Satoshi Ashikawa

Satoshi Ashikawa (芦川聡) was a Japanese musician, composer, producer and record store owner. He is considered one of the earliest flag bearers of ambient music in Japan.^[1]

Satoshi Ashikawa 芦川聡
Birth name	Satoshi Ashikawa
Born	(1953-05-07)May 7, 1953
Died	July 28, 1983(1983-07-28) (aged 30)
Genres	Ambient minimal environmental electronic
Occupations	Composer Producer Record store owner
Instrument	Synthesizer
Years active	1974-83

Life and career

Ashikawa graduated from the Department of Sociology at Tokyo's Keio University in 1977.^[2] His first musical performance was at Sōgetsu Kaikan Hall in 1974 and he participated in performances at many galleries and cultural spaces across Japan during the late 1970s.^[2]

Ashikawa founded the record and book store Art Vivant in Ikebukuro, Tokyo in 1975.^[2] The shop was one of the first in Japan to import Brian Eno's Ambient records alongside a niche selection of avant garde and ethnographic LPs, and became a hub for the influential kankyō ongaku (環境音楽) 'environmental music' scene.^[3] Ashikawa's keyboard piece 'Still Space' was later featured as the opening track on Light in the Attic's compilation Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980-1990.^[4]

Sound Process and Still Way

In 1982, Ashikawa co-founded the record label Sound Process with colleague Munetaka Tanaka,^[3] which soon grew into a sound design consultancy firm and book publisher.^[5] The label released three LPs as part of the Wave Notation series: Hiroshi Yoshimura's Music For Nine Post Cards (1982), Ashikawa's Still Way (1982) and Satsuki Shibano's Erik Satie (France 1866-1925) (1984). Still Way was Ashikawa's only full-length release and featured celebrated percussionist Midori Takada alongside harp, piano and flute players. Ashikawa described the album as "intended to be listened to in a casual manner, as a musical landscape or a sound object... not something that would stimulate listeners but music that should drift like smoke and become part of the environment."^[6]

The album received a resurgence in popularity thanks to online sharing in the late 2010s and was reissued on CD and vinyl in 2019 by WRWTFWW Records.^[6] Crack Magazine included the album in their list of '7 essential Japanese ambient and new age records',^[7] FACT called it "a record of chilly, beautiful stillness",^[5] and Exclaim! named it an "ambient masterpiece".^[8]

Ashikawa was killed in a car accident the year following the release of Still Way.^[1]

Discography

Albums

• Still Way, LP (1982) - Sound Process - as composer and producer
• Hiroshi Yoshimura, Music For Nine Post Cards, LP/cassette (1982) - Sound Process - as producer

Appearances

• 'Free Music Rev. vol.2' (recorded 1977 with Tatsuo Hattori, violin) on Japanese Underground Music in the Late 70s and 80s, CD (2016) - Loft Books
• 'Still Space' on Tra New Artist Catalogue No.4, cassette (1983) - Tra Project
• 'Still Space' on Kankyō Ongaku (Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980 - 1990), LP/CD (2019) - Light In The Attic Records