Early career Shimizu’s career as a saxophone player took off in the 1970s. He released his first solo album,
Get You, in 1978 and from 1980 won a following with his experimental rock band Mariah, with whom he released five albums. Mariah’s final recording
Utakata no Hibi (1983) weaved traditional Japanese festival rhythms with rock tempos and sounds. Over the same period Shimizu recorded solo albums including
IQ 179 (1981) and
Kakashi (1982), which built on the alternative-music foundations set down by Mariah. From these beginnings Shimizu’s delight in pushing boundaries is apparent in such projects as the satellite link-up performance of
Bye Bye Kipling with
Ryuichi Sakamoto for a
Nam June Paik happening (1986), or his enigmatic, solo “live installation” as a
Human Cuckoo Clock in
Tokyo (2002).
The Saxophonettes I In 1983, he created the Yasuaki Shimizu & Saxophonettes project—initially a one-man band—which has since become the main focus of his recording activities. His first recording as the Saxophonettes was ''L'Automne à Pékin'' (1983), a tribute to the
Golden Age of Hollywood: classic soundtrack-flavored tunes rendered with a combination of lush yet minimal orchestration and layered electronic sounds laid over reggae bass and drums. This was followed by
Stardust (1985),
Latin (1991) and
Time and Again (1993); the latter revisiting the textures of ''L'Automne à Pékin'' with original compositions highlighting Shimizu’s orchestral arrangements and his tenor saxophone. The Saxophonettes project released Shimizu’s landmark
Cello Suites albums in 1996 (nos 1-3) and 1999 (nos 4-6). These were reissued in 2007 as a two-disc set (nos 1-6).
Europe From 1985 through 1991 Shimizu divided his time between
Paris and
London, making his contribution to the multicultural and re-energized European music scene by recording, collaborating and performing with various international artists. His experiences over this period also gave him an altogether new perspective on his own musical roots. He made three albums:
Subliminal (1987) with French producer
Martin Meissonnier,
Dementos (1988) with various British artists including ex-
Flying Lizards David Cunningham, and
Aduna (1989) with Senegalese vocalist
Wasis Diop, whose 1994 album
No Sant Shimizu co-produced.
Bach recordings Shimizu has always paid meticulous attention to recording and studio techniques. In 1997 his mini-album
Bach Box won the Best Production prize at the 39th annual
Japan Record Awards. This recording, while expressing the highest respect for the baroque master, revisited Bach’s music with an audacious approach to form and flashes of wit, interweaving the original musical structures with treated voices and intermittent
sine wave signals. On his
Cello Suites projects Shimizu utilized unconventional acoustic environments, which he selected for their high degree of reverberation—an underground quarry, a mine in Japan, a palazzo in Italy—in order to “play the space” as a resonating instrument. This approach is also reflected in his "Bach-Saxophone-Space" concert series performed at such locations as
Kodaiji Temple in
Kyoto in 1996 (Osaka Shinbun 6 Dec 1996), the Niitsu, Genichiro-Inokuma and
Mito art museums between 2000 and 2003, and an underground car park in
Shibuya (Mainichi Daily Sept 1997), Tokyo (1997).
The Saxophonettes II In 2006, Shimizu made his playful one-man-band concept of the Saxophonettes into a real-life quintet, featuring Ryoko Egawa, Hirokazu Hayashida, Ryota Higashi and Hiroshi Suzuki in an ensemble of three
tenor and two
baritone saxophones. Their album
Pentatonica (2007) transcends genre limitations in a recording based on the five-note
pentatonic scale. Featuring new compositions as well as arrangements of
Ethiopian traditional music, it displays Shimizu's individuality: from his choice of recording locations and painstaking approach to sound production, to the immediacy of live performance conveyed through the interplay between musicians. Beyond recording, the group has performed extensively in Japan as well as in
Moscow,
Havana and
Hong Kong, with other tours in the works. At a performance in Tokyo (2010) commissioned by Sumida Triphony Hall, Shimizu reaffirmed his passion for
Bach by premiering the world’s first saxophone/contrabass arrangement of Bach's
Goldberg Variations, adding four contrabasses to his saxophone quintet. He went on to hone the arrangement for release as the album
Goldberg Variations in 2015.
