Richard Barbieri

British synthesizer player and composer Richard Barbieri first gained attention in progressive and art rock circles through his late-1970s contributions as a founding member of the new wave band Japan. His inventive keyboard textures and programming helped define the group’s distinctive sonic identity and positioned him as a valued session musician, resulting in partnerships with Ryuichi Sakamoto, Robert Fripp, Roedelius, and many additional artists. After Japan split in 1982, Barbieri maintained ties with former colleagues—most consistently Steve Jansen and Mick Karn—through various side projects, while his 1992 involvement with Steven Wilson’s duo No-Man opened the door to full membership in Wilson’s primary outfit, Porcupine Tree. He has also scored film music and issued recordings alongside Nobukazu Takemura and Marillion vocalist Steve Hogarth. Barbieri’s independent releases, notably 2004’s Things Buried and 2021’s Under a Spell, combine electronic rhythms, exploratory ambient layers, and oneiric forms.

Alongside guitarist/vocalist David Sylvian, drummer Steve Jansen, and bassist Mick Karn, Barbieri established Japan in 1974. Guitarist Rob Dean joined later, and the quartet issued its first album, Adolescent Sex, in 1978; the raw, glam-tinged post-punk effort was followed the same year by the slightly funk-inflected Obscure Alternatives. Neither record registered on domestic charts, yet both found favor in Japan itself, where the band retained a loyal audience. The 1979 album Quiet Life marked a pronounced turn toward synth pop and new wave, becoming the group’s initial British success; Gentlemen Take Polaroids (1980) and Tin Drum (1981) achieved still greater commercial traction, the latter generating multiple hit singles and lingering on the U.K. listings for twelve months. Internal musical and personal tensions prompted the quartet to disband at its commercial peak, closing its run with a final concert in Nagoya, Japan, in December 1982. The posthumous live collection Oil on Canvas, issued in 1983, outperformed all prior studio efforts by reaching number five on the British album chart.

Once Japan dissolved, Barbieri sustained associations with his ex-bandmates, supplying keyboards for solo outings and concerts by David Sylvian and Mick Karn. A sustained creative alliance with Steve Jansen commenced in 1984; the pair recorded the largely instrumental, experimental synth-pop set Worlds in a Small Room in Tokyo and released it as Jansen/Barbieri the next year. Under the Dolphin Brothers name they issued the more overtly pop-oriented Catch the Fall in 1987, then reverted to Jansen/Barbieri for the abstract Stories Across Borders in 1991. Near the decade’s close, Barbieri rejoined Karn, Sylvian, and Jansen in the short-lived Rain Tree Crow. Their sole album, released in 1991, extended Japan’s aesthetic while incorporating jazz, ambient, and global-music elements. Creative differences again ended the project, yet Jansen, Barbieri, and Karn continued working together on the Medium Productions label, beginning with 1993’s Beginning to Melt. The same trio contributed to Steven Wilson’s No-Man in 1992, an experience that prompted Barbieri to join Porcupine Tree full-time the following year. Barbieri and No-Man singer Tim Bowness issued Flame in 1994; he also formed the duo Indigo Falls with his wife, Suzanne Barbieri, yielding a self-titled album in 1996. Jansen, Barbieri, and Nobukazu Takemura later collaborated on the 1997 downtempo electronic release Changing Hands.

Although Barbieri maintained a steady stream of collaborative and occasional solo projects—including 2004’s Things Buried—Porcupine Tree absorbed most of his energies through the 1990s and 2000s. The band’s style evolved from early ambient and psychedelic space rock toward a more radio-friendly alternative-rock approach by the late 1990s, then embraced progressive metal in the early 2000s. That final phase delivered the group’s strongest sales; Fear of a Blank Planet (2007) and The Incident (2009) both charted widely. Porcupine Tree entered an indefinite hiatus in 2010 while expressing hopes of eventual reunion. Barbieri, whose solo work had appeared on Kscope—the label associated with many Wilson-related endeavors—continued the relationship by teaming with Steve Hogarth for 2012’s Not the Weapon But the Hand. The pair followed with the limited mini-album Arc Light in 2013, granted wider release by Kscope the next year. Beginning in 2015, Kscope also began reissuing selected out-of-print Medium Productions titles by Jansen and Barbieri, starting with the 1996 live recording Lumen (previously available only as a scarce cassette) and the 1995 studio album Stone to Flesh.

In 2017 Barbieri delivered the atmospheric electronic album Planets + Persona and launched the Variants EP series, which gathered live recordings, demos, and unreleased material. Kscope subsequently compiled the EPs into two vinyl collections, Variants 1 & 2 and Variants 3 & 4, issued in 2019. Past Imperfect/Future Tense, another blend of live and previously unheard pieces, surfaced in 2020, followed by Under a Spell—a full-length integrating dub, jazz, and ambient strands—in 2021.