Dedicated to my friend Manuel Gottsching, and also to the many affected Japanese people in the big Tsunami on March 11, 2011.


As a basic stance of this remastering work, all tracks emphasize the bass sound. In addition, a reverb effect is also partially added. If you can feel the rumbling of the ground in the first track,'Spiral', you will understand my basic style of sound creation.

With this release, we can travel back in time, allowing us to relive my musical journey all the way back to my first project in 1980, OSIRIS and the live group, Astral Tempel.
When I myself listen to these tracks in this order again, I remember many memories I had forgotten at the time.

I don't think I'm a particularly excellent guitar player, but I think the best performance I have given was the improvisational guitar solo and backing guitar loops combination in 'Drugging For M', in which, I'd like to you to feel Japan's 'Wabi-sabi' which means the beauty of the simple and the rustic. On my recently released collaboration with Peter Frohmader, I am very pleased with my guitar solo and synthesizers on 'Sphinx Touch', and also my performance on Mellotron. In terms of performances up until now, I consider myself to have reached my musical goal on these tracks. If possible, please listen to 'Hiro Kawahara and Peter Frohmader (1998)', 'Heretic - Yoyoi Dream (1996)' and 'Heretic - Drugging For M (1997)'.

1, 6, 7 and 8 were originally contained in audio parts on Eurock's 'The Golden Age (2000) CD-ROM'.

From 7 onwards, I added my pre-Heretic projects (OSIRIS, Astral Tempel). The tracks are selected from the cassette releases of these projets.

7, 8, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 are taken from my first LP 'OSIRIS - In the mist of time (1980)'.

12 is dedicated to my friend Manuel Gottsching, and also to the many affected Japanese people in the big Tsunami on March 11, 2011. It's a rare live performance at that time, and after the drum solo, it's an improvisation.

If you listen to these recordings, you can understand the transition of my music.

The year after this original 'Requiem' CD was released, the big earthquake in Japan caused a tsunami that killed many people, as well as a nuclear power plant meltdown in Fukushima.....

The meaning of the title when it was released was my music memoir, but after that terrible March 11, 2011, the meaning of the title changed.....

Hiro Kawahara 2023

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During the golden era of the late 1970s-1980s Japan had many provocative artists and bands experimenting with electronic, symphonic, and new wave music. Hiro Kawahara was one of the original pioneers of the genre, fusing synthesizer with celestial guitar excursions.
He produced his first LP as Osiris in 1980. Then in 1985, he formed Heretic with Tohru Ohta, Suguru Mori and Robbin Lloyd (joining for the second album) and his musical conception grew to explore dimensions that were even more expansive.

Over the next 20 years he released some of the most deeply beautiful, diverse and powerfully strange music on the Japanese indie scene. Heretic's music was relatively unknown during its creative period. Now with the reevaluation of all that came before musically in full swing, upon a second listening it more than stands up to the test of time. Some artists gained more recognition back then, but little of the music made displayed the vast range of sonic diversity and creative imagination contained in Hiro's extensive catalog. Recently, I asked him to create an anthology of music he felt encapsulated the essence of his work.

The Requiem CD is an anthology of music he felt encapsulated the essence of his work. It offers a magical trip back to a time when people created music from the heart and soul. In its most inspired moments of inspiration it affirms the ability of music to evoke powerful emotions by offering an alchemical fusion that literally can take a listeners breathe away.

- CD Liner by Archie Patterson
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Interview with Eurock 2010 www.eurock.com/Display.aspx?Content=HiroKawaharaInterview.aspx