is the seventh solo 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 ...

, released on August 21, 1998 via

Nippon Columbia , often pronounced ''Korombia'', operating internationally as , is a Japanese record label founded in 1910 as Nipponophone Co., Ltd. It affiliated itself with the Columbia Graphophone Company of the United Kingdom and adopted the standard UK C ...

. It is considered to be Hirasawa's most popular album. Like most of his material, the majority of the instrumentation is by Hirasawa.

Overview

With his previous solo album ''

Siren Siren or sirens may refer to: Common meanings * Siren (alarm), a loud acoustic alarm used to alert people to emergencies * Siren (mythology), an enchanting but dangerous monster in Greek mythology that lured sailors to their deaths. Places * Sir ...

'', Susumu Hirasawa felt that he perfected both the "simulated world music" concept that started on ''

Sim City ''SimCity'' is an Open-ended (gameplay), open-ended City-building game, city-building video game franchise originally designed by Will Wright (game designer), Will Wright. The first game in the series, ''SimCity (1989 video game), SimCity'', ...

'' and his post-''

Aurora An aurora ( aurorae or auroras), also commonly known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly observed in high-latitude regions (around the Arc ...

'' vocal style. He essentially stopped experimenting with his style in the late 1990s because he felt that no new developments on that front would arise. Instead, he shifted his focus towards creating music for Interactive Live Shows. ''Technique of Relief'' was, from the beginning, a concept album for an interactive live. It builds upon a broad "restoration of a perfect character" theme introduced in ''

Scuba Scuba, originally SCUBA, often expanded to scuba set, is any self contained underwater breathing apparatus, a source of breathing gas used for underwater diving which is carried by the diver. Scuba may also refer to: * Scuba diving, swimming unde ...

'': while that album was about bringing scattered individuals back together into a group, ''Technique of Relief'' has the thoughts and experiences of many people combining into a

neural network A neural network is a group of interconnected units called neurons that send signals to one another. Neurons can be either biological cells or signal pathways. While individual neurons are simple, many of them together in a network can perfor ...

and becoming a single entity. The concept of "Green Nerve", which Hirasawa had played with in previous works, appears here as the character of a perfected human. The plot begins as the World Cell's breakdown causes the Green Nerve Network to cease functioning, and the Bridge Builder (Hirasawa) has to repair it. Hirasawa rerecorded songs originally performed by ''

Berserk Berserk (meaning "very angry" or "out of control") may refer to: * ''Berserk'' (manga), a Japanese manga series by Kentaro Miura ** ''Berserk'' (1997 TV series), the first anime television series adaptation of the manga series ** ''Berserk'' (2 ...

'' actress

Yūko Miyamura , also known by her nickname , is a Japanese actress, voice actress, singer and sound director. She played Kazuha Toyama in '' Detective Conan'', Casca in '' Berserk'' and Asuka Langley Soryu in '' Neon Genesis Evangelion''. Personal life Mi ...

("Moon Time" and "Mother") for the album. All the album's tracks weren't conceptualized and recorded holistically, but rather continually modified based on various phrases and flourishes he thought of on the fly. On ''Technique of Relief'', Hirasawa incorporated new sounds that he came in contact with into its style: tracks from a

cassette tape The Compact Cassette, also commonly called a cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog audio, analog magnetic tape recording format for Sound recording and reproduction, audio recording and playback. Invented by L ...

Indian music Owing to India's vastness and diversity, Indian music encompasses numerous genres in multiple varieties and forms which include classical music, folk, rock, and pop. It has a history spanning several millennia and developed over several ...

that a friend of his bought in the country were extensively sampled, 8 bit 22.050 kHz

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...

jungle jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past century. Etymology The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''jaṅgala'' ...

MOD Mod, MOD or mods may refer to: Places * Modesto City–County Airport, Stanislaus County, California, US Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Mods (band), a Norwegian rock band * M.O.D. (Method of Destruction), a band from New York City, US * ...

files downloaded from a German site were used as drum parts for four songs ("Town-0 Phase-5", "The Man from Narcissus Space", "Strange Night of the Omnificience", "World Cell") and he applied elements from

luk thung Luk thung (, , ) is a genre of Thai music that emerged after World War II in the Central Thailand, central region of Thailand. The genre was derived from phleng Thai sakon, and developed in the early-20th century. Suphan Buri in particular beca ...

after seeing its popularity across all layers of Thai society. ''Technique of Relief'' is the last of Hirasawa's main discography to be recorded in

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estim ...

. Unlike previous occasions, he recorded

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 ...

parts as well as vocal ones. Since he did not bring one of his trademark Talbo guitars to

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

, he had to rent a

Fender Stratocaster The Fender Stratocaster, colloquially known as the Strat, is a model of double- cutaway electric guitar designed between 1952 and 1954 by Leo Fender, Bill Carson, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares. The Fender Musical Instruments Corpora ...

, whose sound he disliked. The album is also the first since ''

Virtual Rabbit ''Virtual Rabbit'' is the third studio album by Susumu Hirasawa, released on May 25, 1991 via Polydor K.K. Overview ''Virtual Rabbit'' was made in the same style as the previous two albums, although greater in scale, with compositions more in li ...

'' where Japanese guest musicians, both singers and instrumentalists, appear.

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 ...

