Music from Japan

Berlin, Teldec Studio, 7 November 1971, the same day Terumasa Hino was cutting Vibrations for Enja across town. Joachim-Ernst Berendt, who had brought Masahiko Satoh's trio to the Berliner Jazztage, put them in a studio with the Hungarian guitarist Attila Zoller: Satoh on piano, Yasuo Arakawa on bass, Masahiko Ozu on drums, Zoller on guitar. MPS released it in 1972. Six pieces. Meet, nine minutes, opens; Sazo is short; the traditional Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair is the ballad; Clos…

Heidelberg Jazztage, 6 June 1975. The Yosuke Yamashita Trio with Akira Sakata and Takeo Moriyama in its second European season, recorded by Carlos Albrecht for MPS. Piano and drums duets, a Moriyama drum solo, and the fourteen-minute Hachi. Forty minutes of the loudest trio of the decade.

Big tip! A pioneering figure in Japanese improvisational music, Toshimaru Nakamura has collaborated and performed with artists including Otomo Yoshihide, Sachiko M, Keith Rowe, David Sylvian, and Christian Fennesz. Personally curated by Nakamura himself, this Early Best Album traces the formative years of his singular musical journey. Through the groundbreaking technique he developed known as the No-Input Mixing Board, Toshimaru Nakamura has established a truly unique musical language. For nearl…

Two long ambient improvisations facing each other: a 2014 session by Chihei Hatakeyama and Hakobune in rural Japan, answered by zakè and From Overseas in a single take. 160g black vinyl, edition of 400.

Solo percussion album recorded in August 1980 by Masahiko Togashi, alone with drums, gongs, bells and hand percussion on a kit of his own design, reissued on LP with obi and liner notes in the Spin This Now! series.

"My encounter with the Hoh Rain Forest, located inside Olympic National Park across the water from Seattle, felt like seeing a whole new world for the first time in my life. Long green fronds draped along the branches, like a scene in which fairies could be heard whispering to one another. But when you try to listen, no sound can be heard. Amidst the mysterious silence, in which no birds or insects make a sound, every living thing seemed to have stopped in its place, only to start dancing when s…

The Merzbow 108 CD Box turns Merzbow’s vast archive into a monument of productive excess: 108 discs spanning lost albums, alternate mixes, outtakes, rehearsals and recent work, assembled by Slowdown Records across nearly a decade. Its Buddhist number signals 108 worldly desires - but this is noise as discipline, mutation and inexhaustible liberation.

Welcoming Tori Kudo back to A Colourful Storm with a new edition of Maher Shalal Hash Baz's Faux Départ, a document of a stateside tour that culminated in a recording session at the legendary Dub Narcotic Studio with a one-time ensemble of Greg Saunier and Chris Cohen (Deerhoof), Andrew Maxwell, McCloud Zicmuse, Arrington de Dionyso, Takashi Ueno, Saya Ueno, Naoki Otani, Akiko Hotaka, Masaaki Endo and Naoki Otani. Always spontaneous, never rehearsed. Music in and of this world, seemingly teeteri…

Original 1977 Japanese LP on Columbia with the monumental symphonic suite of the music composed for the anime TV series "Space Battleship Yamato". With insert and obi.

Original 1978 Japanese LP on Columbia with music and dialogue from the anime TV series "Space Battleship Yamato". Never re-issued on either LP or CD. Gatefold sleeve with glued-in insert.

Original 1978 Japanese LP on Columbia with the symphonic soundtrack to the anime Film "Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato". With insert and obi.

Original 1980 Japanese LP on Columbia with the symphonic soundtrack to the anime Film "Be Forever Yamato". With insert.

Original 1980 Japanese LP on Columbia with the symphonic soundtrack to the anime Film "Be Forever Yamato". With insert and obi.

Beautiful 1978 Japanese double-album on Columbia with story and music excerpts from the 1978 anime film "Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato". Never re-issued on either LP or CD. Gatefold sleeve with glued-in insert and obi.

1979 double album on Victor with the label's in-house orchestra playing beautifully arranged instrumental versions of the most popular film themes. With obi.

1968 album on Columbia with mood jazz cover renditions of Japanese pop hits by the celebrated saxophone player backed by the label's in-house orchestra. Glamour cover, with obi.

1970's album on My Pack with groovy jazz funk cover renditions of international pop/rock hits by the celebrated drummer. Glamour cover, with obi.

More than 25 years after the start of collaboration with Acid Mothers Temple mastermind Makoto Kawabata (including the INUI series and the classic Kawabata/Youngs release) comes the first proper VHF LP by the prolific quintet. One of an occasional series of “minimalism” inspired LPs by the group, In A Not C is a not a barely changing drone, but a wild ride with the band in full flight, rushing along in a glorious swirl of psychedelic madness. Like the band’s well-known 2001 version of Terry Rile…

Big Tip! Sukegawa's environmental music was heard by thousands of people, none of whom were listening. For more than a decade from the late 1980s he wrote music that played in the offices and research buildings of a large Japanese construction firm, composed by calculating backward from the response of the ceiling speakers it would emerge from, tested against questionnaires filled in by three thousand employees. It was never released, never performed in concert, never reviewed. It filled a space…

*150 copies limited edition* Born and raised in Kanagawa (Japan) Iu Takahashi is a sound artist based in Tokyo. She produces her own musical worldview mainly using synthesizers, ambient sounds, and voices.Previously, Iu Takahashi pursued a career as a singer and since 2018, she has focused primarily on creating ambient music and provides her tracks to serve as background music for exhibitions or promotional videos.Inspired by Japanese ambient music such as Hiroshi Yoshimura and Satoshi Ashikawa,…