Alfa music sub-label Yen Records and the US on William Ackerman’s Windham Hill, Interior was the short-lived passion project for Haruomi Hosono and the four-piece Japanese electronic & new age band. Built on a lot of melodic tinkering and experiments in sound collage, the album drifts through ambient/new age/ and minimal synth-pop realms. The group’s lone album, Design is one of the rare moments where the Japanese ambient scene directly met American new age. Interestingly, bandleader Daisuke Hinata studied electronic music at the legendary Berklee School of Music in Boston, MA, but it was music journalist Eisuke Sato who would introduce him to Windham Hill’s Will Ackerman. For a deep dive on this new age classic, we highly recommend checking out Found Sound’s writeup here.
Recommended – Full Listen
A1 Technobose
A2 Giant Steps
A3 Flamengo
A4 Timeless
B1 Hot Beach
B2 Reply
B3 Luft
B4 Ascending
B5 Park
Arranged By – Daisuke Hinata (tracks: B1), Eiki Nonaka (tracks: B4), Interior (tracks: A1 to A4, B3, B5), Mitsuru Sawamura (tracks: B2)
Co-producer – Daisuke Hinata, Eiki Nonaka
Design [Graphic] – Anne Robinson (2)
Directed By [Original Recordings] – Keiko Shinozaki
Drums – Tsukasa Betto
Engineer [Assistant] – Shinji Miyoshi
Engineer [Assistant], Remix [Digital] – Akitsugo Doi*
Keyboards [Synthesized], Piano – Daisuke Hinata
Mastered By – Arnie Acosta
Photography By [Cover] – Lorie Novak
Photography By [Liner] – Yoshihiko Ueda
Producer – Daisuke Hinata (tracks: B1), Haruomi Hosono (tracks: A1 to A4, B2 to B5)
Recorded By, Mixed By – Yoshifumi Iio
Remix – Akitsugu Doi
Saxophone, Keyboards – Mitsuru Sawamura
Synthesizer [Strings] – Eiki Nonaka
Written-By – Daisuke Hinata (tracks: A1 to A3, B1), Eiki Nonaka (tracks: A2, A3, B4), Mitsuru Sawamura (tracks: A4, B2, B3, B5)