Taku Sugimoto
Taku Sugimoto is a Japanese guitarist. He initially gained attention in the late 1990s for his restrained, melodic playing, unusual in the world of free improvisation. Around 2002 his music became increasingly abstract, all but eliminating melody and featuring extended periods of silence. He has collaborated with other Japanese musicians involved in the Onkyo movement, such as Sachiko M, Toshimaru Nakamura and Otomo Yoshihide. He has also collaborated with musicians from European free improvisation scenes, notably trombonist Radu Malfatti and guitarist Keith Rowe.
Taku Sugimoto is a Japanese guitarist. He initially gained attention in the late 1990s for his restrained, melodic playing, unusual in the world of free improvisation. Around 2002 his music became increasingly abstract, all but eliminating melody and featuring extended periods of silence. He has collaborated with other Japanese musicians involved in the Onkyo movement, such as Sachiko M, Toshimaru Nakamura and Otomo Yoshihide. He has also collaborated with musicians from European free improvisation scenes, notably trombonist Radu Malfatti and guitarist Keith Rowe.
Ftarri 16 07 2023
Taku Sugimoto is a Tokyo-based guitarist and composer known worldwide for his highly restrained minimalistic compositions and performances. Wakana Ikeda, also based in Tokyo, is a flute player who also composes music. Sugimoto and Ikeda pursue similar musical directions and often perform together. Pere Xirau is a drummer/percussionist from Barcelona.
Xirau came to Japan in the summer of 2023, and on July 16 he performed at Ftarri, Tokyo, in a trio with Sugimoto and Ikeda. This CD contains two pi…
Live At OTOOTO & Permian
Tip! *2024 stock. 300 copies limited edition* "On Live At OTOOTO & Permian, two guitarists from Japan, Taku Sugimoto and Takashi Masubuchi, ask a series of unresolved questions – about time, about interplay, about tonality. Those who know Sugimoto’s music will recognise here a certain tension, and a feeling for the apposite; these two traits have been core to his playing and composing since he first introduced himself to the broader listening public, in the ‘90s, with albums like Opposite. Masub…
Since 2016
Full Spectrum welcomes the legendary guitarist and Japanese free improvisation heavyweight Taku Sugimoto into the fold for an album that we are absolutely honored to present as our first LP release of the new year – ’Since 2016.’
Octet
*2023 stock. 250 copies limited edition* On this album, works composed in 2018 and '19 by Tokyo-based composer/guitarist Taku Sugimoto are performed by musicians based in Berlin. Sugimoto has in recent years been working on a series in which pieces written as scores for solo performance can also be played as ensembles, with each musician using their respective solo score. For example, a score for guitar solo and a score for cello solo can be played as a duo performance by a guitarist and a celli…
Snare Drum +
Snare Drum + is the latest piece by legend composer/guitarist Taku Sugimoto in 2021, containing some variations of his snare drum solo piece which was written in 2011. In Snare Drum +, three or more additional performers try to follow the sound of snare drum as immediately as possible with percussion instruments or objects which decay quickly, while walking around the snare drum. In the recordings, different walking routes were used for each take.
Trio (2CD)
These recordings were mostly made during the daytime at the residency place and concert venue Petersburg Art Space in Moabit, Berlin. While we were recording, people would sometimes show up in the kitchen area on the other side of the room for a coffee break, probably not aware that we were recording music for a potential album. Even though this could have led to frustration and many retakes, it ended up quite unproblematic, and it was nice how it made us aware of both the fragility of our music…
Guitars
Taku Sugimoto is a Tokyo-based guitarist and composer. Improvisation is one aspect of his work, but currently his main activities are composing and performing composed pieces (including those of other composers). He continues his global and concentrated interaction with composers from around the world, particularly those closely connected with Wandelweiser. Ftarri had previously released two albums under Sugimoto's name alone—Septet (2015) and Quintets: Berlin, San Diego (2017). On both CDs, his…
Songs
The concept of Songs, the duo project of guitarist Taku Sugimoto and vocalist Minami Saeki, came about in the second half of 2016. By that December they had already made recordings of their music, and the following February they released their debut album, Songs (CD), on Sugimoto’s label, slubmusic. Since then, the duo has had an active performance schedule in Japan and overseas, including European tours in 2017 and 2018. Now they have released their second album, the 2-CD set Songs.Most of the …
Taku Sugimoto / Stefan Thut
