Music from Japan

Incapacitants live at Gospel in Tokyo in 1993, released on cassette by Vanilla the same year. The duo of Toshiji Mikawa and Fumio Kosakai, both with Hijokaidan connections, at full harsh noise volume.

**Limited Edition of 299 copies.** Cascades of electronic noise, a psychedelic touch and vocal belching mixed together constitute the ingredients of Mademoiselle Anne Sanglante Ou Notre Nymphomanie Auréolé, the double-barreled name for Masonna. Maso Yamazaki founded his project in 1987, with a charismatic and glamorous personality who become a cult figure in “Japanoise” scene. Masonna’s abundant productions on his own legendary and astonishing label Coquette were presented in very limited editio…

2026 stock, reduced price ** Original Single Sided, Numbered **  Recorded live at Maya in Kobe on 15 September 1991 - with only Mayuko Hino on electronics and voice and Hiroshi Hasegawa on synthesizer and electronics - Reflexive Universe strips C.C.C.C. to its core and finds, in that reduction, something more concentrated and more volatile than the full ensemble. The choice of John C. Lilly's CCCC as a name pointed toward a practice in which sound was genuinely conceived as a system of feedback …

** Edition of 500 Green Translucent Vinyl. 2021 Stock ** Incomparable noise legend Merzbow releases a dense, flailing black hole of a droning noise track, 33 minutes spread over two sides of green vinyl. Aside from several very limited releases and multiple adventurous collaborations, it’s the first full Merzbow record to be released on vinyl for a couple of years. Starting with an intense machine hum, “Kakapo” then shrieks, stutters and wails while maintaining the all-obliterating industrial dr…

BBE Music is proud to present another instalment in the J Jazz Masterclass Series: East Plants by Takeo Moriyama, one of Japan’s finest jazz drummers. A genuine ‘under the radar’ album known only to a handful of Japanese jazz collectors, East Plants is now available again, reissued for the first time as a double 180g LP, with exact reproductions of the original artwork, obi strip and insert. It also comes with the original notes fully translated. This reissue is fully endorsed by Takeo Moriyama …

Black Truffle is thrilled to announce Backfire of Joy, a previously unheard recording from Phew, John Duncan and Kondo Tatsuo, documenting a concert at Tokyo’s Hosei University in 1982. Though the fertile exchange of ‘zines, tapes and records between the Japanese underground and the Los Angeles Free Music Society meant the artists were familiar with each other’s work, this performance (occurring on Duncan’s first visit to Japan) was their first meeting and only performance as a trio. Duncan is h…

** 2021 Stock ** The esoteric noise duo known as HEXA is the sonic union of Xiu Xiu’s focal point Jamie Stewart and sonic provocateur Lawrence English. Forged out of a mutual interest in exotic birds and the decaying charms of the post-industrial age, their collaboration explores the physicality of sound and its abilities to infiltrate and occupy the body. Their collaborative work has been described as being possessed by cascading low frequency pulses and tectonic plates of sound, suspended in c…

** Reissued for the first time with its original gatefold sleeve and cover ** Four Units is a kind of Japanese jazz "all star". Recorded in Tokyo on April 1969, it was released the same year on Union records. On the first two long songs that open this album, “Four Units” and “Dull Slumber”, we can feel the influence of the “avant-garde” scene of US jazz (and in particular ESP Disk), without however the music sounding too "free". A whole new vibe on the astonishing cover of "Scarborough Fair", in…

* 2020 Stock * On the verge of their 40th and in the midst of their 20th anniversaries, respectively, Hijokaidan and Sissy Spacek merge in Tokyo for their first collaboration, featuring Jojo Hiroshige, Junko, T. Mikawa, Charlie Mumma, Futoshi Okano, Tentenko (guest), and John Wiese. Hijokaidan formed in 1979, marking the first wave of groups in Japan exploring extreme noise. Sissy Spacek formed in 1999, often playing in large ensembles of players, and frequently exploring grindcore as a base for…

Few copies back in stock, longtime sold-out at the source. This is Akio Suzuki's brand new fantastic item consisted of an exhibition catalog and DVD boxed! He carried out an exhibition at a small museum in Aichi pref. in last summer. This DVD includes his installations, talking with poet Syuntaro Tanikawa, live performances and some past events in 3 hours and a half !! Also small catalog is included many photographs of this exhibition and very rare performances in earlier period. 189 pp, text is…

