Tokyo 14th February 2005
Extracts from an original Japanese language translation...
In June 2004, Hamatsuki Lan was killed in a road accident while visiting Europe for the first time. He was 43 years old.

In 1999, Hamatsuki, a Japanese technician developing digital audio shaping products, tested his progressive software on a CDR sitting in his laboratory. The randomly chosen disc happened to be a live sound recording of David Bowie from The Shibuya Kokaido Theatre, Tokyo in 1973.

Lans software was a platform to repair and enhance anything from poor quality audio recordings to studio and live soundboard production.
For David Bowie fans, the prodigy of the anonymous Japanese technophile would be a phenomenon. A new, grander illusion had been created.
So began the story behind Japan CDR Acetate, chosen then christened by Lan as the contemporary global platform with which to disseminate his work, and one which in the five years preceding his death made its unique mark with David Bowie collectors all over the world and importantly still lives on today in the art and sound distilled by Hamatsuki and now enjoyed and valued in private collections around the world.
This site is a small but stimulating visual testament to Lans passion, endeavours and imagination and provides jargon free information and illustration to interested viewers. In the present, and ongoing, corporate controlled product vacuum that sees auction and underground trading of unofficial and quite often substandard db media flourish, Lan is a shining epitaph to the depth and diversity of the mind of common man. This museum is not a commercial or trading site, no downloads or commercial links are available, and all material published is strictly for information purposes only.

In 2004 Lan was finally gagged by copyright law and his illegal operation closed in Japan but not before some of the most exciting, obscure, rare and collectable Bowie bootlegs (both in music and graphic art terms) were born into the rock collectors market. Lan was killed having visited his spiritual partner and friend in Europe with whom he had later collaborated to design and reinvent virtually the whole Bowie back catalogue of unofficial recordings through the Haddon Hall brand, many of which are listed and illustrated in the archives of his museum at www.kamikaziggy.com.

Today, Hamatsuki Lans work introduces and educates new generations of Bowie followers all over the globe and at the same time creates new markets and revitalises old ones for the official Bowie catalogue - and to the eternal interest of long time fans.

Japan CDR Acetate commands serious interest while the archaic discrimination of rock collectors prejudicing modern CDR media is now largely the device and pastime of amateurs. In the global village we happily exchange and store our daily diet of SMS, email, Mp3 and multi media correspondence and now thanks to Lan, alongside stands our use of compact disc technology to adopt the frequent and free exchange, discussion and archiving of authentic and important historical sounds.