Soichi Terada

Born in Tokyo in 1965, Soichi Terada developed a house style in the late 1980s shaped by New York influences after a stay in the city that permanently oriented his approach to groove, supple basslines and luminous melodies. In 1989 he produced “Sun Shower” for Nami Shimada, and the following year he co‑founded the label Far East Recording with Shinichiro Yokota, a key figure in his early records and in the Japanese house scene of the time. His discography under his own name includes Far East Recording and Unity (1992), Smoky (1994), Sumo Jungle (1995), Sumo Jungle Grandeur (1996), the compilation Sounds from the Far East (2015) and Asakusa Light (2022). In parallel, Terada composed for video games, notably contributing to the Ape Escape series from 1999 and to Fantavision. His universe blends house, jungle, drum and bass and clearly articulated pop motifs, often with an unmistakably Japanese colouring. Under the alias Omodaka he explored from the 2000s a more hybrid vein combining electronic music, Japanese folk and chiptune aesthetics, documented by releases such as Cantata No. 147 (2006) and Gujoh Bushi (2019). The international rediscovery of his work in the mid‑2010s brought him back to club and festival stages across Europe, North America and Japan.