Classic Japanese free jazz monster, originally released in 1972. Recorded live at Aoi Studio, Tokyo on 19 May 1972. The late 60s and early 70s was the time that Japanese free jazz began to lift off (see We Now Create LP of Togashi Masahiko with Takayanagi, Motoharu and other heavyweights releasing the 1st free jazz LP in Japan) and blossom into a fierce musical power to be reckoned with. Legendary combos such as Masayuki Takayanagi New Direction were soon responsible to be the originators of thi…

LP version. 180 gram vinyl; Half speed mastered; Heavy sleeve and obi. We Release Jazz announce the official reissue of Ryo Fukui's final album, the very personal contemporary jazz offering, A Letter from Slowboat, sourced from the original masters. Known for his miraculous albums 1976's Scenery (WRJ 001CD/LP) and 1977's Mellow Dream (WRJ 002CD/LP), legendary Hokkaido pianist Ryo Fukui, with the help of his wife Yasuko, opened his very own jazz club in Sapporo in 1995, Slowboat. This is where Ry…

LP version. 180 gram vinyl; Half speed mastered; Heavy sleev and obi. We Release Jazz announce the official reissue of Ryo Fukui's New York sessions with Lisle Atkinson and Leroy Williams, the aptly titled album Ryo Fukui in New York, sourced from the original masters. Recorded in February 1999 at Avatar Recording Studios in New York and inspired by Ryo Fukui's idol and mentor Barry Harris, the fourth album from the famed Sapporo pianist captures memorable sessions with seasoned American jazz mu…

NoBusiness presents Live at Jazz inn Lovely 1990, a new set of recordings by Masayuki JoJo Takayanagi, Nobuyoshi Ino and Masabumi PUU Kikuchi Recorded live by Sony TC-DM at jazz inn Lovely, Nagoya, Japan, October 9th, 1990. Track 1,4 & 5 improvised and composed by Masayuki JoJo Takayanagi, Nobuyoshi Ino and Masabumi PUU Kikuchi. Track 2 & 3 improvised and composed by Masayuki JoJo Takayanagi and Nobuyoshi Ino. Gigs produced by Katsuhiko Kawai 河合勝彦. Tapes provided by Koujiro Tanaka 田中康次郎. Mastere…

**299 copies + A3 size poster, in process of stocking** "Cascades of electronic noise, a psychedelic touch and vocal belching mixed together constitute the ingredients of Mademoiselle Anne Sanglante Ou Notre Nymphomanie Auréolé, the double-barreled name for Masonna. Maso Yamazaki founded his project in 1987, with a charismatic and glamorous personality who become a cult figure in the “Japanoise” scene. Predating the era of digital domination, there was a time where artist-run labels putting out …

A stunning immersion into the world of Merzbow during one of the project's most engrossing and important period's, Urashima’s latest, the first ever vinyl reissue of the project's legendary 1990 release, 'Rainbow Electronics', is a truly historic event. A monumental work of few parallels, even 30 years after its initial release, it still challenges the fundamental notions of what music is perceived to be.

** Ltd 299, with 12” size insert. Includes extensive notes by Toshiji Mikawa in Japanese with translation by Kato David Hopkins in English.** It’s a great moment for reissues of ambitious, historical gestures of the noise from Japan. One after the other, these artifacts have emerged from the shadows, entirely rewriting what so many of us thought we knew. Now, at long last, before us rest another piece in the puzzle - the first ever release of one of the most sought-after artifacts from the 80s n…

**Edition of 300. Limited Edition CD. Hand-numbered edition of 300. 6-page digipak with silver foil stamp, packed in hand-assembled glassine paper with hand-stamped seal. Printed in Indonesia** Akio Suzuki and Aki Onda have been collaborating extensively in recent years. Though differ in generation and performance practice, these Japanese sound artists share an astonishingly inventive, open-ended, and in situ approach to the infinite and variegated possibilities of sound. Suzuki and Onda often u…

This work is an uncut recording of the second part of the regular concert vol.57 (September 24, 1984, at Shibuya Jean-Jean) of the new Direction Unit led by Masayuki Takayanagi. It is a performance in which Hiroshi Yamazaki participates as a percussionist on a twin guitar with Akira Mejima, who is also a disciple of Takayanagi. Akira Mejima is a high-ranking younger brother who has taught at a guitar school on behalf of Takayanagi, so Iijima's guitar heard from the left channel sometimes sounds …

* 2020 Stock * Not Blues is a live recording of the contemporary jazz group Masayuki Takayanagi Jazz Contemporary 4, which was formed in February 1969. It was the year when the group New Direction was formed and the first recording "Independence" under the name of New Direction was released in September the following year. In other words, this work is a record of "jazz performance" just before Masayuki Takayanagi moved to free jazz. According to the commentary by guitarist Kazuo Imai (that studi…