Published in 1991, Simulation by the art critic Noi Sawaragi defined the development of Japanese pop culture as a process of destruction and reconstruction of western influences. His book critiqued the technique of sampling in depth, extolling its value as a contemporary art form. Sawaragi argued that sampling provided the tool for a repositioning of Japanese pop culture, as had already been affected by the advent of house music in the US. He further maintained that this process of reinterpretation was itself a signature aspect of Japanese pop.
The transition of the underground scene towards techno was fuelled by the significance of clubs such as Tokyo’s Bank, creating an environment into which venues like Cave and mega-club Gold would emerge at the beginning of the 1990s. It was here that parties aimed at fans of house and techno were established, leading to the opening of the soon-to-be-legendary Space Lab Yellow in 1992.
Conceived by promoter Daizo Murata, Space Lab Yellow (a name chosen to overtly reclaim the western slur) accommodated three dance floors and was meticulously curated to mix genres across its schedule. Yokota regularly attended with DJ Toby, Makoto and Manabu Yamazaki.
DJ Miku would go on to release Yokota’s Stevia and Anima Mundi projects on his Newstage label in 1996. These were arguably the first signs of Yokota’s transition towards more ‘poetic electronica’, as described by journalist Tsutomu Noda.
Tenshin, which has the dual meaning ‘heaven’ or ‘transformation’, was Yokota’s first artist name. Then came his acid mononym Ebi (which translates as ‘shrimp’) on German imprint Space Teddy. This was followed by the first two album releases under his real name: The Frankfurt-Tokyo Connection’ for Harthouse (Germany) and Acid Mount Fuji’ on Sublime (Japan).
After this came a string of aliases; Yin and Yang for Frogman Records (Japan), Ringo and Prism, also signed to Sublime (Japan), 246 on Sublime sub-label Reel Musiq (run by DJ Yama), Mantaray for the US label Silent, and Anima Mundi and Stevia on Newstage. A 1996 abstract ambient album came out under his Bamboo Data guise. Yokota also released under his own name for the majority of these labels - Harthouse and Sublime in the early years, but also for imprints Exceptional (UK) Play (Japan) and United Sounds of Blue, a Frogman sub-label.
Much to the amusement of DJ Toby and his contemporaries, Yokota’s Ebi project was named after a semi-hallucinatory imagining of a shrimp as a drum machine, a detailed legend of which can be seen on the insert for his second offering, Zen, on Space Teddy. The image sees the curve of the tail as the bass drum, the tip as the clap, the head as the snare, antennae as cymbals and the legs as rolling 16th beat hi-hats. Yokota later explained that “The most visible form (attributed to techno) was Ebi. Rhythms were transformed as Ebi jumping up and down. This experience of visualising sound led me to create electronic music”.
The coastal resorts in Goa had been a pilgrimage site for European hippies since the late 60s. By the early 1990s the developing trance scene had become integral to the region. Several of the DJs who visited Goa began to extend their tours to take in Tokyo clubs, which were relatively cost effective to reach from India.
Enigmatic friend Makoto was a fellow designer and a significant influence on Yokota during his early years after art school. Makoto was an art director for the legendary Kyoto-based underground psychedelic band Les Rallizes Dénudés. He was renowned for his wild dance freakouts that often accompanied Yokota’s early onstage performances. An avid fan of French decadent literature, his room was lined with books by Baudelaire and Villiers de L'Isle-Adam.
The two friends shared the same taste in music, and Makoto played an important part in Yokota’s early productions, collaborating on the first Tenshin project and early Ebi releases. Long after, when Yokota supported Underground Resistance at their first Tokyo show in 2006, Makoto was again to join him on stage.
Ken Ishii’s Garden On The Palm on R&S Recordings (Belgium) followed hot on the heels of Yokota’s Harthouse debut. Ishii’s management company Music Mine approached Yokota offering to represent him alongside Ishii. Though their styles were different, as fellow pioneers of Japanese techno they were often viewed as a pair, being interviewed and photographed together and touring as Sublime label mates.
Yokota had met local Paris-born DJ Alex Prat (aka Alex From Tokyo) at the Sublime office in Shibuya in 1995. Yokota was preparing to release his sprawling new album Metronome Melody, the first under alias Prism, and Alex was enthralled by the pensive and refined garage house sounds he was hearing. Yokota was also interested in the burgeoning house scene in France and the two would share music recommendations and impassioned late-night conversations, amassing an arsenal of material they would play out on the weekends when they landed on the same bill.
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.
The evocative, cinematic slant of Yokota’s music doubtless led to director Alejandro González Iñárritu commissioning him to write the soundtrack for his 2006 film Babel, starring Brad Pitt. Yokota could not accept the commission due to his declining health, however he joined Ryuichi Sakamoto in contributing the piece Gekkoh.
The albums The Boy and the Tree and Laputa were a direct response to Hayao Miyazaki's anime. These films, an overt celebration of ancient spirituality and nature, were a reminder of Yokota’s earlier visit to the island of Yakushima, home of Jomon Sugi, the ancient tree at the heart of an untouched ravine. The search for a route back to such spirituality was also part of Noi Saragawa’s enquiry into a solution to Japanese cultural dissonance.