(

Acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

(

Fernandes Fernandes is a patronymic surname in the Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking countries. The name is a patronymic form of the Portuguese and Spanish personal name ''Fernando''. Fernandes is the 243rd most common surname in the world, the 3rd one in ...

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 (

E-mu Proteus The E-mu Proteus was a range of digital sound modules and keyboards manufactured by E-mu Systems from 1989 to 2002. History E-mu Systems came to prominence in the early 1980s with its relatively affordable E-mu Emulator, Emulator Sampling (musi ...

/2,

Korg M1 The Korg M1 is a synthesizer and music workstation manufactured by Korg from 1988 to 1995. It is one of the bestselling synthesizers in history, selling an estimated 250,000 units. The M1 was widely used in popular music and stock music in the ...

Roland JD-800 The Roland JD-800 is a digital synthesizer that was manufactured between 1991 and 1996. It features many knobs and sliders for patch editing and performance control — features that some manufacturers, including Roland, had been omitting in the ...

Roland JD-990 The Roland JD-990 Super JD is an updated version of the Roland JD-800 synthesizer in the form of a module with expanded capabilities, which was released in 1993 by Roland Corporation. JD-990 is a multitimbral synthesizer utilising PCM sample-base ...

), Sampler (

Akai S1100 Akai (, ) is a Japanese brand & former electronics manufacturer, established as Akai Electric Company Ltd in Tokyo in 1929. It was best known outside Japan for its tape recorders during the 1960s and 1970s. The company became bankrupt in 2000 ...

Drum machine A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument that creates percussion sounds, drum beats, and patterns. Drum machines may imitate drum kits or other percussion instruments, or produce unique sounds, such as synthesized electronic tones. A d ...

(

Roland R-8 The R-8 Human Rhythm Composer is an electronic drum machine introduced in 1989 by Roland Corporation, using PCM voices. The R-8 features velocity- and pressure-sensitive trigger pads, and the ability to create loops of beats. The device has eigh ...

with DANCE card),

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 ...

( 4000/040), Sequencer (Bars&Pipes Professional),

Programming Program (American English; also Commonwealth English in terms of computer programming and related activities) or programme (Commonwealth English in all other meanings), programmer, or programming may refer to: Business and management * Program m ...

Production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

;additional performers *Mari Furusato -

Soprano A soprano () is a type of classical singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral ...

Voice on "Moon Time" *Keiju Nakajima -

Sumatra Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...

Magic

Horn Horn may refer to: Common uses * Horn (acoustic), a tapered sound guide ** Horn antenna ** Horn loudspeaker ** Vehicle horn ** Train horn *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various animals * Horn (instrument), a family ...

on "Mother" *uncredited friend of Hirasawa's whom he nicknamed - Soprano Solo on "The Man from Narcissus Space" ;technical *Masanori Chinzei -

Recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, re ...

and Mixing *Nitt, Toshiyuki Nakamura - Assistant Engineering *Yuka Koizumi (Orange) - Mastering ;visuals *Kiyoshi Inagaki (Tristero Design) -

Art Direction Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to super ...

& Design *Yosuke Komatsu (Odd Job Ltd.) -

Photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

*Kazunori Yoshida - Hair & Make-Up *Akemi Tsujitani - Styling ;operations *Nippon Columbia **Teslakite ***Eiichi Yamakawa - Production (Executive) ***Toshiyuki Akimoto - Direction ***Mika Hirano - Promotion **Shingo Ninomiya - Promotion **Naoya Shimizu - Sales Promotion **Chika Fujita - Edit *Chaos Union Soho Project -

Artist Management A talent manager (also known as an artist manager, band manager, or music manager) is an individual who guides the professional career of artists within the entertainment industry. The responsibility of a talent manager is to oversee the day- ...

*Wai Rachatachotic - Coordinator *Chaos Thai: Takahisa Taira, Sajja "Yai" Tanyacharoen ;thanks *Danuphol "P. Jae" Kaewkan,

Kentaro Miura was a Japanese manga artist. He was best known for his dark fantasy series '' Berserk'', which began serialization in 1989. By 2023, ''Berserk'' had over 60 million copies in circulation, making it one of the best-selling manga series of all t ...

, Akira Shimada (

Young Animal In the English language, many animals have different names depending on whether they are male, female, young, domesticated, or in groups. The best-known source of many English words used for collective groupings of animals is ''Book of St. Alba ...

), Toshio Nakatani (

NTV NTV may refer to: Television * NTV (Bangladesh), a Bengali-language satellite television channel in Bangladesh * NTV (India), Telugu regional channel * NTV (Kenya) * NTV (Mongolia), a television channel based in Mongolia * NTV (Newport Televisio ...

Satoshi Kon was a Japanese film director, animator, screenwriter and manga artist from Sapporo, Hokkaido, and a member of the Japanese Animation Creators Association (JAniCA). He was a graduate of the Graphic Design department of the Musashino Art Univer ...

, Suguru Funatsu (Nippon Columbia), Tokinori Katakura & Yuka Furusato (Nippon Columbia), Yasumi Tanaka, NIFTY-Serve FAMIGA Interactive Live 要素技術支援 Project

Release history

References

;Bibliography * .

External links

''Interactive Live Show 1998 "WORLD CELL"'' Story Summary

"TOWN-0 PHASE-5" music video
{{Authority control 1998 albums Susumu Hirasawa albums Nippon Columbia albums