Film and TV Shimizu with his band Mariah had composed soundtracks for the anime series
The New Adventures of Gigantor in 1980/1981. He created music for
Juliet Berto's Havre (1985), Oscar-winner
Yōjirō Takita’s
We Are Not Alone (1993), three films by
Mitsuo Yanagimachi including most recently ''Who's Camus Anyway?'' (2006), and contributed a piece to
Peter Greenaway's Pillow Book (1996). He also wrote the score for the Oscar-nominated and award-winning documentary
Cutie and the Boxer (2013) by
Zachary Heinzerling. He has composed soundtracks for
Hiroyuki Nakano’s art video
Issey Miyake Dancing Pleats (1993), the feature film
Stereo Future (2000) and in 2008 the two short films
Ferris Wheel at 3:03:15 PM, and
Seven Samurai. The album
Music for Commercials, a collection of his melodies aired as TV jingles, was released in 1987. He authored the “sound identity” for TV film channel Cinefil Imagica, then released an album of related tracks entitled
Cinefil (2001). He wrote scores for a number TV dramas, plus a documentary and experimental film for the Japanese national broadcaster
NHK TV. In 2007 NHK adopted his music for the educational series
Mathematica II. His 2014 soundtrack to the dramatization of
Ryu Murakami's Gojūgo-sai kara no Harōraifu (
Finding Life After 55) was later released as an album. A major event in 2008 saw Shimizu compose music for a one-off screening of the newly restored 1925 silent film
Orochi, a samurai “
chambara” sword-fighting drama. He performed this “live soundtrack” with the Saxophonettes and a 23-piece orchestra inside the grounds of
Meiji Shrine in Tokyo. He has worked with iconic Japanese comedian and director
Hitoshi Matsumoto, scoring the films
Symbol (2009) and
Scabbard Samurai (2011).
Collaborations Shimizu’s partnerships with video, multimedia, and dance artists include commissions for Mao Kawaguchi’s video installations
La Cite Délire (1987) and
Niwa (1992), the performances by butoh dancer Goro Namerikawa
Kioku no Gekijo (1990) and
Flaneur vol. 5 (1997), and the Simon James art installations ''Look Don't Touch
(1998), and Chasing Light'' (2002). In 2004 he composed music for the sound installations featured in “Dream Garden Factory,” a landscape of six gardens with different themes at the Pacific Flora 2004 expo. Excerpts from the installation were released on the album
Seventh Garden (2004). Between 2006 and 2007, his concerts with the Saxophonettes at venues in Tokyo and Osaka featured as guest artist the contemporary dancer Masako Yasumoto. In 2012 Shimizu collaborated with media artist
Masaki Fujihata on his project
Voices of Aliveness, a multimedia public recording, installation and performance for the
Estuaire Biennale in
Nantes, France. The work won the Award of Distinction at the
Prix Ars Electronica. As a composer-producer-arranger, he has collaborated with artists as diverse as Japanese enka balladeer
Saburo Kitajima, composers
Ryuichi Sakamoto and
Koji Ueno, jazz vocalists
Helen Merrill and
Karin Krog, guitarist
Kazumi Watanabe, French pop singer
Pierre Barouh, and DJ
Towa Tei. He has also contributed to recordings by trumpeter
Toshinori Kondo, DJ
Dee Nasty,
Björk and others. Live collaborations include appearances with
Bill Laswell,
Elvin Jones,
Yosuke Yamashita,
Van Dyke Parks,
Urban Sax,
Manu Dibango,
David Cunningham and
Carl Stone. From 1991 to 1994 he teamed up with ex-
YMO artist
Haruomi Hosono to produce the Tokyo Mura Mura Festival, presenting improbable line-ups of talents such as
Michael Nyman,
John Zorn,
Julee Cruise, and
The Orb. ==Discography==