The media experiment for the book conducted by Ryuichi Sakamoto in “the first year of the performance”
Long Phone Call is the first publication released from the publisher Honhondo founded by Ryuichi Sakamoto in 1984. As the title tells, this is a book of record based on the dialogue between Yuji Takahashi and Sakamoto on the phone.
They stayed from December 15th to 17th of 1983 in Ishigaki Island and made phone calls from their room resulting in a total of 4 dialogues. Though it was certainly a dialogue, it was supposed (hopefully) to be a “long phone call” as a daily activity.
For instance, even what is called a dialogue or correspondence is edited into orderly sentences by cutting out unnecessary information when it becomes words if themes are given and the dialogue goes forward. On the other hand, this book keeps the atmosphere of their random conversation while lying on their beds as it is, and yet writes out even noises usually ignored in the process of transcription. All those detailed descriptions make me feel like listening to recorded dialogue while reading the book.
While it is a book, as Sakamoto once remarked, it could mean also a literal resource of visual and audio performances (moreover, it becomes a telephone book, too). Thus, the book can be said to advocate a media of intermediate realms in that it is transformed into another media and traverses the media (Honhondo published Kyugyo (A Long Break), the cassette book of Suigyu Gakudan edited by Akira Asada and Sakamoto later). In addition, Sakamoto made a media performance of “The Grey Wall” by putting copies of its cover art on the wall of Shibuya Parco for 7 hours.
It was an experiment through publication, inspired by apprehending the year 1984 as “the first year of the performance” given by Sakamoto. The coming back of this legendary book which had been out of print for a long time against requests for its reprinting should be delighted.
