Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on January 2010

Photo by Yuna Yagi

Takamasa Aoki is one of those Japanese artists who have managed to successfully re-import themselves back to their homeland. After moving to Europe in 2004 following the warm Continental reception of his album Silicom, Aoki has in recent years found Japan to be increasingly open to his heady compositions.

“This kind of music, and also my favorite art, came from Europe—I thought I should learn from the source,” he says at the tail end of a long Japan tour. “I moved to Paris in 2004, but then I moved to Berlin in 2008 because I wanted to have a bigger space and cheaper rent.”

Berlin may be best known now for its thriving minimal techno scene, but Aoki’s tracks aren’t strapped to any sort of four-to-the-floor beat. Rather, as his new remix outing Fractalized indicates, he follows his muse wherever it takes him—the album encompasses everything from warm vocal house to uncompromising experimental ambient music, and includes re-imaginings of his own tracks and others by the likes of Ryuichi Sakamoto.

“I am influenced by minimal techno, because the minimal aesthetic is something natural to Japan—you can see it in the gardens and temples,” he says. But Aoki is neither a DJ nor record collector, and his inspirations often come from outside the art world. “Actually, my biggest influence is Formula One,” he says with a laugh. “I love the extremeness of it, the noise that comes from it—it’s so beautiful.”

Aoki invests his money outside the music world as well.

“All the income from my music goes to clean energy, like cold fusion,” he says. “Now, at Osaka University there is a famous professor [Yoshiaka Arata] who has invented this technology. I want to change the world so it’s not controlled by war and this crazy oil-industry money system.”

While claims of attaining cold fusion—the holy grail of nuclear energy—have until now been proven to be quackery, Aoki may not be the gullible dreamer he seems. In 2008, Arata reported success with an experiment that has, according to reports, yet to be disproved.

Aoki may soon be headed back to Japan to realize his ambitions of harnessing music to change the world.

“When I was in Japan, I really appreciated Western culture, but after I had a chance to live abroad, everything looks slightly different,” he says. “Every time you come back you have a new discovery. It’s civilized here. We don’t have garbage on the street, and I’m sure people are very repressed, but these quiet, hidden rules make it work well. It’s a super hybrid of Western and Asian culture. I want to do something for this planet—and at the same time make Japan happier.”

Fractalized is available on Commons. Info: www.aokitakamasa.com