Haruomi Hosono

, sometimes credited as Harry Hosono, is a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is considered to be one of the most influential musicians in Japanese pop music history, credited with shaping the sound of Japanese pop for decades as well as pop music outside of Japan. He also inspired genres such as city pop and Shibuya-kei, and as the leader of the Yellow Magic Orchestra, contributed to the development and pioneering of numerous electronic genres.

The grandson of Titanic survivor Masabumi Hosono, Haruomi began his career with the psychedelic rock band Apryl Fool, before achieving recognition both nationally and internationally, as a founding member of the bands Happy End and Yellow Magic Orchestra. Hosono has also released many solo albums covering a variety of styles, including film soundtracks and a variety of electronic ambient albums. As well as recording his own music, Hosono has done considerable production work for other artists such as Miharu Koshi, Sheena and the Roketts, Sandii & the Sunsetz, Chisato Moritaka and Seiko Matsuda. In 2003, Hosono was ranked by HMV at number 44 on their list of the top 100 Japanese pop acts of all time.

Biography Hosono is the grandson of Masabumi Hosono, the only Japanese passenger and survivor of the sinking of RMS Titanic. Hosono first came to attention in Japan as the bass player of the psychedelic rock band Apryl Fool, alongside drummer Takashi Matsumoto, who released the album The Apryl Fool in 1969. Hosono and Matsumoto then formed the influential folk rock group Happy End with Eiichi Ohtaki and Shigeru Suzuki. One of the songs he composed for Happy End, "Kaze wo Atsumete" (1971), later appeared in the American film Lost in Translation and on its soundtrack in 2003.

After Happy End disbanded in 1972, Hosono and Suzuki formed with Tatsuo Hayashi and Masataka Matsutoya the following year. They changed their name to a year later and worked as session musicians for other artists, such as Yumi Arai. Suzuki said the idea was to form a collective like the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, but things did not go as planned. The same year, he contributed to Sakamoto's song "1000 Knives" for his solo album, Thousand Knives, which experimented with fusing electronic music with traditional Japanese music in early 1978.

He was one of the first producers to recognize the appeal of video game sounds and music. YMO's self-titled debut in 1978 contained substantial video game sounds and after YMO disbanded an early project was an album simply titled Video Game Music containing mixed and edited Namco arcade game music and sounds. Video Game Music was released in 1984 as an early example of a chiptune record and the first video game music album. That same year, he also produced the theme song for Hayao Miyazaki's popular anime film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, "Kaze no Tani no Naushika", with vocals by actress-singer Narumi Yasuda. In the late 80s and early 90s, the influence of world music on his music deepened, and he worked with international singers and musicians such as Amina Annabi.

He has produced a number of short-term band projects as a band member. His first post-YMO band was Friends of Earth. As with most of his projects he combines musical styles he's interested in. F.O.E. seemed to be a combination of funk and techno, and included a collaboration with James Brown and Maceo Parker for a remake of the song "Sex Machine". Another notable band project was 1995's Love, Peace & Trance. Members were Mimori Yusa ("Love"), Miyako Koda ("Peace"), Haruomi Hosono ("&") and Mishio Ogawa ("Trance").

In the 1990s he started the Daisyworld label to release a wide range of experimental artists from Japan and the rest of the world. Hosono collaborated on many of the releases, such as World Standard, a trip into Americana; HAT, a supergroup (the acronym stands for Hosono, Atom Heart, Tetsu Inoue), and "Quiet Logic", by Mixmaster Morris and Jonah Sharp. The Orb also paid tribute with a series of remixes including the notorious "Hope You Choke on Your Whalemeat" remix of "Nanga Def".

In 2002 Haruomi formed the duo Sketch Show with his YMO bandmate Yukihiro Takahashi. They have released two albums, one of which, Loophole, has received a UK release. When the third former YMO member, Ryuichi Sakamoto deepened his involvement it was decided to bill those collaborations as .

In the spring of 2007, his fellow YMO members and other artist paid tribute to Haruomi with a 2-disc album titled Tribute to Haruomi. That same year, the animated film Appleseed Ex Machina was released featuring a soundtrack performed and supervised by Hosono.

In September 2010 he performed at the De La Fantasia festival and played songs from his upcoming album.

In February 2011 it was announced that his new album, entitled HoSoNoVa, was to be released on April 20. He also performed a special concert to celebrate its release.

In May 2018, Light in the Attic Records announced a CD and vinyl reissue of five of Hosono's albums—Hosono House, Cochin Moon, Paraiso, Philharmony and omni Sight Seeing—for release in August and September 2018. The former four albums had never been released outside of Japan previously. Coinciding was the announcement that Hosono would play his first UK concerts as a solo artist in June; the shows were scheduled as part of Sakamoto's MODE festival happening throughout England in June and July. The June 23 concert at the Barbican Centre in London featured an appearance by his YMO bandmates, with whom he performed his Solid State Survivor composition "Absolute Ego Dance".

