- A welcome compilation that highlights an overlooked artist from thriving 1980s Japan.
- In the late '80s, Tokyo was one of the best places to be for a working musician. Japan was at the peak of the "economic miracle," a time of unprecedented growth for the island nation after World War II. This prosperous period had a significant effect on the city's musical landscape: studios were flush with cash and stacked with a vast network of session players, who businesses would often reach out to for commissions to fill their spaces and stores. The blessings, however, wouldn't trickle down to everyone—amateur artists remained a key component of Tokyo's vibrant scene, saturating the city's distant corners where corporate interests didn't dare to reach. As interest in Japanese music from this era only continues to grow, it becomes apparent that there are gaps in the historical record where these more obscure artists belong. Satoshi Suzuki's story fell through the cracks for decades, but with Distant Travel Companion, he finally gets his due.
Suzuki was a hard worker. He performed regularly at live houses since graduating high school in 1977, sharing the stage with over 100 musicians. He worked in advertising by day, finding time to play music in his spare moments. In 1983, he started assembling a home studio after acquiring a multitrack recorder and a cheap Yamaha synthesizer. When the higher-ups at his advertising firm, Real Creative Agency, learned that he was a musician, he was given a golden opportunity to record a few albums.
The company was looking to expand its skillset, and producing records would serve as a challenge to its in-house designers and printers. It was a marriage of convenience. From '87 to '88, Suzuki recorded three LPs, and the agency produced a modest 100 copies of each. He was left with the responsibility of distribution himself, hauling copies to record stores and mailing them out to anyone who wrote to him. Needless to say, these releases did not bring him fame. (When Austin Tretwold of Incidental Music got in touch with Suzuki over three decades later, there were still copies to spare.) Distant Travel Companion gathers selections from each, building a narrative of this creative period in Suzuki's career.
On the obi strip of one of his original albums, Suzuki lists out his touchstones like the daily values on a nutrition label: 40 percent jazz, 30 percent soul, 20 percent Brazil and 10 percent kayōkyoku (Japanese popular music). "A Dream in the Wardrobe" demonstrates that largest slice of the pie, evoking shades of Chick Corea's Elektric Band with his funky synth runs. Suzuki's playing solo, but weaves through the rhythm with the skill of a seasoned improviser. There's a similar feeling on "Forgiveness Without Reservation ~ Lover and Coffee Connoisseur," but he slows down the pace and belts out a tender serenade. His voice lacks the polish of a Tatsuro Yamashita or Eiichi Ohtaki, but there's a charm in the imperfection of his delivery. Here, he's drawing from his love of Quincy Jones—whose records he obsessively collected—as he offers his interpretation of American soul music.
Though Suzuki only scores the Brazilian influence at a meager 20 percent, it seems to have an outsize importance. It reveals itself on "Passing Scene" as he taps out a sleepy bossa nova beat on his drum machine. "Situation in the Passenger Seat" takes it a step further, reaching deep into the well of música popular brasileira. Suzuki namechecks Antônio Carlos Jobim as his gateway to Latin music, and it's easy to see the parallels: jazzy phrases and samba melodies swirl together over his mournful crooning. "Nostalgia is the root of Brazilian music," Suzuki said in an interview with Fond/Sound—and those wistful feelings seem to penetrate his very soul. He pontificates on the beauty of a starry sky on "Miss Shooting" and sings about friends that have come and gone on the stunning closer "One By One."
Distant Travel Companion compiles the previously untold story of Satoshi Suzuki, but it's also much more than a portrait of one man. It's a microcosm of Tokyo's complex landscape, showing just one possible permutation of the countless global influences that rippled throughout the city. Suzuki's arc as a recording artist was short, but offers an alternate history that shows what the music of the late '80s sounded like when it was influenced by the popular sounds of the day but removed from that ecosystem of session musicians with whom we've become so familiar—it zooms the picture in a bit closer to the beating heart of the city.
Tracklist01. 助手席のSituation (Situation In The Passenger Seat)
02. Passing Scene
03. Miss Shooting
04. 灰色のひととき (A Gray Moment)
05. さらっとゆるして〜コーヒー通の恋人 (Forgiveness Without Reservation ~ Lover And Coffee Connoisseur)
06. Wardrobeの中の夢 (A Dream In The Wardrobe)
07. 秋日和 (Clear Autumn Day)
08. 夜の海風 (Evening Sea Breeze)
09. Spouse-同行者- (Traveling Companion)
10. One By One