Guitarist, composer and improviser Taku Sugimoto frequently performs overseas as well as in Japan. He's also a member of the Suidobashi Chamber Ensemble, which consists of five Japanese musicians. Stefan Thut is a Swiss cellist and composer. Both Sugimoto and Thut are known as unique performers and composers, and both have close ties with the contemporary classical Wandelweiser group. The two have a long association, performing together when Sugimoto visits Switzerland and when Thut comes to Jap…
H
Cristián Alvear & Taku Sugimoto (guitars). Recorded live in concert at Ftarri, Tokyo, November 2017. This piece was originally composed for ‘Songs’, a duo project with Minami Saeki, a female singer who I have been working with recently, when we had a tour in Europe last October. The piece, ‘h’, was actually completed in an airplane flying from Denmark to Finland where we were to have some concerts. We simply needed a new song (or more) which would be different from what we had played on the tour…
Quintets: Berlin, San Diego
In recent years, guitarist Taku Sugimoto has been active as a composer, providing works to musicians inside and outside Japan, and also as an improvisational musician. He often works with composers and musicians in the sphere of the Wandelweiser school, and gives many performances overseas. Sugimoto is also a member of the Suidobashi Chamber Ensemble, which is made up of five Japanese musicians.This CD, Sugimoto’s first release since Septet (on Meenna) in 2015, is made up of two versions, both a…
Septet
Guitarist Taku Sugimoto continues his long-term musical activities, with a focus on composing, and also collaborates closely with some of the composers in the Wandelweiser Group. This release is one of the summits of his recent work. Septet is a work of just under 40 minutes, performed by seven musicians on clarinet, flute, viola, contrabass, cello, electric guitar and sine-tones. Throughout, numerous diffuse sound reverberations emerge and overlap, then fade away. The sound progression is simpl…
Quartet / Octet
Taku Sugimoto, guitar and composition, with Klaus Filip (sine tones), Ko Ishikawa (sho), Moe Kamura (voice), Kazushige Kinoshita (violin), Radu Malfatti (trombone), Masahiko Okura (clarinet), Taku Unami (sine tones), Nikos Veliotis (cello). 2013.
D minor / Bb major
Composed by Michael Pisaro and Taku Sugimoto. Performed by Casey Anderson: computer, Matt Barbier: trombone, Eric KM Clark: violin, Devin Disanto: clarinet, Paul Fraser: trumpet, Kristin Haraldsdottir: viola, Stefan Kac: tuba, Ingrid Lee: piano, Daniel Letourneau: guitar, Heather Lockie: viola, Sepand Shahab: keyboards, Cassia Streb: viola, Christine Tavolacci: flute, Chaz Underriner: guitar, Michael Pisaro: guitar, Taku Sugimoto: guitar. Recorded by Michael Pisaro at the Wulf, Los Angeles…
2 seconds / b minor / wave
Michael Pisaro and Taku Sugimoto are not generally closely associated, but have quite a bit in common. Both are composers whose primary instrument is the guitar, both have close ties to the Wandelweiser collective (Pisaro is a longtime member), and both have pursued their unique paths without much concern as to how the rest of the world will perceive them. 2 seconds/b minor/wave marks their first collaboration, but these aesthetic overlaps allow their independently conceived recorded parts to fi…
13 & 14 for Guitars
Composed by Taku Sugimoto. Tetuzi Akiyama: guitar. Recorded live at Loop-Line on October 23, 2009. Recorded by Taku Sugimoto. Mastered by Taku Unami. Drawing by Taku Sugimoto.
26 ((2009)) Electronic Version
Composition named '26': different sequences of Electronic sounds and silences on the left and right channels. Realized by Taku Unami, (2009) in Tokyo.
Mienai Tenshi
This is Taku Sugimoto's very first solo release originally released in 1988 by the artist himself in a small edition of 100 copies. Its a far cry from his current style. Back then Taku was very much influenced by MC5 and the Velvet Underground. This is a firey live in-the-red solo electric guitar improv blowout! Fans of Masayuki Takayanagi and High Rise take heed! Mastered from the original reel-to-reel tapes. Faithful reproduction of the original insert and the debossed handmade covers. Limited…
Eine gitarre ist eine gitarre ist keine gitarre ist eine gitarre
But, of course, a guitar hasn't necessarily been a guitar at least since the mid-'60s, when Keith Rowe laid it down flat on a table and began dealing with it more as a sound-generating object than a guitar as such. In their second release as a duo, guitarists Taku Sugimoto and Annette Krebs, each with a unique approach toward their instrument, continue on and branch out from the path first explored on their Slub release from 2000. Sugimoto's instrument is in relatively standard form, and the sou…
Live in Australia
Taku Sugimoto is an extremely restrained guitarist who produces very few sounds in performance, allowing silence to be the controlling force. As an improviser and composer, he's garnered international acclaim, and also provoked strong reactions, both positive and negative. This two-CD set documents Sugimoto's live performances, in Australia in September 2003, of two of his own compositions (one per CD): 'Dot (73)' and 'Music for Amplified Guitar.' Environmental sounds -- listeners' coughs, foots…