2019 marked Hosono's 50th anniversary in the music industry. On March 6, he released Hochono House, a mostly electronic remake of his solo debut Hosono House that reversed the track listing. That spring, he performed his first solo shows in the U.S. This run included two sold-out shows at the Gramercy Theatre in New York City and a concert at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles. The second New York show saw an appearance by current NYC resident Akiko Yano, who collaborated with Hosono in Tin Pan Alley, as a live support member of YMO, and as a solo artist; she sang Hosono's "Ai Ai Gasa", which she covered on her 1977 album Iroha Ni Konpeitou. In LA, Canadian indie rock musician Mac DeMarco—whose vocal admiration of Hosono has spread to a portion of his own fanbase—appeared during the show to perform "Honey Moon" as a duet with Hosono; Light in the Attic had recently released a cover of the song on a 7" single record, backed with the original version.

In the autumn of 2019, an exhibition on Hosono's career—"Hosono Sightseeing"—was on display in Tokyo Sky View at the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower; along with other memorabilia, this featured many of the instruments associated with Hosono, such as the Roland TR-808, E-mu Emulator, and Prophet-5. A documentary film, No Smoking, was also released, including footage from the U.S. and UK shows; appearances include Sakamoto, Takahashi, Demarco, longtime friend Van Dyke Parks, and protégé Gen Hoshino. In July 2025, Haruomi Hosono performed his first UK show in seven years at London's Southbank Centre. The concert received heightened attention following praise from One Direction founding member Harry Styles, who explained that his 2022 album, Harry's House, was "named after Haruomi Hosono, who released an album in the '70s called Hosono's House."

In May 2026, Hosono announced that a new studio album, Yours Sincerely, would be releasing on September 11, 2026 via Ghostly International.

Bands and collaborations Apryl Fool Happy End Tin Pan Alley Yellow Magic Orchestra Friends of Earth (F.O.E) (with Eiki Nonaka) HIS (with Kiyoshirō Imawano and Fuyumi Sakamoto) Testpattern (with Yukihiro Takahashi, Fumio Ichimura, and Masao Hiruma) Love, Peace & Trance (Mimori Yusa, Miyako Koda and Mishio Ogawa) Swing Slow (with Miharu Koshi) HAT (with Atom Heart and Tetsu Inoue) Harry & Mac (with Makoto Kubota) Tin Pan (with Tatsuo Hayashi and Shigeru Suzuki) Sketch Show (with Yukihiro Takahashi) HASYMO (previously Human Audio Sponge) (Sketch Show and Ryuichi Sakamoto, with Keigo Oyamada, Hiroshi Takano, Christian Fennesz, Tomohiko Gondō and Ren Takada as live support)

Discography

Albums Studio albums Title Album details Peak chart positions JPNOricon Hosono House Released: 25 May 1973 Label: Velvet Formats: LP, CD, digital download, streaming - Tropical Dandy Released: 25 July 1975 Label: Nippon Crown Formats: LP, CD, digital download, streaming50 Released: 25 June 1976 Label: Nippon Crown Formats: LP, Cassette tape, CD, digital download, streaming77 Released: 25 April 1978 Label: Alfa Formats: LP, Cassette tape, CD, digital download, streaming - Released: 21 September 1978 Label: King Formats: LP, CD, digital download, streaming - Released: 21 May 1982 Label: Alpha Formats: LP, Cassette tape, CD, digital download, streaming33 Released: 10 September 1984 Label: Toujuu Formats: Cassette tape - S-F-X Released: 16 December 1984 Label: Non Standard Formats: LP, Cassette tape, CD, digital download, streaming35 Coincidental Music Released: 21 August 1985 Label: Non Standard Formats: LP, Cassette tape, CD, digital download, streaming61 Mercuric Dance Released: 21 September 1985 Label: Non Standard Formats: LP, Cassette tape, CD, digital download, streaming - Endless Talking Released: 21 October 1985 Label: Non Standard Formats: LP, Cassette tape, CD, digital download, streaming - Omni Sight Seeing Released: 21 July 1989 Label: Epic Japan Formats: CD, digital download, streaming - Medicine Compilation Released: 21 March 1993 Label: Epic Japan Formats: CD, digital download, streaming - Good Sport Released: 10 September 1995 Label: Medium Formats: CD, digital download, streaming - Naga Released: 25 October 1995 Label: Foa Formats: CD, digital download, streaming - Flying Saucer 1947 Released: 26 September 2007 Label: Speedstar Formats: CD, digital download, streaming57 Hosono Haruomi Archives Vol.1 Released: 9 July 2008 Label: Daisyworld Formats: CD, digital download, streaming115 HoSoNoVa Released: 20 April 2011 Label: Speedstar Formats: CD, digital download, streaming21 Heavenly Music Released: 22 May 2013 Label: Speedstar Formats: CD, LP, digital download, streaming12 Vu Ja De Released: 8 November 2017 Label: Speedstar Formats: CD, digital download, streaming18 Hochono House Released: 6 March 2019 Label: Speedstar Formats: CD, LP, digital download, streaming10 Yours Sincerely Scheduled: 11 September 2026 Label: Echoes, Sony Japan, Ghostly International Formats: CD, Cassette tape, LP, digital download, streaming

Soundtrack albums

Acting Izakaya Chōji (1983) A Y.M.O. Film Propaganda (1984) Paradise view (1985) Shigatsu no Sakana (1985) Binetsu Shōnen (1987) Norwegian Wood (2010): Record Shop Manager Isle of Dogs (2018): Scrap (Japanese dub) They Say Nothing Stays the Same (2019) Bullets, Bones and Blocked Noses (2021, TV miniseries): Barber Spirit World (2025)

Documentary appearance Tokyo Melody (1985) No Smoking (2019)

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