Temporal Drift announces reissue of Hiroshi Yoshimura’s 'Flora'

Temporal Drift announces reissue of Hiroshi Yoshimura’s Flora

STREAM: "Over The Clover" -
Streaming Services / Bandcamp

 

"Flora is an album that is listened to perpetually,
Passed on from one listener to another,
And the charm of the sound- and music-loving figure 
known as Hiroshi Yoshimura,
Just might come drifting through.
Like the scent of a small flower."
—Junichi Konuma

Announcing the worldwide reissue of Flora, Hiroshi Yoshimura’s underrated work originally recorded and completed in 1987 and first released on CD in 2006, three years after his passing in 2003.
Flora is chronologically and stylistically a follow-up to Hiroshi Yoshimura’s acclaimed 1986 works Green and Surround, wherein Yoshimura continues to play with the ambience of sound and the sound of ambience, underscoring his mastery in the field of environmental music. Listening to Flora is like taking a stroll in a park, absorbing the colors and textures of the natural environment—flowers, insects, the swaying of the leaves—as Yoshimura often did at his beloved Edo-era park near his home in Tokyo. As Junichi Konuma describes in his liner notes, Yoshimura’s music “only begins to emerge as it exists at the intersection of passive and active.” Yoshimura's approach to sound and melody invites the listener to hear the intricacies of the music with intent, while simultaneously allowing the aural textures to exist as part of the background of our everyday life.
This reissue marks the first time the album will be available on vinyl (2LP, 45 rpm) and cassette, and includes liner notes written by music scholar Junichi Konuma and remastered audio by Grammy-nominated engineer John Baldwin. Reissue design and layout was handled by Tiffanie Tran. 
Vinyl, CD, Cassette, and Digital pre-orders are now open HERE. In addition to black vinyl, exclusive color vinyl variants are available from Temporal Drift’s Bandcamp ("Evening Primrose"), Light In The Attic ("Sky"), Disk Union ("Asagao"), HHV ("Daisy"), and Liminal Music ("Clover"). The street date is the first day of spring: March 20, 2025.

* First ever official reissue
* Produced in full cooperation with Hiroshi Yoshimura’s estate
* Liner notes by contemporary music writer and professor Junichi Konuma
* Remastered from original sources by John Baldwin
* First time on vinyl, cassette, and streaming
* CD Digipak
* 2xLP vinyl housed in gatefold jacket
* Discs cut at 45 rpm for optimal sound quality
* Vinyl pressed at Optimal Media (Germany)

About Hiroshi Yoshimura:
Barely known outside of his home country during his lifetime, the late Japanese ambient music pioneer Hiroshi Yoshimura (1940-2003) has seen his global stature rise steadily in the past few years. The 2017 reissue of Yoshimura’s lauded debut, Music For Nine Post Cards, his inclusion on the Grammy-nominated 2019 compilation Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980-1990, the recent reissues of GREEN and SURROUND, and a slow-building cult internet following has helped ignite a renaissance in his acclaimed body of work, much of which has never been released outside of Japan. Known for his sound design and environmental music, Yoshimura was a member of the legendary sound-art ensemble Taj Mahal Travellers in the 1970s, and in his later years he worked on a number of commissions including works for museums, galleries, public spaces, TV shows, video art, fashion shows, and even a cosmetics company. He was a friend and contemporary of Harold Budd, and helped organize his first concert in Japan in 1983. Yoshimura’s other notable works include Pier & Loft (1983), Flora (rec. 1987, rel. 2006), Wet Land (1993), and Four Post Cards (2004). He passed away in 2003, leaving behind a lasting legacy that includes some of the most influential ambient and environmental music committed to tape. In 2023, The Museum of Modern Art in Kamakura held a career-spanning exhibition of his works, including rare archival materials chronicling not only his work in music, but also his equally captivating work in visual art, poetry, video, and sound sculptures.

 

Hiroshi Yoshimura
Flora
(Temporal Drift)
Street Date: March 20, 2025
Pre-order it HERE

Track List:

01. Over The Clover　オーバー・ザ・クローバー　6'40"
02. Flora　フローラ　6'02”
03. Asagao　アサガオ　5'54”
04. Ojigisou　オジギソウ　2'50"
05. Maple Syrup Factory　メイプル・シロップ・ファクトリー　4'57”
06. Adelaide　アデレード　7’11”
07. Wind Echo　ウィンド・エコー　2’54"
08. Trick Tree　トリック・ツリー　5'50"
09. Kasumi　カスミ　5'56"
10. Silence　サイレンス　5’15”
11. Satie On The Grass　サティ・オン・ザ・グラス　4'44”
 

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