Haruomi Hosono, Gründungsmitglied des legendären Yellow Magic Orchestra und einer der einflussreichsten Musiker Japans, komponierte "Watering A Flower" 1984 als Auftragsarbeit für einen Flagship-Store, den die damals neue Marke Muji in Tokio eröffnete. Und wenn man ein Genie wie Hosono darum bittet, Fahrstuhl-Muzak zu komponieren, bekommt man natürlich weit mehr als das. Hosono sagte, er habe versucht, das "ozeanische Gefühl" einzufangen, das der französische Mystiker Romain Rolland in einem Brief an Sigmund Freud als Zustand spiritueller Einigkeit und Ewigkeit beschrieben hatte.  

Wie sehr dieses Ambient-Meisterwerk, das bis heute nicht in Gänze neu aufgelegt wurde, die Fantasie beflügelt, sieht man nicht nur daran, dass Vampire Weekend das Eröffnungsstück auf ihrem letzten Album sampelten, sondern vor allem daran, zu was für poetischen Kommentaren diese Musik die Hörer auf YouTube inspiriert hat. Unter dem Upload finden sich Hunderte kleine verzauberte Geschichten, Kindheitserinnerungen, surreale Miniaturen und Haiku-artige Dankesbezeugungen an die Kraft dieser entrückenden, meditativen, Zeit auflösenden Klänge. Fast jeder Kommentar ist ein kleines Kunstwerk für sich. Und es ist tröstend und rührend zu sehen, wie fremde Menschen sich über eine obskure, fast vergessene Platte emotional miteinander verbünden. 

Eine Auswahl: 

This music feels like walking through a house of mirrors without having a reflection

This is the waiting room music that plays while you're in the womb

I played this at my vacuum cleaner's funeral.

this is the music that plays as the credits roll on the movie of your entire life, the theater is dark and empty except for you and you know you're going to have to get up and leave soon and you're okay with that but you want to sit and watch all those familiar names scroll past for just a little longer.

I'm 7 years old, laying in my bed and reading my favorite book. It is a Saturday afternoon and my mother is making spaghetti for dinner. I curl further into the bedsheets and feel as the cool mattress gradually heats under my body. I am warm and safe and loved, and I don't know what an e-mail is.

This is like a robotic child roaming through old ruins on a strange planet

This is what it feels like to be a snail under a leaf during a rainy day

The first track sounds like what you would hear if you walked into a library owned by a giant talking cat who makes a killer tiramisu and gives you rare books in return for some neat looking rocks.

listening to this music makes me feel like i've been walking for 10 miles with a pebble in my shoe, only to take it out and find out it's a human tooth

this music is the music that plays when you make eye contact with the creepy little dried fish at the grocery store. you wonder what he was like in life, who is family was, what his goals and aspirations were and he probably wonders the same about you. you don't speak the same language but you both share 14 minutes of longing, loneliness and happiness bottled into one emotion until the store security drags you outside into the rain with tears streaming down your face. You're left soaking wet in the warm rain and alone only to find out that you in fact are that little dried fish remembering what water once felt like. It is bliss and you wish to be no were else but here in this moment alone.

You have social anxiety, you're in a crowded train. But today you feel very comfortable on this ride because you are one station away from where you are to meet your favorite person.

When you realise that life is a long chain of moments, snippets of seconds, and every single one is substantial. Even if it appears like nothing happens at all.

one day you will wake up early enough to see the sun rise over the horizon. one day you understand what people mean when they say "home is a feeling". one day you will speak with passion about a subject and everyone in the room will listen. one day you find your family, your people, your reason. one day you will look back on it all, and wonder why you were so sad in the first place.

I know there is a million other comments like this, but I just want everyone to know how comforting this is. I’ve been extremely depressed and lonely recently, and I’ll come back every once and while to just sit, listen, and bawl my eyes out. The comments are always a shining light.