This February, a compilation album was announced to honor “Hosono House,” the debut album of Haruomi Hosono’s solo career. I can't hide my excitement in this article. Of all the YMO members, I feel Hosono is the least known outside of Japan and, at the same time, the most interesting character.

With this 50-year commemoration, we have enlisted various well-recognized names as collaborators. Hopefully, this collaborative project will shed more light on Hosono’s work. For starters, it looks like Mac DeMarco will inaugurate the compilation, and he has already uploaded his rendition of the song “Boku wa Chotto” on streaming platforms. Other notable collaborators include Sam Gendel, John Carroll Kirby, and Jerry Paper. But now it’s time to talk about the most recent sneak peek of this compilation and a very special guest in this project: Cornelius, who has recently contributed his cover of “Bara to Yaju.”

Thanks to the “Stones Throw” label, we know that Cornelius and Hosono met in 2001 and Cornelius was part of the legendary project “Yellow Magic Orchestra” (YMO) by invitation of Hosono. He not only collaborated with YMO but also participated in other ex-YMO members' side and solo projects. He played a pivotal role in the making of the praised "CHASM" album by Ryuichi Sakamoto, joined Takahashi’s band METAFIVE, and even participated in Yoko Ono’s Plastic Band. So, I think of all the collaborators in this honor compilation, Cornelius is the most interesting character and the one with the longest history with Hosono.

One thing that immediately comes to mind is that the new version is way more “jazzy” and spacious. While Hosono’s original song is more agile and complex in terms of polyphony, Cornelius’s simpler approach also feels more refined. It has that beautiful way of crafting choruses taken from "Too Much for Sauna," but without stealing the identity of the original "Bara to Yaju." The spaciousness of Cornelius’s production also allowed Hosono’s voice to shine brighter, and without all those vintage voice effects, the song lost its exotica/rock and roll feel.

Cornelius’s take on "Bara to Yaju" is already available on all streaming platforms, which, for me, takes away some of the suspense for the release of the album. However, I expect that we will see more of Cornelius’s taste and tracks when the album is finally released.

You can visit Cornelius's official website here, and if this happens to be the first time you hear about the legendary master Haruomi Hosono, I invite you to check his website as well.

Author: Martín Cacho

Martín is a video game composer, producer and writer from Sonora, México.