Album:Water in Time and Space

Water in Time and Space (時空の水) is Susumu Hirasawa's first solo album. It is the first part of a trilogy, with The Ghost in Science being the second, and Virtual Rabbit being the third, that explores reality, religion, science and dreams.

Background
At the end of P-Model's 28 December 1988 show at Shibuya Club Quattro, Susumu Hirasawa announced that the band was "entering cold sleep in preparation for the coming ice age", effectively signalling its disbandment. The decision came after Hirasawa's personal realization that P-Model stopped being a band after he became the major creative force and that it only kept operating due to his emotional attachment, combined with an unhealthy mental situation through most of its existence. Their inability to arrange a deal with any label after two years searching for one was also a factor.

At the same time he tried to get Monster off the ground, Hirasawa maintained side projects that went beyond the scope of P-Model: On the music side, he made Shun 4 and the first tracks of How About Fuko; both ventures saw him experimenting with new forms of sampling and layering tracks. Elsewhere, he carved out a career as an amateur CG artist, eventually establishing the private label "Photon" to distribute tapes of his CG work through mail order.

Following the announcement of P-Model's separation, Hirasawa took to untying his other outlets from the band: On 1 March his management office changed its name from "Model House" to "Octave", the official fanclub followed suit a month after the album's release, from "Moire Club" to "Hirasawa Bypass". In 4 April, Hirasawa signed a contract with Polydor and started recording the album in their studios, taking only a month to do so. His first solo tour took place one month after finishing the album.

Composition
In 1988, Korg released the M1 workstation synthesizer. Hirasawa acquired one and tested it by rerecording Mandrake's "Happening by the Windowsill". Before communicating his intention to end P-Model to the other members, Hirasawa had been writing new material throughout mid-late 1988 on the M1, subconsciously intending it for solo use.

In a situation somewhat similar to the creation of In a Model Room a decade earlier, Hirasawa had a cache of material to work with: half of Water in Time and Space is effectively a self-cover album of material he had worked on in the two years bereft of any major release that preceded it. He could not afford to discard three Monster songs ("Coyote", "No Workshop", "Dune") and salvaged them for the album instead. Two songs from independent lo-fi cassette only releases (Scuba's "Frozen Beach" and Charity Original Tape's "Root of Spirit") were also rearranged for the album, with Hirasawa wanting a better form for the former and the latter being a guideline for the style of Water in Time and Space..

Water in Time and Space features a large variety of styles, such as march, orchestral, western and folk; influenced by Jungian, new-age and Andean themes. The press release defines the genre as "Isotonic Pop" (アイソトニック・ポップ). The album has no particular total concept, unlike most of Hirasawa's solo output.

Free from the constraints of P-Model and the band's nervous energy, Water in Time and Space is comparatively light and brisk. Though created with heavy use of digital devices, it is one of Hirasawa's least electronic works (on surface), with prominent use of acoustic tones throughout. In the manner of P-Model's 1986 album One Pattern, Hirasawa also put emphasis on sampling. Reflecting the change in approach he took with it after that album, found sounds like bird chirping and coin rolling are used as rhythmic backing, unlike the MIDI guitar percussion solos of One Pattern.

Production
Water in Time and Space is built around the Korg M1, whose expansive, organic-sounding preset palette completely replaces the digital tones from the Casio synths used by the Nakano era P-Model. The synth led to a shift in Hirasawa's production style: With the M1, he could create drafts of all the songs at home, only going to studios for vocals and specific instrument lines. Still, some Nakano era equipment (Hirasawa's trademark Talbo guitars and electronic devices) carries over.

The chief engineer is Yoshiaki Kondo, who worked on Karkador and One Pattern, this being the first project where Hirasawa got his long-sought services unaltered, the previous ones subject to disputes with Alfa over choice of engineers and undercover re-engineering. Water in Time and Space has a mechanical lo-fi sound, not too dissimilar from One Pattern; this became the sound of the first solo phase. Besides the electronics, Hirasawa also performed with plucked string instruments and, for the first time on a released recording, percussion instruments. He's given a blanket "all instruments" credit.

Only two tracks were performed by Hirasawa completely solo, while others feature a variety of guest performers: session musicians for parts he couldn't play by himself, friends and actors from underground new wave scene; his collaboration with guests here led to the beginning of his solo backing band. For songs that required choral backing, Hirasawa would get whoever was present on the studio and form an impromptu choir.

