Christopher John Mosdell (born 9 November 1949)[1] is a British lyricist, poet, author, composer, vocalist and illustrator based in Tokyo, Japan, and New York City, United States.

[3] He has written lyrics for Sarah Brightman and Boy George;[4][5] co-written lyrics with Michael Jackson,[2] had his work covered by Eric Clapton, worked with the West African kora player Toumani Diabaté and the calligraphy artist Juichi Yoshikawa;[6] and wrote the verse dance drama Amaterasu, the Resurrection of Radiance, that was performed with the City Ballet of London at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane (2001).

[8] A film about his life entitled "Ink Music: In the Land of the Hundred-Tongued Lyricist", featuring interviews with many of his collaborators and shot in Japan and the United States, was released in 2009.

[16] Mosdell's best-known YMO songs include "Behind the Mask", "Solid State Survivor", "Nice Age", "Insomnia", "La Femme Chinoise", and "Citizens of Science", from the albums Yellow Magic Orchestra (1978), Solid State Survivor (1979), and ×∞ Multiplies (1980)—lyrics envisaging a socially inert world, digitised and impersonal, and controlled by a forceful hidden authority within a landscape, essentially Japanese, but tinged with Chinese motifs.

"War Head", originally titled "Night Boys Pick Up Some Heat", was written for the opening of the Roppongi nightclub Lexington Queen, but was so favoured by Sakamoto that he remixed it, with Mosdell performing vocals for the first time since YMO's "Citizens of Science", in a rap-styled lyrical rant.

They worked together on two single cuts ("Fireboy Meets His Match" and "All Prayers are Answered") for a Japanese shōchū television commercial that, although released for a few weeks, was suddenly withdrawn after the singer's brush with heroin.

His popularity as a Tokyo-based English writer also led him to write for numerous Japanese television commercials, often collaborating with former Sadistic Mika Band lead vocalist and guitarist Kazuhiko Katō.

The lyrics themselves depict the tale of lovers from the Land of Curved Fire and the Sea of Desires, who are symbolised by firebirds, their wings intertwined, that circle immortally in a celestial orbit.

Based on the original anthology's conversion in the 15th century into a card game, traditionally played in Japan on New Year Day's, this new bilingual photographic/verse edition selected one hundred citizens from the streets of Shibuya with Mosdell transcribing the voices of these "contemporary poets" into a modern idiom.

To celebrate the hundredth anniversary of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, Mosdell was commissioned to write the poetic treatment and scenario for the Kyoto International Performing Arts Festival 2014.

Mosdell words were used in alternative forms when he wrote the lyrics to Shake the Whole World to Its Foundations, a work that has evolved from a mixed Japanese-Western orchestral setting to an electronic techno version.

However the effort did result in Mosdell's collaboration with the American artists Jore Park and Wylci Fables, who produced enormous "birdhead boys" depicting the characters.

Influenced by the Japanese poet Yoshimasu Gozo and his technique of writing whilst walking, Mosdell envisaged a spectacular prima donna, wearing huge eccentric headdresses, whose voice changed with each new outfit in which she appeared.

He was also commissioned[31] to write the theme song for the Social Democratic Party of Japan for the 1990 political election, resulting in the single "One World", an ensemble piece featuring an assortment of vocalists and session musicians.

Together they also wrote "Dreams in a Pie", the credits theme for the Sega Dreamcast video game, Napple Tale: Arsia in Daydream and worked on songs ("Another Grey Day in the Big Blue World" and "Kingfisher Girl") for Maaya Sakamoto, a frequent singer for Kanno and a popular anime voice actress.

Continuing to write lyrics for film soundtracks, Mosdell next wrote "From the Ruins of Your Beautiful Body" for the theme song to Marc Rigaudis' adaptation of his short story, "She Was So Pretty".

It was underscored by what Art Director Kevin Hamilton coined "audio poems", sonically recreating peak events within the timeline such as an Apache Indian reading a bible[31] and amounting to an unusual audio-only project for a lyricist.

Mosdell performed and under the spell of the lush and colourful environment wrote a new series of poems based on the 108 names of Krishna and the tripartite mystical utterance of the Upanisads.

Titled Thirty-Three Billion Songs on the Road of Reincarnations: The Santiniketan Sutra (after the number of gods in the Hindu pantheon), the work is in stark contrast to his Tokyo output, subdued and calm.

Extending the format of the poetry reading to include live audio/video mixing with visual artist David Fodel and techno DJ E23, Mosdell toured various cities through 2001 with his "tongue-drum delirium" ensemble, Splatterhead & The Oblivion Brotherhood.

[34] Returning to Tokyo, Mosdell was one of a hundred local artists invited to contribute artefacts to the Millennium Time Capsule, an event held at the Laforet Museum, Harajuku.

[7] Titled The Sun Goddess: The Resurrection of Radiance, the masked dance drama was performed as part of the "Japan Year in Britain" celebration, at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane from 26–28 May 2001.

[7] In collaboration with designer/director Tomio Mohri, choreographer Cathy Marston and the City Ballet of London, taiko drummer Miyuki Ikeda, model/actress Sayako Yamaguchi, and composer Kazuhiko Katō (of Sadistic Mika Band), the play depicts the origins of music and dance.

By 2006, to coincide with the publication of City of Song, his epic depiction of characters from the twenty-three ku, or wards, of Tokyo, Mosdell had updated his spoken word performances to include a full mixed-culture ensemble, The Incendiary Orchestra.

[10] Featuring koto composer/performer, Michiyo Yagi, violinist Edgar Kautzner, tabla player Andy Matzukami, and translator Rie Terada, the live performances were held in various places around Tokyo, and were recorded on video as part of a documentary about Mosdell's artistic history, titled Ink Music: In the Land of the Hundred-Tongued Lyricist, slated for release in 2009.

The event, organized by "Earth Caravan 2015", a global peace initiative, was to carry a flame, originally kindled from the atomic bomb fires, to cities touched by the horrors of war.