Yukihiro Takahashi

Yukihiro Takahashi ( born June 6, 1952)/////////////////////////

Yukihiro Takahashi first came to prominence as the drummer of The Sadistic Mika Band, and became known to western audiences after this band toured and recorded in the United Kingdom (produced by Chris Thomas). After the Sadistic Mika Band disbanded, some of the members (including Takahashi) formed another band called The Sadistics, who released several albums.

Yukihiro recorded his first solo album Saravah in 1978.

In 1978, Yukihiro joined　Haruomi Hosono and Ryuichi Sakamoto to form the Yellow Magic Orchestra.

Making abundant use of new synthesizers, samplers, digital and computer recording technology as it became available, their popularity and influence extended beyond Japan. The band are highly regarded as pioneers of electronic music, and continue to be remixed and sampled by modern artists.

After the Yellow Magic Orchestra disbanded in 1983, Yukihiro went solo and released a large number of solo albums. Yukihiro has collaborated extensively with other musicians, including Tony Mansfield, Bill Nelson, Iva Davies of Icehouse, Keiichi Suzuki of the Moon Riders (often as a duo dubbed "The Beatniks,")and in particular Steve Jansen. Yukihiro has released a single Stay Close and an album Pulse as a duo with Jansen.

Currently Yukihiro is a member of the duo Sketch Show, with Haruomi Hosono. Sketch Show has released two albums, one of which Loophole has been released in the UK. On a number of occasions Ryuichi Sakamoto has joined in on Sketch Show performances and recording sessions. He later proposed they rename the unit "Human Audio Sponge" when he participates.

Yukihiro’s latest solo album Blue Moon Blue was released on 03/15/06 in Japan. In this album, Yukihiro collaborated with Steve Jansen, Her Space Holiday and MARZ(Albrecht Kunze & Ekkehard Ehlers).



Both Takahashi and Hosono have recently reunited with Sakamoto as HASYMO - a combination of Human Audio Sponge and Yellow Magic Orchestra.



In 2006, The Sadistic Mika Band came together in a reunion, for the second time after 18-year hiatus, recruiting a new singer Kaera Kimura. The band recorded and released a new studio album titled "NARKISSOS" and played a one-off show. 2007 saw Yukihiro take part in the Live Earth benefit concert as a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra, as well as release the soundtrack album to the animated film RESCUE as HASYMO. HASYMO also provided a theme tune "Tokyo Town Pages" for the omnibus film TOKYO! (2008), directed by Michael Gondry, Pong Jun-Ho and Leos Carax. The trio (Yukihiro, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Haruomi Hosono) then was invited to Massive Attack-curated Meltdown Festival, London, June, 2008, which notably feartured their first UK performance in 28 years as Yellow Magic Orchestra. Yukihiro went on to form a new six-piece band named "pupa", along with Tomoyo Harada and Hiroshi Takano. The band released the first album "floating pupa", which was impressive and critically acclaimed, before embarking upon an enthusiastically-received national tour. He has now completed his 22nd solo album "Page By Page" due in March 2009, where he enjoys creative collaborations with a host of international artists such as Lali Puna, amiina, Steve Jansen, Atom (TM) and Cornelius, all of whom he has always paid a great respect to and had the deepest interest in particularly in recent years.