Visuals
The artwork of Water in Time and Space was made by Kiyoshi Inagaki, who had done some graphic work for P-Model and Shun. The art design of the album set up some general design characteristics for Hirasawa's solo albums: Water in Time and Space is Hirasawa's first album where a photo of him was used for the cover, with the colors heavily manipulated; the symbol on the cover is Hirasawa's autograph, which makes various appearances through his works, being heavily prominent in the early stage of his solo career. The art is themed around water imagery. The photographs in the booklet feature Hirasawa wearing a suit jacket with a large black vertical stripe on the middle of the jacket, two smaller white stripes running between the large black one and the sleeves, and lack sleeves; popping out of the main stripe is a gaudily-patterned ascot; Hirasawa wore this in his 1989 shows.

Personnel

 * Susumu Hirasawa - Vocals, Classical guitar, Electric guitar, Bass, Crumhorn (on "Haldyn Hotel"), Timpani, Electronic drums, Percussion, Synthesizers, Drum machine, Sampler, Ozonotech Computer ("Say" program - Computer Voice on "Dune"), Programming, Arrangements, Production


 * Additional musicians
 * Minoru Yoshizawa - Crumhorn (credited as "Krumme Horn") on "Haldyn Hotel"
 * Akiro "Kamio" Arishima, Masahiro Furukawa & Hisayuki Makanae - Backing Vocals on "Haldyn Hotel"
 * Kazuhide Akimoto & Michäel Saturnus - Backing Vocals on "Haldyn Hotel" and "Coyote"
 * Asuka Kaneko's Section - Violins, Cellos, Violas and Double basses on "Root of Spirit"
 * Shingo Tomoda - Percussion on "Coyote", Drums on "Frozen Beach" and "Venus"
 * Kazumi "KERA" Kobayashi - Backing Vocals and Coyote Voice on "Coyote"
 * Jun Togawa (courtesy of Teichiku Records) - Backing Vocals on "No Workshop"
 * Kayo "Kokubo" Matsumoto - Acoustic Piano on "Water in Time and Space"
 * Tsuneo Imahori - Bass on "Skeleton Coast Park"
 * Hiroshi Harada - Min'yō Styled Vocal on "Skeleton Coast Park"


 * Production
 * Yoshiaki Kondo (Gok Sound) - Recording & Mixing Engineer
 * Shinichi Tomita (Mix), Nobuhiko Matsufuji (Mix), Atsushi Hattori (Mix), Masanori Ihara (Gold Rush Studio) and Yoshikatsu Takatori (Sound Inn) - Second Engineer
 * Kiyoshi Inagaki - Art Direction
 * Mado & Vincent - Photograph
 * Akemi Tsujitani & Michiko Aoki - Styling
 * Kazunori Yoshida - Hair & Make Up
 * Mitsuo Nagano (for Octave) - Artist Management
 * Mitsuru Hirose - Publicity Coordination
 * Office Moving - Concert Coordination
 * Kazuyoshi Aoki (Polydor Records.) - A&R
 * Osamu Takeuchi (Polydor Records.) - Assistant
 * Thanks: Yasumasa Mishima, Yumiko Ohno, Masaya Abe, Mezame no Sato, Kei Fukuchi, Akimoto-kun, Kazumi Sawaki, AC Unit, Ice Grey, Nobuyoshi Matsubara, Akira Ito, Aria, Casio, Signifie

Release history

 * "Haldyn Hotel", "Root of Spirit", "Coyote", "Frozen Beach" and "Venus" are included on the ADVANCED ROCK 3 promotional sampler.
 * "Solar Ray (SPECTRUM 2 TYPE)" is the B-Side to the "World Turbine" single.
 * "Haldyn Hotel [Fractal Terrain Track]" is the B-Side to the "Bandiria Travellers [Physical Navigation Version]" single.
 * "Venus" is included on Detonator Orgun 2; "Water in Time and Space (Full Size)" and "Root of Spirit" are on the Detonator Orgun 3 soundtrack album.
 * "Haldyn Hotel [Fractal Terrain Track]", "Root of Spirit", "Skeleton Coast Park" and "Venus" are included on the Root of Spirit～ESSENCE OF HIRASAWA SOLO WORKS～ compilation.
 * "Haldyn Hotel" (and "Fractal Terrain Track"), "Root of Spirit", "Solar Ray (SPECTRUM 2 TYPE)", "Frozen Beach", "Water in Time and Space (Full Size)" and "Venus" are included on the Archetype | 1989-1995 Polydor years of Hirasawa compilation.