Tsutomu Noda was to become a good friend of Yokota’s, having interviewed him on many occasions and visited his various studios and apartments regularly. Whenever Yokota finished an album he would always contact Noda for a debrief.
Tony Morley of The Leaf Label was introduced to Yokota’s work by Andrew ‘Plug’ Lazonby, then running Leaf’s Japanese distribution company. Morley was captivated by Yokota’s Skintone output, in particular Image 1983 - 1998, the collection of eerie, otherworldly recordings which was the second album on Skintone in Japan. It subsequently became the first Yokota release on Leaf in September 1999 (including for the first time in vinyl format), followed six months later by Magic Thread.
By the time Sakura came out in Japan, international interest in Yokota’s ambient works was developing and Leaf hit the ground running with a corresponding release in September 2000, the label’s third Yokota release in just under a year. ‘Yokota was producing music at a phenomenal rate,’ says Morley. ‘As well as the Skintone albums he was producing house and techno for other labels - he was putting out three or four albums a year in this period. But Sakura was the one that really hit in the west. The reaction to it was immediate and long-lasting. We were selling hundreds of copies a month for years after it was released. It still sounds phenomenal. It has a timeless quality that I think comes from the fact that there’s something slightly unsettling about it. That doesn’t exist in a lot of the ambient music released at the time.’
Sakura is still the label’s biggest selling album, and scarce original vinyl copies fetch eye-watering sums online. Leaf continued to release the Skintone albums Grinning Cat, The Boy and the Tree and a limited edition vinyl only release of Will, positioning Yokota as a leading artist in a renewed ambient genre.
The relationship continued until they parted ways at the time of the proposed Symbol album. The album was a significant departure from previous releases and represented a huge legal challenge given the number of both classical and contemporary samples that needed to be cleared. Lo Recordings stepped in and in 2005 Symbol was released. The album became one of the most successful for Yokota. Lo then went on to put out the second half of the Skintone recordings, by this point restricted to CD only.
Although eclipsed by the acclaim for his music, Yokota’s visual practise never stopped developing. The release of Sakura coincided with a solo show of work at a prestigious Aoyama gallery. The exhibition included his object works, photographic works, visual works and paintings. Many of the artworks were reproduced for Skintone releases, among them sleeve art for Mix and Image 1983 - 1998 and the artwork for Sakura.