“COSMOSCAPE,” a collection of 10 years of my work, were released on July 23. I’ve been absorbed in putting this CD together for the past few months, and although I shouldn’t pat myself on the back, I really feel that it turned into a great album. There are 15 songs, including newly recorded and remixed ones, all of them full of my spirit. It’s 100% SUGIZO, like you’re entering SUGIZO’s world. I really don’t mean to brag, but this album contains the sound of bliss.
In the liner notes included with the album, I very directly conveyed my feelings and my true desires. I’ll post the first part here.
Please take note: this album isn’t your ordinary “greatest hits album.” Neither is it an album based on bringing together catchy, sales-worthy songs. Typical rock songs that are popular, versatile, and easy to understand don’t exist in the world of “SUGIZO MUSIC.”
But for those who are searching for an ecstatic trip, for universal pleasure that is gorgeous and deep, I welcome you to a world of bliss. This album is for people who are obsessed with SUGIZO, and it’s addictive.
Focusing on those gems that have a certain type of universal intensity, I’ve selected songs that were born from my true self, that I feel go beyond space and type and still sparkle even after ten years of making music. I believe that COSMOSCAPE is an archetype, a genuine collection of “SUGIZO MUSIC.” Here is my irreplaceable life’s work.
The solo work I began in 1997 has been a journey to find my reason for being and my reason for making music. It has been accompanied both by great joy and by extreme pain. Over these ten years, there have been storms of successes, setbacks, and transformations. And now, having come through these stormy times, I’ve begun to feel even more deeply for the music that comes from my true center.
Using music as a tool, I have intentions and messages I want to share, landscapes I want to arrive at. Within the gale, I’ve dedicated my whole soul to challenging all of the approaches and methods of expression that bring me inspiration. Music’s superficial form, methods, categories, and common sense have no relevance for me. I’ve kept on giving my body up to the flood of the desire to express myself that flows from within me.
These songs were born from new challenges and experiments. I’ve found my own individual approach, and I’ve also failed and been confused over and over again. I believe that this was an important process that, while being linked to creating music, also allowed me to both improve myself and to take the steps to a higher level.
This CD is a compendium of vital songs, pulled from various periods over ten years, that appeal to me when I revisit them now. The songs that were selected were composed by simply believing in the inspiration pouring over me, rather than forms of music I immersed myself in temporarily or songs calculated to resemble what was popular at the time. It was also important to me, just once, to create a collection of works focused on the guitar, the instrument that will be like a cherished part of my body for the rest of my life.
All of these sounds come through my fingers to scream, cry, be joyful, and sing… I can say with confidence that this album is a crystallization of my own unique worldview.
I hope you all get a chance to listen to COSMOSCAPE, to really feel it, to enjoy it. I want to seek out true pleasure together, to share together, to be with you…
And as of today, I enter the last year of my 30’s! I’m going to take off and keep running on with all of my power!
SGZ
