On a stiflingly hot day, the bullet train slid into Tokyo Station. The 200mph ode to the precision, engineering and cleanliness Japan is renowned for sped us to Hamamatsu, where we were to meet another one of Japan's great technological innovations: Roland.

The impact of Roland’s equipment on the sound of modern music cannot be overstated. They redefined traditional understandings of what makes an artist with the arpeggiator and the drum machine replacing years of learning technical training and musical theory. The 808 has become synonymous with hip-hop, the 909 the dancefloor, and the 303 is the water in which acid-house swims. Roland’s seminal influence is a part of dance music, pop, rap, and virtually every style of music today.

Gaku Terauchi, Roland’s general manager of corporate communications, was our guide for the day. Our destination is the Roland R&D Centre and Museum. After a drive through Hamamatsu— a city synonymous with musical instrument manufacturing and home to Yamaha and Kawai— an excellent conversation about music and great pizza, we finally arrived. 

Stepping into the space, it is like a church— cool, serene, reverent. Roland’s operation has deep historical connection to organ manufacturing, after all, with its founder Ikutaro Kakehashi being heavily involved in organs development before Roland. An original church organ stood in the space, flanked by enormous windows overlooking a lake so still it resembled a mirror. The setting was unexpected and awe-inspiring. 

From there, we made our way through all the greats: the 303, 808, 909, and a wealth of other instruments, drum machines and systems that have shaped the way music is made. In a digital age where interaction and development are taken for granted, it was fascinating to trace how Roland has evolved, adapted, and continued to find new audiences. Gaku offered an observation about that 303: it had “become a legend.” This equipment was designed with particular purposes, but their trajectories ended up in unexpected forms. 

To us, the building reflected the techno that Roland instruments helped gestate. Its hard lines and sharp angles suggested precision and technicality, yet the space was warm, funky, and undeniably cool. There was something fitting about encountering these machines in such an environment: instruments born from innovative engineering which were totally transformed by human imagination. 

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PART OF OUR ONGOING PARTNERSHIP WITH ROLAND.

THANK YOU FOR HOSTING US.