The word re-release often promises more than it can – or perhaps wants to – deliver. The Pocket of Fever by Japanese composer Masahiro Sugaya is being officially released today, but it was never intended as a stand-alone release: a private cassette pressing from the late 1980s, produced as a soundtrack for the renowned Japanese dance company Pappa Tarahumara. Now, almost forty years later, the release is more like a late acquaintance – with a strange, delicate music that has long been hidden.
Each track on The Pocket of Fever unfolds its own little world. “1 Water 1” opens with precisely placed piano notes, each touch like a dancing accent. The title track, on the other hand, wears sandals with a bossa nova flavor and charmingly taps the beach towel. This is followed by ironic but heartfelt pop miniatures like “Above the City’s Rooftops” and delicate guitar pieces like “Conversation of the Wind”. Finally, in “Future’s Green,” Sugaya’s affinity for kankyō ongaku – the functional Japanese ambient music made famous by Hiroshi Yoshimura – shines through. Today we can only guess at the extent to which it once corresponded to stage movement. But this album needs no contextualization. It is enough to listen to it – whether sitting, lying down, or with your eyes closed. The Pocket of Fever is not a release of today, but a gift for the present.
