Temporal Drift Announces First-Ever Reissue of Hiroshi Yoshimura's 'Surround'

Temporal Drift is proud to announce the long-awaited, first-ever official reissue of Surround, the highly sought-after ambient classic from Japanese music pioneer Hiroshi Yoshimura. The release also marks the first time the title will be released digitally.

Available worldwide to pre-order beginning today (9/8), Surround will be released digitally on October 6th, followed by the LP, CD, and cassette editions due out December 1st. The first instant grat track, “Something blue,” is available now to stream/download.

Produced in full cooperation with Yoshimura’s estate, the original six-track album has been newly remastered by GRAMMY®-nominated engineer John Baldwin. The LP and CD editions are accompanied by a 12-page booklet featuring Yoshimura’s original liner notes (in Japanese and English), as well as new notes penned by Hiroyoshi Shiokawa, an environmental music scholar and one of the album’s original producers.

Pressed at Gotta Groove Records, the LP edition is being offered on standard black wax, as well as in a variety of limited-edition color variants (including translucent blue wax) ‒ available exclusively on Temporal Drift’s Bandcamp page, as well as through select retailers (Turntable Lab and HHV) and celebrated archival label Light in the Attic, who is also handling the worldwide distribution for the release.

Originally released in 1986, Surround was recorded by Yoshimura after being commissioned by one of Japan's largest homebuilders, Misawa Homes, as part of their Soundscape series. The music was intended to function as an “amenity,” designed to enhance the company’s newly built living spaces.

In his original liner notes for the album, Yoshimura writes, “If Surround can be listened to as music that’s as close to air itself, allowing us to enter each listener’s sound scenery, or as something that exists within a new perspective, expanding the middle ground between sound and music and transforming it into a comfortable space, it would be much appreciated.”

He adds, “Its volume should not become a hindrance to a conversation, and should be placed in the same family of sounds as the vibration of footsteps, the hum of an air conditioner, or the clanging of a spoon inside a coffee cup. With the addition of city noise from outside the window, you may hear it in a completely new way.”

A pioneer in the field of environmental music, Yoshimura’s previous works include his beloved 1982 album Music For Nine Post Cards, originally produced to be played inside a museum space, and the acclaimed GREEN (1986), recorded almost concurrently with Surround. In his new liner notes, Shiokawa describes GREEN and Surround as Yoshimura’s yin and yang, sharing: “These two works must be viewed as a pair. Indeed, I was thrilled to hear that following the reissue of GREEN, Surround will be the next in line. So please, I encourage you to listen to Surround alongside GREEN.”

photo courtesy of Nuvola Yoko Yoshimura