What exactly gives life to any inanimate object? Is it the way it looks? Is it the way we interact with it? Or is it the memories we attach to it? I imagine these were some of the many questions revolving around Yoshihiro Kanno’s head when he was invited to create environmental music to fill the public spaces at the rechristened Sapporo Beer Factory in Hokkaido, Japan.
In 1993, the factory was reborn nearly a century after its creation as a multi-use space (a first for Sapporo City) where shopping, recreation, and yes, good, old fashioned beer tasting and buying could coexist. With that in mind, 90 works were written by Yoshihiro (imagining them as “spatial” music, rather than background music), and of those, 8 improvised songs were selected and collected to present in CD form on サッポロファクトリー環境音楽コラージュ (Music In Sapporo Factory) for those interested in getting a taste of what visitors could experience on site or for visitors to remember their stay.
At that snapshot in time, Yoshihiro was far from a household name. Just 40 years young, his claim to fame (at least in the overground world) was as a composer, providing music for Mamoru Oshii’s surreal anime, Angel’s Egg 天使のたまご and various NHK documentaries. Yet it was in his most heard of works that one could sense the endless experimenter inside.
As a composer, Yoshihiro understood how to divide his “serious” music from the “commercial” one. Far from dividing himself as a “classical” composer, he took seriously the craft of writing “pop” music, when the opportunity arose. Architecture, spirituality, sound design, all those things provided him a palette to mix with music. Projecting contemporary ideas, he explored myriad ideas, some purely electronic, others using nature as instrument, or creating music that could palpably sound immediate (as emotionally considerate of the listener’s soundspace). For this work, it appeared he tapped into his own nostalgia for the locale itself.
Far from being a mere structure made of brick and mortar, Yoshihiro had experienced the Sapporo Factory as a living thing. On the outside, ivy and greenery changed with the season, creating a tableau representing Japan’s (and especially Hokkaido itself) evolution in modern history. Within it, perhaps as imagined by those working and passing through it, looking outside, one could dream of the sights of the gorgeous scenery waiting for them in this, the most northern prefecture. Snow, flowers, revelry, all things inspired by what was both inside and outside of this building. You simply had to be there to know what this meant.
So, as big as the factory was, it was dwarfed by the memories it produced for others. So, too Yoshihiro Kanno’s own music for it seemed especially teeming with intimacy, imagination, and nostalgia. Whatever question I posed at the beginning of this post, he answered with this.
And in that spirit, I believe I should finish with the thoughts Yoshihiro, and the Sapporo brand itself, shared about his work (in the liner notes to this album):
The 8 songs recorded on this CD are excerpts from about 90 environmental music songs for “Seikatsu Kogobo Sapporo Factory” composed by Mr. Yoshihiro Kanno.
These songs were broadcasted as “environmental music” (music as a part of the spatial environment, not just BGM) in public passages, underpasses, skywalks, etc. of Sapporo Factory.
The reason for not naming these groups as “suites” or “symphonies” is that about 5-10 minutes of these songs were broadcast and played in different order every day. This collection of pieces is a “collage of sounds” in the sense that fragments of unit pieces were combined in a variety of ways to expand various forms of sound.
Sapporo Beer Development Co., Ltd.
In winter, I long for spring. I love the life that sprouts in the cold and prepares for spring. I want to see the flowers that bloom in the snowy season. I want to see snow in summer and flowers in winter. A small, human, dream. The Sapporo Factory is a dream space that makes this possible.
The music that plays there also has four seasons. Spring, summer, autumn, winter, in festivals, plazas, markets, encounters, gatherings, and scenes of life. Each floor is arranged to be in a different season, a different place. So, yes, your ears travel through the seasons. When I went to another floor, there was a different world, a journey for your ears.
Snow in summer, flowers in winter.
I chose 8 songs from among them. The songs on this CD, selected by chance, are sincerely happy to meet you and wish you a new beginning on your journey.
Yoshihiro Kanno
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