Winter Live 1981

Artists

Album Info

Release Date: 2020-02-05

Label: GT Music

Info taken from Sony Music Japan's website. This was translated with Google translate so its accuracy is questionable.

"HD remastered version of "WINTER LIVE 1981", the only stage record of the middle YMO
A domestic video tour in 1981 when YMO released two masterpiece albums, "BGM" and "Technodelic". A live video work featuring the Shinjuku Koma Theater of "WINTER LIVE 1981" (original release: 1983). This time, for the first time, HD video has been selected, focusing on songs from "BGM" and "Technodelic" and symbolizing the medium-term YMO along with artistic stage art. The audio is also remastered, giving the viewer a more realistic feel. Also includes YMO's Music Video. Some songs are upconverted from the original master tape and recorded."

First copys were limited edition with a "Three sided case" and also came with an special sticker and I believe a tote bag. If bought through the Sony Japan Music shop, copies could also be purchased with the TECHNODELIC type font.

The Japanese liner notes by Eiichi Yoshimura translate as follows:

YMO casts a shadow over the winter of 1981

YMO's domestic tour "WINTER LIVE 1981" took place from November to December 1981. It was YMO's first domestic tour since the "TECHNOPOLIS 2000-20" tour in the previous year, with a total of 14 performances in 9 nationwide locations, namely Sendai, Morioka, Hiroshima, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Kanazawa and Tokyo.
This release features a recording of the concert at the now-defunct Koma Theater in Kabukicho, Shinjuku, Tokyo, which was held in December. There is no official credit, but it will have been the video taken on the 24th, which is the final day of the Koma Theater performances that took place from December 22nd to 24th.
This December 24th Koma Theater performance was the final concert of the tour (to be precise, three days later, at the Tsubaki House disco in Shinjuku, there was an irregular live event without any set or staging) and it was also the last day of touring concert halls.
Coming to this Koma theater event, "WINTER LIVE 1981" had been a tour on which the songs of the two albums "BGM" and "Technodelic" released by YMO in that year were performed, and the only songs that were played from the period prior to that, until 1980, which had caused the YMO boom, were "Technopolis", "Rydeen" and "Cosmic Surfing" during the encore. In fact, at the beginning of the tour, the only old songs featured in the encore had been "Technopolis" and "Rydeen", but from the mid-point onwards "Cosmic Surfing" was added, as a service to the fans.
The image of so-called techno pop with SF-like gimmicks had been sealed into YMO's danceable and melodious output until 1980. With "BGM" and "Technodelic" they released advanced, thoughtful and profound works that clearly showed the individuality of the three members.
Since the point of the tour was to play songs from the latter, the visual expression and direction of the concerts were ascetic and profound, with the sensibility of 奥村靫正=Yukimasa Okumura, the art director at that time, coming to the fore in the set, lighting, and directing, as opposed to the dazzling and futuristic direction in the earlier years.
The set by Yukimasa Okumura feels like it has something in common with the "City of the Future" in the "Struggle and Victory" stage set (1921) by Russian constructivist artists Lyubov Popova and Alexander Vesnin, but in reality, it was all Yukimasa Okumura, whose original set design consisted of the idea of a fan being expanded. This fusion of Russian Constructivism, which YMO were so enthusiastic about at the time, and the Asian design of a fan, creates a unique world in which the Soviet sensibilities of the 1920s and the Japanese sensibilities of the 1980s were united (this is also the case with Yukimasa Okumura's Maneki Neko, appearing at the end of the video, which has a Russian Constructivist design).
In addition, up until this point many synthesizers and electronic musical instruments had been piled up on YMO's stage, which had been a major visual feature as well, but on this "WINTER LIVE 1981" tour they were made part of the stage set. The cubicles of each member (the three members of YMO plus synthesizer operator and computer programmer Hideki Matsutake) were constructed so that all instruments remained hidden from the eyes of the audience.
And apart from the instruments, even the appearance of the members playing them tended to be hidden behind the set.
Yes, the idea of hiding and not showing anything was at the heart of the visual expression on this tour. Alongside Yukimasa Okumura, stage director Osamu Yamada and Jiro Katsushiba, graduating in theatre lighting, took into account these intentions of the members, and the entire stage was shadowy, detached and mysterious, and included experimental effects that would normally have been taboo, and was thus transformed into a different space suitable for YMO's music at that time.

