THE steady dance beat is from a modern city; the yearning melodies are from remote mountains. In his music, electronic synthesiser soloist Yoshiaki Hoshi captures an intrinsic contradiction in the Japanese psyche.
'Part of us is very contemporary, very western. But there is another part that remembers and values the old traditions,' said the 49-year-old performer who will be presenting his own form of world music at the Hong Kong Arts Festival early next month.
Hoshi, whose stage name is Himekami - after a mountain near his home - prefers to perform in ancient, remote sites, like monasteries and small farming valleys. His Hong Kong performance, however, will be in the more conventional, weather-proof surroundings of the Cultural Centre Grand Theatre.
'This will be my first time in Hong Kong: to find a suitable site for an outdoor performance proved a little difficult,' he said, through an interpreter.
He was making a rare appearance in Tokyo, coaxed down from his mountain hideaway in the northern part of Honshu Island by the dual requirements of press interviews and beginning to record his 16th album. 'I don't like Tokyo at all,' he said, saying that although he has done numerous concerts in the area surrounding the capital, he has not wanted to perform in the city itself.
'I used to live here in my 20s, and I found it exciting . . . but I have moved on.' Moving on actually means moving back, Hoshi said. He was born in the Iwate prefecture of Tohoku, where he now lives with his wife and two children.
