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Early Electronic Works
* Edition of 100 * In August 1979, ONNYK planned an event called “The Fifth Column Week!" = Daigoretsu Week!, he was o ne of leader of the expanded category group. It was a gallery event where 22 participants from Tokyo , Kyoto, and Morioka hold exhibitions of objects and graphic works, performances, poetry readings, p hysical workshops, theatrical events and improvisations. As part of that, I asked Seiji Nagai to per form a live performance of sitar solo. This special edition #1 consists of reg…
Steve Kuhn
**50th Anniversary Edition** Quoting Dustygroove, this is an incredibly inventive album from pianist Steve Kuhn – one that takes his earlier modern style, and fuses it with a warmer sort mode for the 70s! The approach is quite unique – in that Kuhn's core trio style is augmented both by additional percussion from Airto, plus occasional string quartet backing – for a sound that's fresh and different on each new tune! Some tracks feature Fender Rhodes, but most are acoustic – and Steve even sings …
Early Sound Installations
In the early 1980s, several artists such as Satoshi Ashikawa and Hiroshi Yoshimura, who were pioneers during the early days of Japanese sound art, began to display their works at exhibitions. Ashikawa, who passed away at the young at the age of 30, worked at Art Vivant, a store affiliated with the Seibu Museum of Art in Tokyo, and was one of the first to introduce materials and records of environmental and experimental music from outside of Japan. Artists began coming to Art Vivant to see Ashika…
Live In Hong Kong
This live show was organized by The Empty Gallery in Hong Kong. The owner and director listened a CD Music for Piano by cello improviser Yasumune Morishige and musician Atsushi Reizen released by Omega Point, and they decided to hold a live show on retrospective exhibition of experimental filmmaker Toshio Matsumoto. On this live show, two grand pianos provided through the good offices of the owner. This is the best situation for performing without interference of each player.This CD is made by m…
Early Electronic Works
Onnyk (Yoshiaki Kinno) is a well-known on the field of Japan's underground and free improvisation, acted as 'The Fifth Column", also called 'Daigoretsu', in mid 70's to 80's. This release is not only one of his obscure recordings in earliest years, but also it's rare electronic works on his carrier. "A late friend of mine, two years elder than me, he bought the synthesizer for first public use, made in Japan, SH 1000. He rented me it when I was 18 years old. For I was so interested in making str…
John Cage Shock Vol. 1
In October 1962, John Cage and his great interpreter/co-visionary David Tudor visited Japan, performing seven concerts and exposing listeners to new musical worlds. This legendary "John Cage Shock," as it was dubbed by the critic Hidekazu Yoshida, is the source of this series of releases -- three CDs and a "best hits" double LP compilation. Recorded primarily at the Sogetsu Art Center in Tokyo on October 24, 1962 (with two performances from October 17 at Mido-Kaikan in Osaka), all recordin…
John Cage Shock Vol. 2
Volume 2 in EM Records' John Cage Shock series lifts off with a fiery example of David Tudor's piano virtuosity, his mastery of dynamics well-evident in a performance of Klavierstücke X (1961) by Karlheinz Stockhausen. The titular shock of this series is delivered even more forcefully with the next piece, John Cage's 26'55.988" for 2 Pianists and a String Player (1961), which was first performed the year before in Darmstadt by Tudor and Kenji Kobayashi, a combination of two of Cage's solo piece…
John Cage Shock Vol. 3
The final CD of the John Cage Shock series features John Cage's 0'00" (1962), also referred to as 4'33" No. 2, performed by the composer, with daily activities such as writing and drinking coffee amplified by contact microphones into sonic abstraction, following the score's directions: "with maximum amplification (no feedback), perform a disciplined action." Next is Composition II for 2 Pianos (1960/1961) by Michael von Biel, lovely and sparse, performed by David Tudor and Toshi Ichiyanagi. …
Funakakushi (1963)
**2022 stock "Funakakushi" [1]: This electronic work was composed for the opening ceremony of the hotel "Funakakushi-en" in Kagawa prefecture in 1963. It was realized as a sound installation and used many speakers inside a built-in stone sculpture. They were designed by sculptor Mitsu-aki Sora (b. 1933) and were arranged here and there in the main garden of the hotel. The sound was made from a modified Japanese traditional instrument, biwa, as well as from a sea wave sound [2]. The engineer Juno…
A Group for Experimental Music
In the mid 1960’s, there was a collective of contemporary musicians in Osaka, called Art Zyklus. Because Hajime Yamashita, one of the core members, had sold a part of his privately stored sound source over the Internet, the whole picture of amazing and completely unknown activities was revealed. The release compiled works created by Art Zyklus as well as Yamashita. Worth mentioning is that ‘Music for Electric Metronomes’ by Toshi Ichiyanagi was premiered in Japan. Apart from that, the fact that …
