Hosono\u2019s 23rd album, \u201cYours Sincerely<\/a>,\u201d released nine days before his headliner show, was created to explore translating the concept of compassion, mothership and sympathy into music between languages. While the word compassion comes from the literary meaning of \u201cco-suffering,\u201d the Japanese expression (\u601d\u3044\u3084\u308a, omoiyari) carries the positive connotation of sharing rejoice.<\/p>\n \u201cThe perspective, the emotional angle \u2014 subtly but fundamentally different,\u201d his Instagram post <\/a>reads. \u201cInstead, I turned to a more familiar word often used to close a letter: \u2018Sincerely.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Introduced to Hosono\u2019s music through her partner, attendee Nikki Kilmer was struck by the honesty and warmth throughout the night\u2019s live performance. \u201cOnce you hear his music and all of the bands that he\u2019s been in, you can\u2019t help but love it,\u201d said Kilmer, an LA-based vinyl DJ also known as Miss Frizzle.<\/p>\n Many in the audience, like Kilmer\u2019s partner, came to Hosono through YMO, the trio in which he played bass alongside drummer Yukihiro Takahashi and Academy Award-winning<\/a> composer Ryuichi Sakamoto.<\/p>\n Hosono named the band by slipping a racial color into white magic and black magic. The band took up the argument, subverting Western exotica through the lens of three Japanese musicians. Hosono reaffirmed it through a tropical, exotica-infused cover of Hoagy Carmichael\u2019s piano-based \u201cHong Kong Blues<\/a>,\u201d a song about an American stranded in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n The evening passes down a legacy, both in the band and the audience. Hosono jokingly took two smoking breaks during the show to rest and highlight backing duos Kukuku and Chappo. Looping and layering the autoharp melody, a bird whistle, bubbles she blew into water, and the rustle of a feather-grass bundle, Kukuku percussionist Manami Kakudo briefly carried the audience to an open field alongside a burbling creek in early spring.<\/p>\n The cigarette breaks also centered the two-piece Japanese instrumental band Chappo<\/a> in front of an American crowd. Oto Fukuhara on guitar and Yuta Hosono, Haruomi\u2019s grandson, on bass, the duo reinterpreted the animated film \u201cNight on the Galactic Railroad\u201d soundtrack, \u201cLa Stelfesto de Centauro,\u201d<\/a> with their former drummer, So Ebihara.<\/p>\n Chappo thickened the soundtrack. Hosono\u2019s 1985 recording is spare. It paints an uncanny scene of children circling around the town square with festival masks and lanterns under a dark night. The band played it warm and close, with his grandson carrying the bass line, making the lineage audible.<\/p>\n Mark Wasiel brought his family of four that evening after watching Hosono\u2019s last Los Angeles headlining show in 2019. First encountered and captured by YMO at his high school music retail job in the 1980s, Wasiel grew into Hosono\u2019s solo and collaborative projects over the last two decades.<\/p>\n \u201cThinking this might be the last chance to see him in the United States,\u201d he said. \u201cI definitely wanted to come out and see it with my kids.\u201d<\/p>\n Between sets, Hosono joked about the pacemaker messing up his rhythm. The artist toured in Tokyo in September soon after heart surgery. The show went well, his interpreter explained, because the crowd sent him \u201cpower of healing.\u201d The crowd rose in a wave from the front rows back to give a standing ovation every time he reappeared on the stage.<\/p>\n Fans lost two YMO members to cancer in 2023. Hosono is the last one standing.<\/p>\n \u201cThe last song really moved me to tears,\u201d said Vincent Campillo regarding the solo version of \u201cSTELLA<\/a>,\u201d a reinterpreted 2003 song first released by Haruomi and Takahashi\u2019s electronica duo, Sketch Show<\/a>.<\/p>\n Campillo, Kilmer\u2019s partner and a Highland Park-based vinyl DJ known as Mr. Palomar, has been a YMO and Hosono listener for a decade. \u201cI realized that Ryuichi Sakamoto and Yukihiro Takahashi were singing backing vocals, with the drum machine, and he was accompanying his band members who have passed,\u201d Campillo said.<\/p>\n Campillo adds with a laugh: he first turned down the idea of attending the show for budget reasons, but eventually changed his mind. \u201cIt was the best decision.\u201d<\/p>\n Edited by Justin Ha<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Artist](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/J2HRR63FLVCQBPZCD3QPEKIQ4Q.JPG\")
Hosono holds his hat in the stage light. (Photo courtesy of Masahiro Handa) (MASAHIRO HANDA) <\/p>\n