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"Aggressive and funky! Mix that is filled with live feeling being experimental!'" This was my honest impression when I had listened this mix which had been just finished in private studio 'Quiet Lodge TYO' the other day first(The more you listen, the more interested it becomes!). And I couldn't help feeling impressive surprise and also gratitude when I noticed keywords "experimental", "rhythmic", "electronic" and so on, which are also PROGRESSIVE FOrM's feature, are excellently described in good balance and precise tricks are featured in every key points. This project is a mix CD, which is Mr. Haruomi Hosono had been selecting, editing and mixing tracks taken from ones which are recorded in 9 title CD albums among 28 title PROGRESSIVE FOrM's release items in all including CD album, DVD and 12 inch starting with AOKI takamasa's "SILICOM" in the beginning of 2001 .

Artists had been selected is AOKI takamasa who is supporting the label as its main act also in the sense of stream and pushing of new electronic music in recent years, Yoshihiro Hanno who is contributing the label in the sense of suggesting various approaches in electronic music while he is running his own label Cirque and doing other activities, visual/sound artist Ryouichi Kurokawa who is planning to release his latest from Daisyworld discs which is run by Mr. Hosono himself, keen creator Nao Tokui who is also talented programmer/research worker and three foreign artists : Static(England/Germany, City Centre Offices) who is contained in 2 compilations("FORMA. 1.02" "FORMA. 2.03"), Process(Germany, Traum) and 30506(aka. Souguarehouse, USA). Although I had been working on this project basing on 2 points : "placing it as positive and important point summarizing the label's activity a part of recent electronic music scene" and "presentation of unheard of approach that is sound space direction by Mr. Hosono who is also familiar with new art form and strict musician(not just DJ).", in this mix CD finally came up, it is reflecting above mentioned means, of course, I can say it is also finished as excellent work which has "factor of listening and organic function as mix CD making the best use of each tracks wonderfully." as it should be. This is summarized in 'mixed form #1' and "mixed form #2" which are mixed being added new interpretation using materials of Kurokawa, AOKI and Hanno as its motif under name of Mr. Hosono, for example, and also I can say it is finished in fully reflecting his purpose in the whole flow of the album and in the factor of "sound texture" which is especially Mr. Hosono sticks to.

This mix CD surely draws a line with typical format and tracks of general ones and I hope this will be a chance or a possibility to make new electronic music(including acoustic ones), a lot of releases and people around it push forward, even though it might not be still big as a movement but keep growing its circle in the world and also be a kind of proposition to the format of mix CD itself, of course.
Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to Mr. Hosono who had willingly taken part in this project, Mr. Azuma who is A&R of Daisyworld discs and had strongly backed up to pushing forward this including presence of mastering and persons concerned... nik (label maneger)

 

----- Haruomi Hosono -----
A member of SKETCH SHOW and concept originator of YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA *Haruomi Hosono's recent information Haruomi Hosono, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Yukihiro Takahashi are the founding members of Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO), the legendary group that mixed sound exoticism with computerised music back in the early days of techno.
Since the beginning of the eighties YMO have been the maximum exponents of Japanese electronic music and have had a strong influence on countless techno, hip-hop, pop and rock producers around the world. With visuals by Ryoichi Kurokawa, the two members of Sketch Show (the project that brought Takahashi and Hosono together in 2002), are now teaming up again with Sakamoto in what they themselves have rebaptised as the Human Audio Sponge.