is the seventh solo album by

Susumu Hirasawa is a Japanese musician and composer. In the fifth year of elementary school, Hirasawa took up the electric guitar, inspired by the surf and instrumental rock bands he heard on the radio and on TV, later joining his junior high school's band. ...

Overview

With his previous solo album ''

Siren Siren or sirens may refer to: Common meanings * Siren (alarm), a loud acoustic alarm used to alert people to emergencies * Siren (mythology), an enchanting but dangerous monster in Greek mythology Places * Siren (town), Wisconsin * Siren, Wisco ...

'', Susumu Hirasawa felt that he perfected both the "simulated world music" concept that started on ''

Sim City ''SimCity'' is an open-ended city-building video game series originally designed by Will Wright. The first game in the series, ''SimCity'', was published by Maxis in 1989 and were followed by several sequels and many other spin-off "''Sim' ...

'' and his post-''

Aurora An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...

'' vocal style. He essentially stopped experimenting with his style in the late '90s because he felt that no new developments on that front would arise. Instead, he shifted his focus towards creating music for Interactive Live Shows. ''Technique of Relief'' was, from the beginning, a concept album for an interactive live. It builds upon a broad "restoration of a perfect character" theme introduced in ''

Scuba Scuba may refer to: * Scuba diving ** Scuba set, the equipment used for scuba (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) diving * Scuba, an in-memory database developed by Facebook * Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array, either of two in ...

'': while that album was about bringing scattered individuals back together into a group, ''Technique of Relief'' has the thoughts and experiences of many people combining into a

neural network A neural network is a network or circuit of biological neurons, or, in a modern sense, an artificial neural network, composed of artificial neurons or nodes. Thus, a neural network is either a biological neural network, made up of biological ...

and becoming a single entity. The concept of "Green Nerve", which Hirasawa had played with in previous works, appears here as the character of a perfected human. The plot begins as the World Cell's breakdown causes the Green Nerve Network to cease functioning, and the Bridge Builder (Hirasawa) has to repair it. Hirasawa rerecorded songs originally performed by ''

Berserk Berserk (meaning "very angry" or "out of control") may refer to: * ''Berserk'' (manga), a 1989 Japanese manga by Kentaro Miura ** ''Berserk'' (1997 TV series), the first anime adaption of the manga ** ''Berserk'' (2016 TV series), a second adap ...

'' actress

Yūko Miyamura is a Japanese actress, voice actress, singer and sound director. Her nickname is . She played Kazuha Toyama in ''Detective Conan'', Casca in Berserk and Asuka Langley Soryu in ''Neon Genesis Evangelion''. Personal life Miyamura was born in K ...

("Moon Time" and "Mother") for the album. All the album's tracks weren't conceptualized and recorded holistically, but rather continually modified based on various phrases and flourishes he thought of on the fly. On ''Technique of Relief'', Hirasawa incorporated new sounds that he came in contact with into its style: tracks from a

cassette tape The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens ...

Indian music Owing to India's vastness and diversity, Indian music encompasses numerous genres in multiple varieties and forms which include classical music, folk (Bollywood), rock, and pop. It has a history spanning several millennia and developed ove ...

that a friend of his bought in

the country ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

were extensively sampled, 8 bit 22.050 kHz

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...

jungle A jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past recent century. Etymology The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''jaṅ ...

MOD Mod, MOD or mods may refer to: Places * Modesto City–County Airport, Stanislaus County, California, US Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Mods (band), a Norwegian rock band * M.O.D. (Method of Destruction), a band from New York City, US ...

files downloaded from a German site were used as drum parts for four songs ("Town-0 Phase-5", "The Man from Narcissus Space", "Strange Night of the Omnificience", "World Cell") and he applied elements from luk thung after seeing its popularity across all layers of Thai society. ''Technique of Relief'' is the last of Hirasawa's main discography to be recorded in

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...

. Unlike previous occasions, he recorded

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

parts as well as vocal ones. Since he did not bring one of his trademark Talbo guitars to

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

, he had to rent a

Fender Stratocaster The Fender Stratocaster, colloquially known as the Strat, is a model of electric guitar designed from 1952 into 1954 by Leo Fender, Bill Carson, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares. The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has continuously ...

, whose sound he disliked. The album is also the first since ''

Virtual Rabbit ''Virtual Rabbit'' is Susumu Hirasawa's third solo album. Overview ''Virtual Rabbit'' was made in the same style as the previous two albums, although greater in scale, with compositions more in line with Hirasawa's later solo work, and with a la ...

'' where Japanese guest musicians, both singers and instrumentalists, appear.

Track listing

Personnel

Vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

Electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

(

Acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

(

Fernandes Fernandes is a surname in the Portuguese-speaking countries. The name is a patronymic form of the Portuguese and Spanish personal name ''Fernando''. Fernandes is the 243rd most common surname in the world, the 3rd one in Angola and in São Tom ...

Synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

s (

E-mu Proteus The E-mu Systems, E-mu Proteus was a range of digital sound modules and keyboards manufactured by E-mu Systems in the late twentieth century. History E-mu Systems came to prominence in the early 1980s with their relatively affordable E-mu Emulat ...

/2,

Korg M1 The Korg M1 is a synthesizer and music workstation manufactured by Korg from 1988 to 1995. According to ''Sound on Sound'', it is one of the bestselling synthesizers, selling an estimated 250,000 units. Development Korg's chief engineer, Junichi ...

Roland JD-800 The Roland JD-800 is a digital synthesizer that was manufactured between 1991 and 1996. It features many knobs and sliders for patch editing and performance control — features that some manufacturers, including Roland, had been omitting in the n ...

Roland JD-990 The Roland JD-990 Super JD is a module version of Roland JD-800 synthesizer with expanded capabilities, which was released in 1993. JD-990 is a multitimbral synthesizer utilizing 'wave-table' sample-based synthesis technology. It is equipped with ...

Sampler Sampler may refer to: * Sampler (signal), a digital signal processing device that converts a continuous signal to a discrete signal * Sampler (needlework), a handstitched piece of embroidery used to demonstrate skill in needlework * Sampler (surna ...

(

Akai S1100 Akai ( ja, 赤井, ) is a Hong Kong manufacturer of consumer electronics. It was founded as Akai Electric Company Ltd in Tokyo, Japan, in 1946. Grande Holdings in Hong Kong purchased the Akai brand, and now distributes various electronic produc ...

), Drum machine (

Roland R-8 The R-8 Human Rhythm Composer is an electronic drum machine introduced in 1989 by Roland Corporation, using PCM voices. The R-8 features velocity- and pressure-sensitive trigger pads, and the ability to create loops of beats. The device has e ...

with DANCE card),

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

( 4000/040),

Sequencer Sequencer may refer to: Technology * Drum sequencer (controller), an electromechanical system for controlling a sequence of events automatically * DNA sequencer, a machine used to automatically produce a sequence readout from a biological DNA sam ...

(Bars&Pipes Professional), Programming,

Production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

;additional performers *Mari Furusato -

Soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

Voice on "Moon Time" *Keiju Nakajima -

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

Magic

Horn Horn most often refers to: *Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound ** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...

on "Mother" *uncredited friend of Hirasawa's whom he nicknamed - Soprano Solo on "The Man from Narcissus Space" ;technical *Masanori Chinzei -

Recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

and Mixing *Nitt, Toshiyuki Nakamura - Assistant Engineering *Yuka Koizumi (Orange) - Mastering ;visuals *Kiyoshi Inagaki (Tristero Design) -

Art Direction Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and unify the visi ...

& Design *Yosuke Komatsu (Odd Job Ltd.) -

Photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

*Kazunori Yoshida - Hair & Make-Up *Akemi Tsujitani - Styling ;operations *Nippon Columbia **Teslakite ***Eiichi Yamakawa - Production (Executive) ***Toshiyuki Akimoto - Direction ***Mika Hirano - Promotion **Shingo Ninomiya - Promotion **Naoya Shimizu - Sales Promotion **Chika Fujita - Edit *Chaos Union Soho Project -

Artist Management A talent manager (also known as an artist manager, band manager or music manager) is an individual who guides the professional career of entertainer, artists in the entertainment industry. The responsibility of the talent manager is to oversee t ...

*Wai Rachatachotic - Coordinator *Chaos Thai: Takahisa Taira, Sajja "Yai" Tanyacharoen ;thanks *Danuphol "P. Jae" Kaewkan,

Kentaro Miura was a Japanese manga artist. He was best known for his acclaimed dark fantasy series '' Berserk'', which began serialization in 1989 and continued until his death. As of 2021, ''Berserk'' had more than 50 million copies in circulation, making i ...

, Akira Shimada (

Young Animal In the English language, animals have different names depending on whether they are male, female, young, domesticated, or in groups. The best-known source of many English words used for collective groupings of animals is ''The Book of Saint Al ...

), Toshio Nakatani (

NTV NTV may refer to: Television * NTV (Bangladesh), a Bengali-language satellite television channel in Bangladesh * NTV (India), Telugu regional channel * NTV (Kenya) * NTV (Mongolia), a television channel based in Mongolia * NTV (Newport Television) ...

Satoshi Kon was a Japanese film director, animator, screenwriter and manga artist from Sapporo, Hokkaido and a member of the Japanese Animation Creators Association (JAniCA). He was a graduate of the Graphic Design department of the Musashino Art Universi ...

, Suguru Funatsu (Nippon Columbia), Tokinori Katakura & Yuka Furusato (Nippon Columbia), Yasumi Tanaka, NIFTY-Serve FAMIGA Interactive Live 要素技術支援 Project

Release history

References

;Bibliography * .

External links

''Interactive Live Show 1998 "WORLD CELL"'' Story Summary''

"TOWN-0 PHASE-5" music video
{{Authority control 1998 albums Susumu Hirasawa albums Nippon Columbia albums