Haldyn Hotel

"Haldyn Hotel" was the first song Hirasawa wrote specifically intended for his solo career. He had a years-long fascination with big drum sounds at that point (he believed they could create the world of a song on their own), but wanted to work with it outside of an ensemble, something he was unable to make with a drum kit. The result was a large-sounding march in a style he dubbed "cheap military band". He saw it as merely a change in approach to a "primitive phrasing" that comes naturally from him when writing music. He also felt he'd taken effect of brass parts (a core part of his sound since the digital-centric era of P-Model) to its maximum extent with the song.

The song was written on the death anniversary of fringe scientist Thomas Galen Hieronymus, inventor of the radionics-based Hieronymus machine, to whom the song is a dedication. At the time, Hirasawa said the "departing train" in the first verse is boarded by "pioneers who died or were killed without seeing the light of day, like [Hieronymus]". Another verse contains more direct references to 2 related fields of fringe science: Odic force and dowsing.

The title location, also referred to in the song's lyrics as "the Jardín of Trujillo", is inspired by the Los Jardines Bungalow Hotel, located on the city of Trujillo, northwestern Peru. It came to Hirasawa's attention through a book on "holistic health" he read on a holistic ramen restaurant in Kameari, that contained interviews of doctors who researched magical practices in folk medicine and visited descendants of the Inca who preserved their traditions; during this trip, the doctors were headquartered in Los Jardines. At some point, Los Jardines stop operating, and its address is currently occupied by an Open Plaza shopping mall, run by retail giant Falabella group.

Versions
An Andean-influenced march with an intro consisting of train sounds (similar to David Bowie's "Station to Station" and Kraftwerk's "Trans-Europe Express") The bridge heavily features two Crumhorn lines, one performed by a professional wind instrument player, similar to Hirasawa's guitar solos, and the other by Hirasawa—who had little experience with woodwind instruments—that consists of a single repeating note. On most live performances Hirasawa would improvise a guitar solo instead of using a crumhorn. A brief snippet of the song's intro melody was posted as a "Standerd [sic] MIDI file" (uploaded on hqx, lha/lzh and au file formats) on Hirasawa's "Ghost Web" site in 1995.
 * Water in Time and Space, 1989
 * Susumu Hirasawa - vocals, all instruments
 * Minoru Yoshizawa - crumhorn (credited as "Krumme Horn")
 * Akiro "Kamio" Arishima, Masahiro Furukawa, Hisayuki Makanae, Kazuhide Akimoto, Michäel Saturnus - backing vocals

The second half of "FGG", the track that precedes this song, is an extended intro for "Haldyn Hotel" as debayashi for the core live band. Features, besides the band, live orchestral backing and a Wind Synth solo for the bridge in place of the crumhorm.
 * Error/Error CD, 1990
 * Susumu Hirasawa - vocals, electric guitar
 * Hikaru Kotobuki, Kazuhide Akimoto - keyboards, backing vocals
 * Katsuhiko Akiyama - bass, backing vocals
 * Kazutoki Umezu - wind synthesizer
 * Shingo Tomoda - drums, electronic percussion
 * "Say" program (Commodore Amiga 2500) - voice (band member introduction)
 * Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Nurse - strings, horns

Follows a story segment from the Interactive Live Show, and stars with the opening "HA!" projected on screen right before it falls down to reveal the band. The guitar, bass and drums are heavily prominent in the mix. The overall band arrangement is different from the error version, particularly on drums and bass, due to member changes.
 * Making of Tokyo Paranesian, 1994
 * TAKA - keyboards, backing vocals
 * Toshihiko "BOB" Takahashi - fretless bass, backing vocals
 * Wataru Kamiryo - drums

Hirasawa sings different lyrics for the last repeat of the chorus. For the bridge, a soprano sax solo is played.
 * Hirasawa Error Engine - Hirasawa Three Acts in Three Hours: Lower, 1994
 * TAKA - keyboards, backing vocals
 * Toshihiko "BOB" Takahashi - fretless bass, backing vocals
 * Kazutoki Umezu - soprano saxophone
 * Tadahiko Yokogawa, Youko Honji - violins
 * Wataru Kamiryo - drums

Rearranged closer to the style of the Sim City album. Thai vocal parts are inserted before the chorus, and on the first time it comes up Hirasawa makes a "shushing" gesture to prepare the audience for the change and to not sing over the Thai parts. The guitar is high on the mix and train samples are played in place of the crumhorn solo.
 * Sim City Tour, 1995
 * Susumu Hirasawa - vocals, electric guitar, Tubular Hertz
 * Miss N - Thai vocals

Arrangement close to that of the Sim City Tour.
 * Unreal Soprano, 1996
 * Miss N, Miss Aeh - Thai vocals

Also following the Thai style. The Thai vocal comes in between the train noises and the intro, after the bridge and throughout the coda. The core of the instrumental arrangement is the Water in Time and Space one, with added percussion flourishes and a new synth bassline that pops up on the second set of verses. A horn solo is played on the bridge, which is finished with Hirasawa flatly uttering "pai duai" (ไปด้วย). This version was released as a free MP3 to promote the album.
 * Switched-On Lotus, 2004
 * Susumu Hirasawa - lead and backing vocals, all instruments
 * Miss N - Thai vocals (sampled)

The first arrangement without Thai touches since that lineage's creation. This version has a piano-based intro, with hi-fi synth strings and a percussion loop. The guitar solo, performed on Ice-9, has a unique sound. As the song ends, Hirasawa plays train whistle sounds on the Graviton.
 * Phonon 2550 Live/Phonon 2550 Vision, 2007

This has a symphonic intro with timpani and Misa Kitara-controlled Zeusaphone backing by the live band. Hirasawa sings his parts of the chorus while covering his mouth and headset microphone with his mouth, and the solo is performed on Zeusaphone.
 * Phonon 2555 Vision, 2012
 * Susumu Hirasawa - lead and backing vocals, keyboard, laser harp
 * Pevo 1go - Misa Kitara, Zeusaphone
 * Yasuhiro Araki - timpani

Connections

 * A bit of the song's intro was used as the coda of "Quit". Hirasawa would later do a similar technique with the also march-like "Parade" from Byakkoya - White Tiger Field & Paprika.
 * Out of Hirasawa's first solo trilogy, "Clear Mountain Top" is the one other song done in the "cheap military band" style.
 * Its possible his work on the song influenced the sound of The Ghost in Science and Virtual Rabbit; he considered their sound defined by "reed instruments with so-called primitive...... unstable pitches".

Trivia

 * A subway advertisement for a "Haldyn Hotel" appears in a scene of the film Perfect Blue.