Music from Japan

2019 release ** "Ten years after their first collaboration (“Into”, Silentes, 2009) KK Null and Deison are back together with “Yugen”*, a new work exploring darkness and controlled chaos thru deep and dense sounds. Pulsating and fractured electronics…

2009 release ** "Penetrating “Hi-tech” music, always on the border between sound,silence and noise… Splinters of sonic fragments, buzzings, electronic hisses, pulsations, hypnotic loops, ambient textures, sudden rays of light… A kaleidoscope of synte…

Soul Media, led by Jiro Inagaki, played a part in the development of jazz rock in Japan. This work, "Memory Lane" recorded in 1980, was the final work under the same name. Inagaki said about this work, "We tried to create this work while predicting t…

2025 much needed repress!! Since its formation in 1969, Soul Media had been advocating a fusion of jazz and rock. The next step along that line was this album, In the Groove, recorded in 1973. The sharpness of jazz is brought to the forefront, with r…

Sharps and Flats, led by Nobuo Hara, has been a driving force in Japan's big band jazz scene with its diverse activities and distinctive musicality. Among the many works produced throughout their long career, 'Little Giant' stands out as one of their…

"Burning, screaming, terror assault on your ears. Hot wax on someone else's body - what more could you want? Once ya check this out, you'll never be able to save your desire for noise. More noise, roaring, raging noise. Noise!"

Propelled by the confidence and intimacy that a familial relationship brings to two improvisers, imbued by each player's masterful technical skills and creative drive, the husband and wife duo of pianist Satoko Fujii and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura expa…

1995 CD on Freek, a collaboration between Philip Best and Masami Akita featuring also Ramleh's and Breathless' Gary Mundi and Skullflower's and Sunroof's Matthew Bower.

Tip! *150 copies limited edition* All music by Will Long and Takahiro YorifujiRecorded in Tokyo in December 2011Mastered by Stephan Mathieu at SchwebungCover photo by Will LongLayout by Rutger Zuydervelt

"For many years, I collected every new Merzbow release. I stopped when I realised I couldn’t keep up with playing them; some were still in their shrinkwrap after a year. I didn’t keep up with Merzbow’s output in the last 15 years and only heard what …

Spanish producer and composer Pedro Vian and Japanese noise legend Merzbow join forces once again for A Wheel of Mani, a singular work set to be released exclusively on 12” vinyl on June 4, 2025, via Modern Obscure Music. This collaboration follows i…

2010 release ** Limited edition of 88 hand-numbered copies.

Carrying on their longstanding dedication to the seminal output of Merzbow, Urashima returns with what is unquestionably their most ambitious release to date: “Collection 001-010”, a deluxe, 10 LP vinyl box set limited to 299 copies, gathering togeth…

2025 stock 'Pathways' is a collection of four stunning loops created by the artist during an introspective period of his life. These majestic, consonant arrangements breathe slowly as fleetingly beautiful melodies; a gorgeous account of ebb and flow …

*199 copies limited edition* Originally released in 1987, this album stands as a defining statement of the Japanese noise and industrial music scene - an unrelenting fusion of harsh and heavy electronics paired with mechanized rhythms. The brainchild…

Edition of 200. Japanese free jazz legend Akira Sakata and Greek avant-garde guitarist Giotis Damianidis present Adyton, their first-ever duo recording. Having collaborated since 2018, the two musicians have developed an intuitive and electrifying mu…

Tip! Following their 2024 reissue of Hiroshi Yoshimura’s classic album, Surround, Temporal Drift proudly presents the first-ever reissue of Flora, Yoshimura’s underappreciated ambient classic. Flora was originally recorded and completed in 1987, and …

"If Surround can be listened to as music that’s as close to air itself, allowing us to enter each listener’s sound scenery, or as something that exists within a new perspective, expanding the middle ground between sound and music, and transforming it…

The raging drums scorch the times. Accompanied by a whirlwind of young talents, Takeshi Inomata proudly heralds the arrival of the golden age of jazz-rock. Takeshi Inomata, a drummer who led the jazz scene in Japan with his precise stick work and mus…

Phantasmagoria is a landmark release from Japan’s legendary noise collective C.C.C.C. Originally unleashed in the early '90s, this album represents the group’s masterful balance between overwhelming sonic force and hypnotic, psychedelic intensity. Le…