At the start of the concert, "Loom" from the album "BGM" was played, followed by the song "Prologue" included on "TECHNODELIC".
At this point, instead of a screen a curtain is lowered down onto the front of the stage, and reflected on it is a scene of a performance that was pre-recorded by YMO at the time of dress rehearsal. This "Prologue" is literally the prologue of the concert, and YMO start playing in the subsequent "jam". However, when the curtain that was showing the image goes up, another curtain appears behind it. The appearance of the real YMO on the stage vaguely becomes visible through the curtain. YMO itself is also a hidden object.

The usage of the stage in this opening is really elaborate, and in the video of the industrial area in Kawasaki, up ahead is the door of a factory, and when the door opens, inside it is a YMO concert venue.
"Jam", "Light", "Camouflage", the blurry YMO behind the curtain continue to perform vividly and with physicality.
When the industrial "Stairs" arrives the second curtain is finally raised and the whole picture containing YMO and the stage set becomes clearly visible. Even so, the lighting is centered around the top suspension lights from above, with the pin lights eliminated as much as possible, so the faces of the band are not clearly visible, and the overall amount of light is reduced as well, the idea is that only the colourful stage set emerges from this dimmed space.
The concert continues with "Neue Tanz", "Happy End" and "Music Plans".
Meanwhile, a windmill of light spins around behind the stage, sometimes fireballs cross in front. The feeling of a different world and the heightened tension on the dimmed stage in the first half of this concert really aligns wonderfully with YMO's performance.
In addition, for each song a bar containing the song title is projected on the wall. This is a digression, originally the English font used for "TECHNODELIC" as devised by Yukimasa Okumura was planned to be used for these song titles but, seemingly due to considerations of visibility, a normal easy-to-read font was used instead.
In this video, various photographs and videos are inserted between songs and during the songs to enhance the effect of the production. Architectural drawings from the Russian Constructivist era, various objects like poster photographs related to YMO, and image effects reminiscent of later druggy videos...

The climax of the main part of the concert is "Cue". Ryuichi Sakamoto is playing on "Cue", having moved over to the drum set inbetween the instrumentals played before the song, hitting the drums. "Cue" is a song included on "BGM", but since it was recorded almost without any input from Ryuichi Sakamoto, he decided to play the drums instead of the keyboard. A more recent memory is that of Ryuichi Sakamoto's drumming on "Cue" being reproduced at a concert in 2007 where the three YMO members gathered under the name of HASYMO.
Following "Cue", the dimmed and suspenseful atmosphere from before disappears, and the members can be seen clearly in the bright lighting like at a normal concert.
The following piece "Taiso" was cheekily edited for this video.
This song was played twice every day at the Shinjuku Koma Theater performance that was held for three days: at the end of the main story and as the last encore, and in this video those two performances are edited into one sequence.
Therefore, Ryuichi Sakamoto, who has a megaphone in each cut, may be in his cubicle, or appear in front of the stage, and have a different hairstyle.
At the beginning of the video, no pieces of paper are thrown on the stage floor, this was not part of the scene in the first main part performance, and here Ryuichi Sakamoto is employing a megaphone in the cubicle. In the final encore "Taiso", the dancers performing gymnastics along with the music appeared only in the Koma Theater production. In addition Ryuichi Sakamoto appears in front of the dancers and does a megaphone performance with much more action than in the main section. By the way, the dance was choreographed by 如月小春=Koharu Kisaragi, a playwright who just prior at that time had established the theater company "NOISE".
Koharu Kisaragi would collaborate with Ryuichi Sakamoto throughout the 1980s, and this marked the start of that. The animation based on illustrations drawn by Haruomi Hosono was also fun. As a fitting end to the encores, the comical movements by the dancers make this the most enjoyable and bright song in the concert.

As mentioned above, in the actual concert, after the main part the encores "Technopolis", "Rydeen" and "Taiso" were played, but in this video "Taiso" is placed at the end of the main part including the encore version. Other than that, only "Cosmic Surfing" was recorded.
Compared to the other two songs that are faithful to the original score and firmly put together, here "Cosmic Surfing" is a bold adaptation of the original, which was a light and tropical disco song, into an avant-garde and noisy track, with a radical arrangement suitable for YMO at the time of "BGM" and "TECHNODELIC". During this song, I'm also paying attention to the Prophet 5 as played by Ryuichi Sakamoto with a distorted guitar-like tone, as in some other places during this concert. This playing style is said to have been influenced by Bernie Worrell, a keyboard player with Funkadelic-Parliament, who at the time participated as a guest during live performances of Talking Heads.
After "Cosmic Surfing", and after the end of the second "Taiso", the concert ends with "Epilogue" being played. In this video, contrary to the "Prologue", at this point the camera pulls away from the stage and the production ends with a return to the scenery of the factory.

