''Solar Ray'' (stylized and subtitled as ''SOLAR RAY Hirasawa best recycling album Recycled by P-MODEL kernel'') is a 2001 remix album by

Susumu Hirasawa is a Japanese musician and composer. He is well known for his work for the films of director Satoshi Kon and the animated adaptations of the Berserk (manga), ''Berserk'' manga series, alongside his work as a solo artist and as a member of P-Mode ...

. It is the centerpiece of "Hirasawa Energy Works", a project to produce music in an ecologically friendly way.

Overview

In 2000, Hirasawa switched from a

gasoline Gasoline ( North American English) or petrol ( Commonwealth English) is a petrochemical product characterized as a transparent, yellowish, and flammable liquid normally used as a fuel for spark-ignited internal combustion engines. When for ...

-powered car to a hybrid electric, developing an interest in sustainable energy, specifically in the idea of using solar power to make music. He purchased two 120-watt

solar panel A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity by using photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells are made of materials that produce excited electrons when exposed to light. These electrons flow through a circuit and produce direct ...

s, outfitted his home studio to be powered by them, and connected two car batteries to store additional energy, which combined allowed Hirasawa to work for 12 hours. To further optimize the work hours and prepare for bad weather days, only equipment necessary for work was ever kept on. The studio was illuminated by less than 30 small low wattage blue LEDs. Hirasawa's workdays ended when there was no more energy remaining. In total, less than 7 kg of

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalent bond, covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in a gas state at room temperature and at norma ...

were emitted during the making of the album. ''Solar Ray'' features remixes of songs from previous albums in the energetic technopop style of Hirasawa's former band,

P-Model P-Model (also typeset as P-MODEL and P. Model) was a Japanese electronic rock band started in 1979 by members of the defunct progressive rock band Mandrake. The band has experienced many lineup revisions over the years but frontman Susumu Hir ...

Track listing

Personnel

Vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

Electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

Synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

s, Sampler,

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...

Laptop A laptop computer or notebook computer, also known as a laptop or notebook, is a small, portable personal computer (PC). Laptops typically have a Clamshell design, clamshell form factor (design), form factor with a flat-panel computer scree ...

, Sequencer, Programming, Production *Sadatoshi Tainaka -

Drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

(sampled) on "AURORA 2" *Miss N. & Wisakha Fraytes - Vocals (sampled) on "Sim City 2" *Tuan Chin Kuan - Vocals (sampled) on "World Turbine" *Masanori Chinzei -

Engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

References

External links

Music Samples from SOLAR RAY

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* * * {{Authority control Susumu Hirasawa albums 2000s Japanese-language albums 2001 remix albums Self-released albums