People, Japanese psychedelia
b-side
/
People existed essentially as a studio project, and Ceremony: Buddha Meet Rock was their only album, released by Teichiku in 1971. The core group brought together organist and arranger Yusuke Hoguchi, guitarist Kimio Mizutani, bassist Hideaki Takebe, drummer Kiyoshi Tanaka and percussionist Larry Sunaga; Naoki Tachikawa produced the record.
What interests me here is the way two very different musical languages are allowed to remain slightly incompatible. Buddhist chant, bells, gong and ritual sounds coexist with fuzz guitar, organ, bass and heavy percussion. The record never completely smooths those elements into a comfortable fusion. That friction is precisely what gives it its character.
RITUAL / PSYCHEDELIA
The album is structured less like a conventional collection of songs than a continuous ceremony. Titles such as Prologue, Shomyo, Gatha, Flower Strewing, Prayer and Epilogue reinforce that sense of progression through different ritual states rather than separate tracks.
For me, the strongest passages are those in which the music almost stops moving forward. Repetition, chanting and drone stretch time, while guitar and percussion periodically disturb that stillness. The result can feel meditative one moment and strangely physical the next. It is psychedelic music, but its disorientation comes as much from ritual and repetition as from distortion.
SELECTED RECORD
Ceremony: Buddha Meet Rock — 1971
I tend to listen to this album as a single environment rather than a sequence of individual compositions. Once it establishes its rhythm, normal musical time seems to loosen: motifs return, voices emerge and disappear, percussion accumulates, then everything recedes again.
That is what makes the record more than a curiosity built around the idea of “Buddhism meets rock.” The ritual is not simply decoration placed over a rock arrangement. It changes the way the music moves.
LISTEN / SHOMYO PART 1
Yusuke Hoguchi — organ, piano, vocals
Kimio Mizutani — electric guitar, slide guitar, acoustic guitar, sitar
Hideaki Takebe — electric bass
Kiyoshi Tanaka — drums, percussion
Larry Sunaga — percussion, gong
Additional vocals: Akemi Tomura, Goro Inoue, Kyo Shibata, Maiya Sugihara
Arranged by: Yusuke Hoguchi
Produced by: Naoki Tachikawa
Recorded: 1971
Location: Teichiku Suginami Studios, Tokyo
Original issue: Teichiku Records, SL-1368
People existed essentially as a studio project, and Ceremony: Buddha Meet Rock was their only album, released by Teichiku in 1971. The core group brought together organist and arranger Yusuke Hoguchi, guitarist Kimio Mizutani, bassist Hideaki Takebe, drummer Kiyoshi Tanaka and percussionist Larry Sunaga; Naoki Tachikawa produced the record.
What interests me here is the way two very different musical languages are allowed to remain slightly incompatible. Buddhist chant, bells, gong and ritual sounds coexist with fuzz guitar, organ, bass and heavy percussion. The record never completely smooths those elements into a comfortable fusion. That friction is precisely what gives it its character.
RITUAL / PSYCHEDELIA
The album is structured less like a conventional collection of songs than a continuous ceremony. Titles such as Prologue, Shomyo, Gatha, Flower Strewing, Prayer and Epilogue reinforce that sense of progression through different ritual states rather than separate tracks.
For me, the strongest passages are those in which the music almost stops moving forward. Repetition, chanting and drone stretch time, while guitar and percussion periodically disturb that stillness. The result can feel meditative one moment and strangely physical the next. It is psychedelic music, but its disorientation comes as much from ritual and repetition as from distortion.
SELECTED RECORD
Ceremony: Buddha Meet Rock — 1971
I tend to listen to this album as a single environment rather than a sequence of individual compositions. Once it establishes its rhythm, normal musical time seems to loosen: motifs return, voices emerge and disappear, percussion accumulates, then everything recedes again.
That is what makes the record more than a curiosity built around the idea of “Buddhism meets rock.” The ritual is not simply decoration placed over a rock arrangement. It changes the way the music moves.
LISTEN / SHOMYO PART 1
Yusuke Hoguchi — organ, piano, vocals
Kimio Mizutani — electric guitar, slide guitar, acoustic guitar, sitar
Hideaki Takebe — electric bass
Kiyoshi Tanaka — drums, percussion
Larry Sunaga — percussion, gong
Additional vocals: Akemi Tomura, Goro Inoue, Kyo Shibata, Maiya Sugihara
Arranged by: Yusuke Hoguchi
Produced by: Naoki Tachikawa
Recorded: 1971
Location: Teichiku Suginami Studios, Tokyo
Original issue: Teichiku Records, SL-1368