Of course, it's a pity not all songs that were played at the concert were recorded. Still, this video package is not just a simple film of the concert and this concert tour, but also of the worldview that YMO wanted to present at this time and, by enhancing it further by adding additional video and photo materials, it has succesfully been put together in a compact form.
It seems YMO's two albums "BGM" and "TECHNODELIC" out at this time were special even though they had a texture that was different from earlier times, and this concert video, which visualizes the world of these albums, now exists as a special and valuable record of that as well. The fact that YMO has retained its cult popularity and has gained new fans is evidence of the great power of expression of YMO, which is not at all outdated. When it comes to those who have always remained fans since that time, or those who have become new fans, please check out this "WINTER LIVE 1981" video for this other face of YMO that they showed only in 1981.
With the remastering by Yoshinori Sunahara, I'm glad the sound quality is much improved compared to the package that was released before this BD conversion.

Advanced promotional videos that give a glimpse of the true face of YMO

"Tong Poo"
"Computer Game~Fire Cracker"
"Technopolis"
"Rydeen"

In this video product, the promotional videos left by YMO are added as bonus tracks.
At the end of 1978, when YMO decided to make their debut overseas, A&M Records in the United States, their publisher worldwide, requested the production of a promotional video, something that was still unfamiliar in Japan. They said they wanted it by the time YMO's first album was to be released overseas, which was scheduled for June 1979.
MTV would only establish itself in 1983, but at this time emphasis was already placed on videos as an important means for promoting music in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Upon receiving the request, Alfa Records held a meeting in January 1979 and decided to produce a promotional video immediately.
At first Tadanori Yokoo, a leading Japanese graphic designer and painter who was supposed to link up with YMO, was requested to create it. According to Tadanori Yokoo, there was a connection with YMO, and he wanted to do it, but the deadline was tight and he had to give up.
In this lack of time, American visual artist Ron Hays stood up like a white-feathered arrow. Hays, who died in 1991 at the young age of 45, is known for original works such as "Odyssey" and "Omni", but his music-related work was also highly acclaimed, he won an Emmy for his 1979 Bay City Rollers documentary footage, and his work with Leonard Bernstein is well known.
Right from the start at the end of the 1970s, Hays characteristically used a lot of computer graphics. Those went well with YMO's music, and he was appointed because he had a connection with Miki Curtis, the Far East Family Band, and other Japanese artists. American filmmaker Richard Warman also joined the co-production.
"Tong Poo" produced in 1979 and "Computer Game~Fire Cracker", "Technopolis" and "Rydeen" produced in 1980 all make heavy use of the computer graphics and video effects typical of Ron Hays at the time, they were aimed at Western European listeners and are sprinkled with an Orientalism that seemed a little excessive to Japanese people, but they served to promote YMO's releases in Europe and the United States.

"Taiso"

This was a single from the 1981 album "Technodelic".
The promotional video for it, the first one in a long time, was directed by Haruomi Hosono himself and Yukimasa Okumura. Unlike in the previous videos by a foreign director, they were using their own ideas, the members were dressed in new monotone uniforms designed by Yukihiro Takahashi, which were unveiled here for the first time, and you can also see the comical acting that overturned the image of YMO at that time of doing serious and heavy music. This mood was continued in the subsequent video for "君に、胸キュン。= Kimi Ni Mune Kyun".

"Kimi Ni Mune Kyun"

This is a song from the 1983 album "浮気なぼくら = Naughty Boys", which was a huge hit as a single. Here the director was Hajime Tachibana, who was close to YMO as well. It is a thoroughly bright and surrealistic video, with a round of "gymnastics", of which Hajime Tachibana later said, "YMO, who had been operating in a stuffy and academic atmosphere until then, suddenly morphed into that. It's the most YMO-like image in the sense that it does the most avant-garde thing possible at that time".

November 2019