Japanese ambient and environmental music from Empire Of Signs – aka Spencer Doran and Maxwell August Croy.

Light In The Attic Records sub-label Empire of Signs headed up by Visible Cloaks’ Spencer Doran and Maxwell August Croy, will release records from Inoyama Land and Masahiro Sugaya – both of which were featured on Light In The Attic’s Japanese ambient, environmental music and new age compilation Kankyō Ongaku.

Read more: Composing For Space: The meticulous design of Japanese environmental sounds

Inoyama Land’s Commissions: 1977-2000, collects the work of musicians Makoto Inoue and Yasushi Yamashita as they entered the world of environmental music following the release of their Haruomi Hosono-produced 1983 release Danzindan-Pojidon. During this time, they worked with figures like Hiroshi Yoshimura, with whom they developed sound design for the International Stadium in Yokohama.

Horizon, Volume 1 features some of the scores created by Masahiro Sugaya for the experimental Tokyo theatre group Pappa Tarahumura. Sugaya, while little-known in the west, is an avant-garde veteran who worked within a group of musicians including Midori Takada, Hiroshi Yoshimura, Satsuki Shibano and Yoshio Ojima.

Both albums appear for the first time digitally and vinyl LP and are accompanied with liner notes in English and Japanese from Makoto Inoue, Yasushi Yamashita, Masahiro Sugaya, Spencer Doran and Maxwell August Croy.

Commissions: 1977-2000 and Horizon, Volume 1 arrive via Empire Of Signs on the 20th of September and 11t of October respectively. Check out the album artwork and tracklists for both albums below.

Commissions: 1977-2000 tracklist:

2. Cycle

3. Soushiyou To Shiteiru

4. Garasudama

5. Aa Egypto

6. Skyfish

7. Bananatron

8. Fairy Tale

9. Morn

10. Kodama

11. Ougon No Sara

12. Candy Floss

13. Watashikara Ubawanaide

14. Anatano Yushoku No Tameni

15. Candy (alt.)

16. Sekai No Owari

Horizon, Volume 1 tracklist:

2. Future Green

3. Afternoon of the Appearing Fish

4. Grain of Sand by the Sea

5. Straight Line Floating in the Sky

6. Wind Conversation

7. Until the End of the World

8. Horizon (Outro)