Yasuaki Shimizu

Yasuaki Shimizu (清水靖晃) (born 9 August 1954) is a Japanese composer, saxophonist and producer.

He is known for his interpretations of the music of J.S. Bach, in particular the "Cello Suites 1-6" re-arranged for and performed on tenor saxophone.

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.

Shimizu with his band Mariah had composed soundtracks for the anime series The New Adventures of Gigantor in 1980/1981.

Since 1981 he has composed, produced or arranged for artists as diverse as jazz vocalist Helen Merrill, composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, and DJ Towa Tei.

During this time he has lived in London, Paris and Tokyo.

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.

Mariah’s final recording Utakata no Hibi (1983) weaved traditional Japanese festival rhythms with rock tempos and sounds.

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.

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 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).

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).

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.

Shimizu has always paid meticulous attention to recording and studio techniques.

The album Music for Commercials, a collection of his melodies aired as TV jingles, was released in 1987.

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 Saxophonettes project released Shimizu’s landmark Cello Suites albums in 1996 (nos 1-3) and 1999 (nos 4-6).

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).

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.

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 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.

These were reissued in 2007 as a two-disc set (nos 1-6).

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.

In 2007 NHK adopted his music for the educational series Mathematica II.

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).

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 also wrote the score for the Oscar-nominated and award-winning documentary Cutie and the Boxer (2013) by Zachary Heinzerling.

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.

He went on to hone the arrangement for release as the album Goldberg Variations in 2015.