Yasuaki Shimizu – Dementos

After completing the groundbreaking records Kakashi, Subliminal, and Utakata no Hibi (with his band Mariah), Yasuaki Shimizu moved to Paris for the next era of his career. His 1988 album Dementos sees the maverick saxophonist collaborating with London’s avant-garde artists such as Flying Lizards’ David Cunningham and Tears For Fears’ Manny Elias, and the percussionist Pandit Dinesh, who had worked with Thompson Twins and Heaven 17. He also recruited his sister, Mieko, and recorded her engaging in “hours of idle talk.” Shimizu: “I invited my sister Mieko from Japan and had her join me in long, silly conversations. When you suddenly hear these songs, they seem to be singing incoherent things, but as you listen to them, they gradually become familiar – and a certain atmosphere emerges. There are people who say that they are self-satisfied and no one will understand them, and people who give surprisingly good feedback, and at times like these, I think that the human mode of communication is particularly mysterious.”

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