Susumu Yokota is an internationally famous electronic music artist. He has gained attention and critical acclaim in the United States for his experiments in ambient music and remixing, and his fame in Japan began with a career as a house DJ.
Yokota first entered the music scene under the wing of celebrated trance musician Sven Vath of Germany. Vath offered Yokota a contract with the Eye-Q label, on which he released his first album, Frankfurt-Tokyo Connection, referring to the two artists' transcontinental relationship. With the new found foreign attention, his fame in Europe grew so large that he was the first Japanese artist to be invited to perform at Berlin's 1993 Love Parade. After the release of his debut album, he released another, Zen, in Europe, followed by his first Japanese album, Acid Mount Fuji, on newly formed Sublime Records.
Throughout the late 1990s, Yokota released works under many monikers including Ringo, Prism, Stevia and others. Yokota's first album to deviate from the traditional dance scene was his 1996 release, Cat Mouse and Me, which allowed Yokota to experiment with fusions of jazz, hip hop and techno. This marked the musician's turn from a more upbeat techno style to the ambient house sound he is now widely known for. Yokota released a slew of new CDs, reaching his seventeenth album before 2000.
In 2000, Yokota made his full album debut, Zero, in the United Kingdom on Exceptional Records. This album mixed his ambient style with the current dance and disco trends of the club scene. The album attracted extremely positive media attention and had Yokota's work on regular rotation in many of the UK dance clubs. Since the turn of the century, Yokota has experimented with abstract and minimalist music with Grinning Cat in 2001, more of his signature ambient music with The Boy and the Tree in 2002, muzak with Sound of Sky in 2002 and, very recently, classical with 2005's Symbol. In 2005, Yokota also collaborated with European band Rothko for another album, Distant Sounds of Summer. Most recently, Yokota has released LOVE or DIE, another CD on his label, Skintone, in Japan.
