page_title: Sugizo
section_title: 2008–2009: Cosmoscape, joining X Japan
hierarchical_section_title: Sugizo / Biography / 2008–2009: Cosmoscape, joining X Japan
caption_attribution_description: English: A cropped version of an image of Heath and Sugizo performing with X Japan in Hong Kong on January 16, 2009, so as to better fit the Infobox musical artist template on Wikipedia.
context_page_description: Yūne Sugihara, born Yasuhiro Sugihara, better known by his stage name Sugizo, is a Japanese musician, singer-songwriter, composer and record producer. He is the lead guitarist and violinist of the rock band Luna Sea since 1989.
  Sugizo started his solo career in 1997 and has since collaborated with a variety of different artists. In 2007 he became a member of the international trance/world music act Juno Reactor, and of the Japanese rock supergroup S.K.I.N., and in 2009 officially joined the rock band X Japan. He was also part of the psychedelic jam band Shag and the shamanic electronica unit S.T.K.
  In addition to being known for experimenting with many musical genres, mostly rock, psychedelic and electronica, he is known for his political views and for being an anti-war, anti-nuclear and environmental activist.
context_section_description: On March 28 and 29, 2008, Sugizo played at X Japan's two reunion concerts as a stand-in along Wes Borland and Richard Fortus for the deceased hide. In April, he took part in Juno Reactor's European tour. On May 2, he reunited with Luna Sea again at the "hide memorial summit", a two-day concert in memory of hide, at the Ajinomoto Stadium. On July 23, Sugizo released a greatest hits compilation album titled Cosmoscape. The album featured various music genres, such as rock, trance, jazz, classic, bossa nova, among others, and spans his ten years of solo work. During the year, Sugizo wrote a song titled "Enola Gay", named after the Boeing B-29 bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. He wrote the song to convey his feelings and thoughts toward the people who suffered from the aftermath of nuclear war, and to the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As well, that the bomb never must be dropped again, and as his live supporting drummer Greg Ellis is American, singer Origa Russian, and him Japanese, that people from former enemy states can be friends.
  In September joined Juno Reactor on the USA leg of their tour. On December 19, at the 1,500-seat Shibuya-AX concert hall, he held the solo concert "Rise to Cosmic Dance" playing songs from Cosmoscape, and including the new song "Enola Gay". On December 31, Sugizo played with X Japan at their New Years countdown gig at Akasaka Blitz.
  On May 1, 2009, Sugizo officially joined X Japan as lead guitarist, violinist and backing vocalist. In December, Sugizo with Juno Reactor performed in the Netherlands, twice in Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland. Upon returning to Japan, he released two new digital singles, "Messiah" and "Tell Me Why You Hide the Truth?", via iTunes on December 16. They topped iTunes electronic music charts with first and second place. On December 24 and 25, he held the concert "Next Phase of Cosmic Dance" in Taipei, Taiwan.
caption: Heath and Sugizo during an X Japan concert in Hong Kong, 2009
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