Pharmasonics – BGM Edition
Pharmasonics – A BGM Edition for Public Spaces
In short, Pharmasonics began as an enquiry into a simple question: what might music become if it were created with the explicit intention of acting upon the human autonomic nervous system?
This BGM Edition marks the first album-length release within this ongoing enquiry. Several pieces from this project have already been released on SoundCloud.
Origins
Recently, I began thinking about what it means to play FMT’s music in public spaces. There were several triggers.
As I mentioned on Threads, I once happened to see an FMT music video looping silently on a large display in the waiting area of a certain facility. I had spoken with the staff there about FMT, but I had not been told that the video was being used in this way.
At that moment I thought, “I see—this is another way an image can function. I hadn’t anticipated this. Yet it clearly fits the atmosphere of both the video and the space.”
Another catalyst was reconnecting with a friend from my student days, who is now a practicing physician. While talking about music, he showed me the playlist playing in his clinic’s waiting room. It included Showa-era Japanese pop songs (what is now often referred to as “city pop”), detective drama soundtracks, 1980s funk and new wave—all mixed together. For a medical waiting room, it was unexpectedly free in its selection.
Half jokingly, I suggested, “Why don’t FMT create a playlist specifically for your waiting room?” He agreed without hesitation.
Later, another physician who runs a clinic and had been listening to FMT told me that, given the situation, he felt compelled to play rather generic Muzak-like music. In response, we decided to share an FMT playlist instead.
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Expanding the Idea of “Live”
Conventionally, a “live” performance means musicians standing before an audience and playing in real time. Yet I have come to think that, more essentially, live performance may occur whenever sound emerges within a specific space and time and acts upon that environment.
When Pharmasonics plays in a public space, it is not being consumed as an object of focused listening. No one comes there for the music. And yet, if the sound subtly alters the condition of the space, might that not also be considered a form of live performance?
Live does not necessarily require a stage. The act of sounding within a public space may itself constitute one form of FMT’s live activity.
Music produced as data, when played in an actual environment, mixes with reflections from walls, the hum of air conditioning, and the presence of people. In that context, it feels less like simple “playback” and more like a kind of staging.
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Background Music in Public Spaces
In Japan, background music in public venues was once dominated by licensed broadcast services such as U-SEN. These were business-oriented systems with proper copyright clearance, but their fees could be burdensome for small-scale operators.
As a result, smaller facilities often played CDs or cassette tapes owned by the proprietor through commercial audio systems—sometimes in legally ambiguous ways.
Today, general consumer subscription services are widely used instead. However, their use in public or commercial spaces still requires attention to licensing terms and copyright conditions.
This led me to consider whether it might be possible to provide audio specifically for facility owners and administrators who were already listening to FMT—music that could be played without such concerns.
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The Concept of the BGM Edition
The version of Pharmasonics prepared for public spaces differs in mastering from the general release version.
The public version is designed for attentive listening, with a wider dynamic range and a broader stereo image.
The BGM Edition, by contrast, has a more restrained dynamic range and image. Public-space speaker systems often have limited dynamics and are close to mono in character. Excessively wide imaging or strong peaks can become unstable in such environments.
This version is mixed and mastered on the assumption that it will blend with other music and ambient noise. It is designed not to stand out, but to function.
I want it to avoid overt self-assertion—yet still remain recognizably FMT. Ideally, it should connect naturally with any surrounding music.
I also hope it will be played at as low a volume as possible.
It is not intended that only FMT tracks be played repeatedly. Shuffling and coexistence with other music are assumed from the start.
Objects and paintings in public spaces are not easily replaced. Music, however, can be changed effortlessly. I see this mutability not as a weakness, but as a characteristic.
At present, this BGM Edition is provided only to facility owners and administrators. The album Pharmasonics as a work in its own right may eventually be released in an appropriate form.
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On Coincidence
Some of the pieces on Pharmasonics originated from sounds TM composed as a way of dealing with his own headaches.
It was never intended that these sounds would later be used as background music in public spaces. Looking back, however, it feels like an interesting coincidence.
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