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. ...

's first solo album.

Background

In December 1988, Hirasawa decided to put his post-punk/ new wave band P-Model on hiatus after spending two years being unable to arrange a recording deal, feeling that the group's continued existence was taking a mental and emotional toll on him. The following year, he was signed to Polydor, where he recorded ''Water in Time and Space''.

Composition

''Water in Time and Space'' is half a self-cover album: With the band being put on hold, P-Model's ''Monster'' album was not recorded. However, Hirasawa could not afford to discard three of its songs and salvaged them for the album instead. Two songs from lo-fi cassette only releases (''

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 Two instruments ...

'' and ''Charity Original Tape'') were also rearranged for the album, with Hirasawa wanting a better form for the former and the latter being a guideline for the style of ''Water in Time and Space''. To prepare for the songwriting of new material, Hirasawa re-recorded "Happening by the Windowsill" by his former progressive rock band Mandrake as an étude. ''Water in Time and Space'' features a large variety of styles, such as march, orchestral, western and folk, influenced by Jungian, New Age and Andean themes. The album has no particular total concept, unlike most of Hirasawa's solo output. Free from the constraints of P-Model and the band's nervous energy, the album is comparatively light and brisk. Though created with heavy use of digital devices, it is one of Hirasawa's least electronic works, with prominent use of acoustic tones throughout. In the manner of P-Model's 1986 album '' One Pattern'', Hirasawa also put emphasis on sampling, with such sounds as bird chirping and coin rolling being used as rhythmic backing.

Production

''Water in Time and Space'' is built around the Korg M1 workstation

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 ...

, whose expansive, organic-sounding palette completely replaces the digital tones from the Casio synths used by the P-Model in their later years. The M1's built-in sequencer and its large memory bank led to a shift in Hirasawa's production style; with the M1, he could record parts of songs that were not completed in studio at home, being more equipped to make music by himself and less dependent on labels. Still, some equipment from ''One Pattern'' and ''Monster'' was carried over, as well as the mechanical lo-fi sound of the former album, setting up the general production style of Hirasawa's first solo phase. The chief engineer of the album is Yoshiaki Kondo, who worked on '' Karkador'' and ''One Pattern'', this being the first project where Hirasawa got his long-sought services unaltered. Besides electronics, Hirasawa also performed with

plucked string instrument Plucked string instruments are a subcategory of string instruments that are played by plucking the strings. Plucking is a way of pulling and releasing the string in such a way as to give it an impulse that causes the string to vibrate. Plucki ...

s and percussion instruments. Only two tracks were performed by Hirasawa completely solo, while others feature a variety of guest performers, such as

session musician Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...

s for parts he could not play by himself and friends from the underground new wave scene. For songs that required choral backing, Hirasawa would get whoever was present during recording and form an impromptu choir.

Track listing

Personnel

- vocals,

classical guitar The classical guitar (also known as the nylon-string guitar or Spanish guitar) is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string instrument with strings made of gut or nylon, it is a precursor o ...

, electric guitar,

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

, crumhorn (on "Haldyn Hotel"), timpani, percussion,

s, drum machine,

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 ...

, sequencer, Ozonotech Computer ("Say" program - Computer Voice on "Dune"), programming,

arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...

s, production ;additional musicians * - crumhorn (credited as "Krumme Horn") on "Haldyn Hotel" * Akiro "Kamio" Arishima, Masahiro Furukawa & Hisayuki Makanae - backing vocals on "Haldyn Hotel" * (also listed under special thanks as "Akimoto-kun") - backing vocals on "Haldyn Hotel" and "Coyote" * Section - violins, cellos, violas and double basses on "Root of Spirit" * - percussion on "Coyote",

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

on "Frozen Beach" and "Venus" * Kazumi "Keralino 'Kera' Sandorovich" Kobayashi - backing vocals and Coyote Voice on "Coyote" * Jun Togawa (courtesy of Teichiku Records) - backing vocals on "No Workshop" * Kayo "Kokubo" Matsumoto - acoustic piano on "Water in Time and Space" * Tsuneo Imahori - bass on "Skeleton Coast Park" * - min'yō styled vocal on "Skeleton Coast Park" ;technical * Yoshiaki Kondo (Gok Sound) - recording & mixing engineer * Shinichi Tomita, Nobuhiko Matsufuji, Atsushi Hattori (Mix); Masanori Ihara (Gold Rush Studio); Yoshikatsu Takatori (Sound Inn) - second engineers ;visuals * Kiyoshi Inagaki -

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

* Mado & Vincent - photography * Akemi Tsujitani, Michiko Aoki - styling * Kazunori Yoshida - hair & makeup ;operations * Octave ** Mitsuo Nagano -

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 ...

** Megumi Watase - desk * Mitsuru Hirose - publicity coordination * Office Moving - concert coordination * Polydor Records. ** Kazuyoshi Aoki - A&R ** Osamu Takeuchi - backing vocals on "Haldyn Hotel" and "Coyote" (credited as "Michäel Saturnus"), assistant ;Thanks *Yasumasa Mishima, Yumiko Ohno, Masaya Abe, Mezame no Sato, Kei Fukuchi, Kazumi Sawaki, AC Unit, Ice Grey, Nobuyoshi Matsubara, Akira Ito, Aria, Casio, Signifie

Release history

* "Haldyn Hotel", "Root of Spirit", "Coyote", "Frozen Beach" and "Venus" are included on the ''ADVANCED ROCK 3'' promotional sampler. * "Solar Ray (SPECTRUM 2 TYPE)" is the B-Side to the "World Turbine" single. * "Haldyn Hotel ractal Terrain Track is the B-Side to the "Bandiria Travellers hysical Navigation Version single. * "Venus" is included on '' Detonator Orgun 2''; "Water in Time and Space (Full Size)" and "Root of Spirit" are on the ''Detonator Orgun 3'' soundtrack album. * "Haldyn Hotel ractal Terrain Track, "Root of Spirit", "Skeleton Coast Park" and "Venus" are included on the ''Root of Spirit～ESSENCE OF HIRASAWA SOLO WORKS～'' compilation. * "Haldyn Hotel" (and "Fractal Terrain Track"), "Root of Spirit", "Solar Ray (SPECTRUM 2 TYPE)", "Frozen Beach", "Water in Time and Space (Full Size)" and "Venus" are included on the '' Archetype , 1989-1995 Polydor years of Hirasawa'' compilation.

References

;Bibliography * .

External links

*
時空の水
at iTunes Japan
時空の水
at

amazon.co.jp Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economi ...

時空の水
at Universal Music Japan's official site
時空の水
at Tower Records Online {{DEFAULTSORT:Water in Time in Space Susumu Hirasawa albums Japanese-language albums 1989 debut albums Polydor Records albums