Haruomi Hosono (細野 晴臣, born July 9th 1947) is a Japanese musician/singer/composer who is considered to be one of Japan's most influential musical artists, on top of having different genre periods during his career.
He was first part of the rock revolution which took place in 60s Japan, playing for various bands but mostly being known for his contributions to the band Happy End, the first Japanese-language act to achieve mainstream success in postwar Japan (prior stars in the country sang in English regardless of ethnicity). After that, he started his own solo career while still being a session bassist or write for various acts in the Japanese music scene (most notably the album Pacific he has recorded with Tatsuro Yamashita and Shigeru Suzuki which went on to become the major inspiration behind the City Pop genre). He's behind the creation of Tin Pan Alley, an exotica band consisting of former Happy End members. It's after the release of his album Paraiso that he decided to form a band with collaborators Ryuichi Sakamoto and Yukihiro Takahashi. This lead to the creation of Yellow Magic Orchestra which has then become Japan's most popular technopop band in the world. He was also the producer for all the band's albums.
After YMO's short, yet prolific career came to a hiatus in 1984, Hosono focused back to his solo discography and became a producer for a wide variety of emerging artist in the J-Pop scene of the 80s (Miharu Koshi, Jun Togawa, Sheena & The Rockets...). He would go on to venture in different electronics sub-genres such as ambient, experimental or musique concrète before the brief return of YMO and the creation of Sketch Show, a duo formed with Yukihiro Takahashi. Since the 2000s, Hosono refurbished his old catalog by playing them in a blues-rock/swing style.
He is also known for his grandfather Masabumi Hosono, a survivor of the Titanic who was one of only a small few Japanese passengers on it. He was ostracized upon returning to Japan, due to persistent rumors that he'd escaped out of cowardice rather than going down with the ship. His reputation would be redeemed in the 1990s when new information came out (off the heels of James Cameron's 1997 film) revealing that he'd actually helped a great number of passengers survive the sinking.
Haruomi Hosono remains one of Japan's most famous songwriters as well as one of its most prolific if you count all the albums he contributed to as a writer/producer/session musician. He remains a landmark in various genres, whether it is 70s japanese rock (Happy End), technopop (Yellow Magic Orchestra) or exotica (his solo career), along with his fellow YMO peers.
Discography:
- 1973 - Hosono House
- 1975 - Tropical Dandy
- 1976 - Bon Voyage Co.
- 1978 - Paraiso (with The Yellow Magic Band)
- 1978 - Pacific (with Shigeru Suzuki and Tatsuro Yamashita)
- 1978 - Cochin Moon (with Tadanori Yokoo)
- 1979 - the AEGEAN SEA (with Takahiko Ishikawa and Masataka Matsutohya)
- 1982 - Philharmony
- 1984 - Watering a Flower
- 1984 - Video Game Music (with the Namco sound team)
- 1984 - S-F-X (with Friends Of Earth)
- 1989 - The Endless Talking
- 1989 - Mercuric Dance
- 1989 - Paradise View
- 1985 - Coincidental Music
- 1989 - Omni Sight Seeing
- 1993 - Medicine Compilation From The Quiet Lodge
- 1995 - N. D. E
- 1995 - Good Sport
- 1995 - Naga (Music For Monsoon)
- 1996 - Interpieces Organization (with Bill Laswell)
- 1996 - Swing Slow (with Miharu Koshi)
- 1999 - Road To Louisiana (with Makoto Kubota under the name Harry & Mac)
- 2007 - Flying Saucer 1947 (with The World Shyness)
- 2011 - HoSoNoVa
- 2013 - Heavenly Music
- 2017 - Vu Ja De
- 2019 - Hochono House
- 2021 - Music For Films 2020-2021
His work provides examples of:
- The Ace: Hosono is known for his omnipresence in the japanese music industry back in the late 70s/early 80s. He took on the role of writer, composer, session musician, producer and arranger, on top of mastering various instruments such as keyboards, mandolin, guitar and bass guitar.
- Artistic Stimulation: The exotica phase of Hosono's career and the creation of Yellow Magic Orchestra was probably inspired by a bad trip where Hosono extensively smoked a lace joint. He would have panic attacks afterwards and would heal himself by listening to the Exotica music of Martin Denny. This would inspire him for three of his albums which have roots in Denny's "jungle music". Later on, he wanted to arrange a disco rendition of Denny's "Firecracker". After a first attempt with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Yukihiro Takahashi, they decided to ditch traditional instruments and go for a synthesized approach. The result is Yellow Magic Orchestra's first single, "Computer Game/Firecracker". All of this thanks to a joint.
- Gratuitous English: On songs such as Tokio Rush and Rock-a-Bye My Baby.
- Genre Roulette: It would be easy to make a compilation of Hosono's work and have each track differentiate itself from the previous one. With roots of psychedelic rock, he went on to experiment with electronics but also come up with the foundations of City Pop.
- Instrumentals: Some of his experimental and ambient albums don't include vocals whatsoever.
- Lead Bassist: Though no one in YMO has considered himself to be the leader of the band, Hosono is widely regarded as the group's de-facto creative director (much like Robert Fripp for King Crimson), producing all of their albums while simultaneously playing bass and keyboard parts.
- Live Album: One recorded at Chinatown in 1976 (along with his band Tin Pan Alley) and a very recent one recorded at The Mayan Theatre of Los Angeles and released in 2021.
- Perpetual Frowner: While you could find pictures and videos of him smiling, he usually has a neutral expression on some of his album covers and on promotion images.
- Piss-Take Rap: His only venture into rap music was on Yellow Magic Orchestra's "Rap Phenomena", a comedic tribute to the growing Hip-Hop scene in America where he spits bars about unified fields and collective rapping.
- Portmantitle: Philharmony, combining the English words "philosophy" and "harmony."
- Record Producer: On all of his albums as well as Yellow Magic Orchestra's entire discography. He also produced albums for a new generation of artists from the early 80s to the late 90s.
- Rearrange the Song:
- Hosono rarely plays his songs live with a faithful arrangement, especially the ones from his technopop era. His recent concerts has him playing any song from his catalog with a country/soft rock treatment.
- Hochono House does this to an entire album, being a front-to-back re-recording of Hosono House.
- Renaissance Man: Musician? Singer? Arranger? Producer? Writer/Composer? He's got them all checked.
- Retreaux: Since his album Flying Saucer 1947, he has revisited his older discography with a Swing/Jump Blues twist.
- Solo Side Project: Being in YMO didn't stop him from releasing a solo album (Philharmony) and the same could be said for his bandmates.
- Spell My Name With An S: Various early releases, particularly those from his exotica period, credited Hosono under the anglicized name Harry Hosono, which was mostly dropped after Yellow Magic Orchestra's debut album (the 1992 Restless Records CD release of Solid State Survivor features the credit on the back cover, but uses Hosono's Japanese name in the liner notes).
- Supergroup:
- Since all Yellow Magic Orchestra members had pre-established careers prior to the band's creation (Hosono being from Apryl Fools/Happy End and Yukihiro Takahashi being a former drummer for Sadistic Mika Band; Ryuichi Sakamoto had a solo discography and was a touring musician for Hosono), you can view the trio that way)
- One of his 90s musical side-projects was Love, Peace & Trance along with Miyako Koda (from the band Dip In The Pool), Mishio Ogawa and Mimori Yusa (who have respective solo careers).
