Ghost was an experimental rock group formed in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, in 1984.

History

Core-member Masaki Batoh grew up in

Kyoto, Japan Kyoto ( or ; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it the ninth-most pop ...

where he attended a private school. During this time, he became interested in American and British

rock music Rock is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdo ...

ranging from

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...

and

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...

to the

Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground were an American rock band formed in New York City in 1964. Its classic lineup consisted of singer and guitarist Lou Reed, Welsh multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and percussionist Moe Tuc ...

and Japanese rock bands such as the

Taj Mahal Travellers The Taj Mahal Travellers (also given variously as Taj Mahal Travelers, Taj-Mahal Travellers, etc.) were a Japanese experimental music ensemble founded in 1969 by former Group Ongaku leader and Fluxus member Takehisa Kosugi. The rest of the group ...

and the

Flower Travellin' Band was a Japanese rock band that was formed in 1967. They were connected to Japan's counterculture movement and noted for their mixture of early heavy metal with psychedelic and progressive rock. They received wide acclaim from critics but fail ...

. Later, Batoh formed Ghost with a large and often varying lineup. According to reports posted on

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

, the group lived a nomadic existence, drifting from ruins of ancient temples to disused subway stations around the

area. The band began releasing their work with the albums ''

Ghost In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...

'' and '' Second Time Around'', which were released, respectively, in 1990 and 1992. The American independent label Drag City licensed each of the albums for distribution, and the Los Angeles The Now Sound label picked up two of Batoh's solo albums, released together as well under the title ''Collected Works''. Two albums, ''

Tune In, Turn On, Free Tibet ''Tune In, Turn On, Free Tibet'' is an album by the band Ghost. It was released by Drag City originally in 1999. It was released as a companion album with ''Snuffbox Immanence''. The album has one cover of a Pearls Before Swine song. Track li ...

'' and ''

Snuffbox Immanence ''Snuffbox Immanence'' is an album by the Japanese band Ghost (1984 band), Ghost. It was released by Drag City (record label), Drag City in 1999. The band also released ''Tune In, Turn On, Free Tibet'' on the same day. The album features a cover v ...

'', were released simultaneously in 1999. As well as their own work, Ghost have recorded and performed with the ex-

Galaxie 500 Galaxie 500 was an American indie rock band that formed in 1987 and split up in 1991 after releasing three studio albums: '' Today'' (1988), '' On Fire'' (1989), and '' This Is Our Music'' (1990). The band membership comprised guitarist and v ...

duo

Damon and Naomi Damon & Naomi are an American dream pop/indie folk duo, formed in 1991 by Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang, formerly of Galaxie 500. History After Galaxie 500 completed a tour of the US supporting Cocteau Twins, guitarist and vocalist Dean Wareha ...

. Five years after releasing both ''

'' and ''

'', Ghost returned with '' Hypnotic Underworld'', and there were some changes in the band.

Cellist The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

Hiromichi Sakamoto and

percussionist A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

Setsuko Furuya left and were replaced by a rhythm section of Takuyuki Moriya (electric bass guitar, double bass, and cello) and Junzo Tateiwa (drums, tabla, and percussion). In 2005, the Drag City label released a CD+DVD set titled, "Metamorphosis: Ghost Chronicles 1984-2004". The DVD is a career-spanning collection of footage featuring over two hours of improvisations, one-time-only band lineups, trances, freakouts, live shows and more. The CD features tracks from the previously undocumented 1980s era of studio improvs, live tracks, and outtakes from their debut album. In January 2007, Ghost released a new album titled '' In Stormy Nights''. The year 2008 saw Batoh collaborating live and in the studio with cellist

Helena Espvall Helena Espvall is a Swedish–American musician noted for her participation in the post-millennial psychedelic folk and free improv scenes. Her primary instruments are cello, guitar, and voice."Helena Espvall interviewed and introduced by Buck ...

, resulting in the album ''Helena Espvall & Masaki Batoh''. ''Overloaded Ark'' followed a year later. In 2014, Masaki Batoh announced on Facebook that the group had disbanded after 30 years of activity.

Members

* Masaki Batoh (馬頭將噐):

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 ...

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, ...

* Kazuo Ogino (荻野和夫):

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

electronics Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other Electric charge, electrically charged particles. It is a subfield ...

Michio Kurihara (born 23 November 1961) is a Japanese guitarist who has played with Ai Aso, Cosmic Invention, Hazama, Ensemble Pearl, Overhang Party, Onna, Ghost, Damon & Naomi, Boris, Yura Yura Teikoku, YBO2, and The Stars (formerly known as White Heaven), ...

(栗原道夫):

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 ...

* Junzo Tateiwa (立岩潤三):

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 ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

* Takuyuki Moriya (守屋拓之):

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

* Taishi Takizawa (瀧澤大志, also known as Giant):

theremin The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone, etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named aft ...

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

Discography

Albums

* ''

'' (1990) * '' Second Time Around'' (1992) * '' Temple Stone'' (1994) * ''

Lama Rabi Rabi ''Lama Rabi Rabi'' is an album by the band Ghost. Drag City released the album in 1996, the first time a Ghost album had been issued by an American label. Critical reception ''The Austin Chronicle'' wrote: "Highlights include the acid-psych man ...

'' (1996) * ''

'' (1999) * ''

'' (1999) * '' Hypnotic Underworld'' (2004) * ''Metamorphosis: Ghost Chronicles 1984–-2004'' (CD/DVD set 2005) * '' In Stormy Nights'' (2007) * '' Overture: Live in Nippon Yusen Soko 2006'' (2007)

Singles

* ''Moungod Air Cave b/w Guru in the Echo'' (1995) Both tracks recorded live in 1989 and 1994 respectively. * ''Holy High b/w Filament'' (2003)

Collaborations

* ''Damon and Naomi with Ghost'' (2000)

Compilation appearances

* ''Tama Yura'' on ''Tokyo Flashback Vol. 1'' (1991) * ''Sun is Tangging'' on ''Tokyo Flashback Vol. 2'' (1992) * ''Suspect Tells of Dog Under the Sun'' on ''Tokyo Flashback Vol. 3'' (1993) * ''Way to Coimbula'' on ''ALMS: A benefit for

Ptolemaic Terrascope {{Infobox magazine , image_file = pto.png , image_size = , image_caption = ''Ptolemaic Terrascope'' logo , editor = Phil McMullen (1988–2005) Pat Thomas (2005-07) , editor_title = , staf ...

'' (1997)

Masaki Batoh solo

* ''A Ghost from the Darkened Sea'' (1995) Total Album Length: 23min & 39sec * ''Kikaokubeshi'' (1996) Total Album Length: 31min & 42sec * '' Collected Works 95-96'' (2004) Above two albums on one CD. * ''Brain Pulse Music'' (2012)

Helena Espvall / Masaki Batoh collaborations

* ''Helena Espvall & Masaki Batoh'' (2008) * ''Overloaded Ark'' (2009)

External links

Official Site
(Japanese) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ghost Japanese psychedelic rock music groups Drag City (record label) artists Musical groups established in 1984 Musical groups from Tokyo Musical groups disestablished in 2014 P.S.F. Records artists