Event '73
"From 1972 to 1973, I was based in New York for my creative activities and live performances. New York at this time was in its golden age of experimental music. Towards the end of my stay, I held a live performance entitled Event '73 to sum up my creative works in New York. The venue for the performance was The Kitchen of the Mercer Arts Center that provided spaces for innovative and emerging artists. This CD consists of a mixture of sounds that were created at a studio prior to the live …
Early Works
Edition Omega Point presents a collection of early work from Japanese experimental composer Kazuo Uehara. "'Seoul 1982' was composed using recorded sounds as raw material to reassemble the 'historical' soundscape of Korea's capital city, Seoul, in the early 1980s. During this time, despite the political chaos and the tension in the city under the Korean military government, I felt the lively energy in people's lives. The raw material comprised a wide range of different sounds, including th…
Electronic symphony No.1
Little-known composer Hiroaki Minami was a professor of electronic music at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts & Music and is a pioneer of synthesizer music in Japan. He built a private studio for his self-made synthesizer in his home in 1976, and shortly thereafter, he composed this piece, Electronic Symphony No. 1, filled with spacey and very noisy analog synthesizer sounds, much like Roland Kayn's '60s concrète works. Contains liner notes by the artist in Japanese and English; h…
Drip Music. Obscure Tape Music of Japan vol. 9
*2022 stock* This is volume 9 in Omega Point's Obscure Tape Music of Japan series. Yoji Kuri is one of the foremost and highly-regarded experimental animation artists in Japan, active since the early '60s. His name is well-known not only for his many works of "black humor" throughout the '60s and 70's, but also for the soundtracks to his materials, composed by avant-garde composers. Originally titled Synthesized Piano Space, it has been renamed Drip Music for this release. This new edition is co…
Music for Tinguely
This is volume 5 of Omega Point's newly-reissued Obscure Tape Music of Japan series, available in a limited edition of 1000 copies, also with an LP version in a limited edition of 300 copies. Toshi Ichiyanagi is a well-renowned Japanese avant-garde composer who made brilliant pieces of tape music. Most of his works have not been issued on CD, or have only been issued in very small editions. This CD consists of three of his obscure tape works. "Music for Tinguely" (1963) was made from the jun…
Pratical Concert 1976-78
GAP is an improvisation group which was founded by Kiyohiko Sano, Masaru Soga and Masami Tada in the Mid 1970’s. Gap had only one album on the famous ALM records, and from the early time, they played oscillators and synthesizers, adding to simple self-made instruments, and made a free improvisational performance which is comparable to Taj-Mahal Travellers. Especially for Tada who was under tutelage of Takehisa Kosugi, GAP was a missing-link which lead him from East Bionic Symphonia to Marginal C…
I Can't Promise
Recorded between August 24, 1983 and September 9, 1984.
Computer Space
Premiere release! Two sound compositions discovered at Toshi Ichiyanagi’s home in 2018 to be released for the first time! One is an unknown early work created on a computer and the other is material for an experimental short film by Toshio Matsumoto. Particularly, the former piece was revolutionary. the quirky sound he made on the computer at the time was unheard of especially because a computer could only create simple sounds then. Moreover, it also includes an unknown electronic ambient piece …
Environmental Music for Dining Room of Athletes' Village in Tokyo
From participation in the early Fluxus to giving an introduction of Futurism, Kuniharu Akiyama (1929-1996), a renowned music critic, was involved in a vast range of activities. Particularly in the 1960s, he recorded a lot of music on tape for himself. To our surprise, the music compiled on this CD was actually discovered from a series of ambient music pieces played in the Athletes’ Village at the Tokyo Olympics! During this period, Akiyama was fascinated by the sound of Sanukite stone from Sanuk…
Obscure Tape Music Of Japan Vol. 12: Miniatures Of Concrete Works
Edition Omega Point presents work by legendary Japanese composer Joji Yuasa -- one of most important composers in Japan after World War II. "Nadja, Twincling in Stars" (1963) is the incidental music, by NHK Radio, based on "Nadja" by Andre Breton who made "Declaration of Sur-Realisme." The actual chart of constellations was played by three players (violin, piano and vibraphone) which was used as the music score. Birdsong, electronics, and sound generated from inside the piano using music c…