Susumu Hirasawa the Eccentric

Susumu Hirasawa is a very eccentric and interesting techno musician, who’s always looked for new challenges in his music.

If you have seen Satoshi Kon’s animation films like “Paprika”, “Millennium actress”, or “Paranoia agent”, you must have heard Hirasawa’s songs. The harmony of his high voice and the chorus of “Vocaloids” (a kind of virtual vocalist) are awesome and addictive.

Also, you see a lot of experimental performance in his music videos, too.

The scene where he is riding on his precious Recumbent in “Ride the Blue Limbo” is my favorite one.
Susumu Hirasawa came out as a member of P-model in 1979, and started solo work in 1989.

He also has focused his energy on clean energy, especially solar energy. In his project “Hirasawa energy work” in 2001, he used only solar energy. The result was his music album “Solar Ray”. He is still uses solar energy in his private home.

Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten any chance to go to his concerts, yet.

His live shows are interactive and resonate with the audience’s minds. At some points in the shows, with 3DCG images he himself created on the screen, he makes the audience in the hall and through the internet make choices of how the direction of the live show should go. Sometimes the ending is good and sometimes it is not. So, we can feel that we are part of the show.

Next time he gives a show, I hope I will be able to experiment in his imaginative world.

Get the movies and soundtracks:

Paprika: DVD, CD

Paranoia Agent: DVD, CD

Paprika Opening

Paranoia Agent Opening

Sekai Turbine (1990)

Fu-ru-he-he (1982)

Solar Ray (2001)

Ride the Blue Limbo (2002)

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