Music from Japan

The grande finale of 'Extreme Rituals - A Schimpfluch Carnival', performed and recorded live at Arnolfini, Bristol UK on December 2nd 2012. Four leading figures of the international Noise circus team up for a unique performance, solely based on their brainwave activity. Each performer is wearing a wireless electroencephalograph (EEG) headset. The EEG signals sent from the stage are received by soundengineers, transformed from data into sound and processed to emerge through eight speakers …

Tetuzi Akiyama (guitar) and Toshimaru Nakamura (no-input mixing board) of Japan and Switzerland-based American drummer Jason Kahn are all leading musicians on the contemporary improvised music scene who perform internationally and have many album releases. The 4 pieces on this CD were performed live by Akiyama, Nakamura and Kahn at Ftarri in Suidobashi, Tokyo, during Kahn's stay in Japan in May 2014. Akiyama's softly resonating guitar makes subtle inroads into the pulsating electronic sounds cre…

The question of what’s one’s favorite item from their collection (or accumulation) consistently pops up in conversations amongst fans and collectors, and this unquestionably is always my answer. From head-to-toe, insert-to-tape, all elements are in glorious harmony and conversation with what another. Having the G.R.O.S.S. label’s ’industrial design’ fetish/obsession (some would say a relatively antiseptic departure from much of the other noise tapes of the time) articulating the sexualize…

Hill towns and empty mountains pass by, but the smoothness of the train blurs the view, and it's easier than ever to fall asleep in the low morning sunlight coming in through the train's windows', writes Will Long, the artist behind the Celer moniker, in his liner notes to Sky Limits, one of his most fulfilling records to date. First created as a duo project in 2005, Celer has been US-born musician Will Long's solo vehicle since 2009. Through the years and thanks to an astounding rate of produc…

Staggering ultra-limited out-of-nowhere double LP set of primo acid-drenched psych from the most legendary Japanese underground group of all time, the late Les Rallizes Denudes: reputedly sourced from the collection of an ‘insider’ Japanese underground musician and coming from the same source as the all-time epic France Demo Tapes LP, Electric Pure Land represents the second phase in this Dick’s Picks style on-going vinyl presentation of the hands-down greatest live moments of Mizutani’s …

Antimonument was recorded in 1986 and shows a large use of loop based material and a great deal of harsh metal noise sounds in all its analogic greatness! Antimonument was originally issued by ZSF produkt in 1986 in an edition of 225 copies picture discs LP. Copies of the original are now very rare and very expensive. This re-issue was remastered in 2014 by Masami Akita and contains extra material for a total of 61:55 in lenght.

Legendary japanese musician Akira Sakata (active in various groups since the early 70s) teams up with Berthling of Fire and Nilssen-Love of The Thing. Akira Sakata, alto saxophone, clarinet, voice. Johan Berthling, double bass. Paal Nilssen-Love, drums & percussion.

Brainnectar is Rudolf Eb.er's most developed program to date, combining psychodynamic audio-environments built from specific nature-sounds and extreme acoustics, often including ecstatic elements on instruments of shamanic origin. Binaural beats as well as isochronic tones stimulate a direct neural reaction to this unique and unheard audio-art. In addition, the grand lady of japanese extreme music - screamvocalist Junko Hiroshige (Hijokaidan) - participates on several tracks throughout this doub…

Masahiko Satoh, piano. Paal Nilssen-Love, drums, percussion. Tokyo pianist Masahiko Satoh recorded these two extended improvisations with Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love in concert at Shinjuku Pit Inn, Tokyo in 2013, a remarkable dialog of intense technical power and creative passion.  

An amazing re-issue of three extremely rare and highly sought-after CDRs only made available during exhibitions curated by Ursula Block's Gelbe MUSIK shop & gallery in Berlin, Germany: Akio Suzuki: '75.6.30. Akio Suzuki: Suzuki-Type Glass Harmonica "De Koolmees". Akio Suzuki: Tanabata. Because it has since been discovered that one of the discs was given a title based on a mistaken performance date ('75.6.30) and another was copied from an incorrect audio master (Tanabata) in addition to th…

2025 Restock. Two masters of Japanese experimental music unite on this extraordinary document, captured during a three-hour performance in an abandoned Brussels space in June 2013. Akio Suzuki and Aki Onda represent different generations and approaches to sound art, yet their collaboration reveals profound aesthetic kinship. Suzuki, a pioneer whose work has transcended conventional sound art boundaries since the 1970s, brings his signature arsenal: analapos (his invented echo instrument utilizin…

A couple of Autumns ago, on the back of a series of concerts and hosting a workshop togheter in Oporto, the duo of Toshimaru Nakamura and Manuel Mota recorded an informal session. From that natural affinity resulted Foz. It may be considered an historic document under the premise that it's Nakamura's first fully improvised, recording solely on electric, guitar in a decade. Throughout two long pieces the duo on call carves a well balanced harmony between more reflexive and purely physical moment…

Re-issue of Japanese tribal/industrial pioneers, released back in 1989 on Musica Maxima Magnetica. Originally recorded and mixed in London, Napoli and Tokyo 1988, now remastered with additional bonus track. Comes as 6-side digipack.

Re-issue of industrial music's 'holy grail', released back in 1984 on Eskimo Records. Not much is known about this obscure Japanese band, White Hospital are a duo, Jun Konagaya of Grim and Tomo Kuwahara of Vasilisk. In the early 80s Jun formed White Hospital together with Tomasada Kuwahara. They released one album called “Holocaust” in 1984 and a 7″ “We Wish You Are Merry X’mas”. Kuwuhara moved on to Vasilisk, while Jun released a number of solo records as Grim and one track as Howling Of Himala…

Re-issue of Japanese tribal/industrial pioneers, released back in 1988 on Eskimo Records. Originally recorded and mixed in Tokyo from December '87 to May '88, now remastered with additional bonus track. Comes as transparent blue vinyl.

Re-issue of Japanese tribal/industrial pioneers, released back in 1987 on Eskimo Records. Originally recorded and mixed in Tokyo from December '86 to March '87 now remastered with additional bonus track. Comes as transparent purple vinyl.

Burn-printed and stained wooden boxset containing: the first 3 albums "Whirling Dervishes", "Mkwaju" and "Acqua", each one with a bonus track - the exclusive album "Live Blood", featuring UNRELEASED recordings from the band's early years - all LPs in different transparent-coloured SPLATTER-vinyl

Another good release from Experimedia, this time focussing on the hushed, tremulous drones of Celer. It's rare to hear ambient music as confident as consummate as this - Celer pack an inordinate amount of textural and harmonic incident into their lengthy compositions without ever disrupting the surface of calm and stillness - listening to 'Bedded In Shallow Blades' and 'Repertoire of Dinless Shifts', you feel like you're gliding. Honestly, we're the first to admit that there's a surfeit of neo-c…

Husband-and-wife duo, Will Long and Danielle Baquet-Long, who self-released handmade items and created sound for installations and exhibits along with producing conventional releases. "A few years ago I was commissioned by a film company in California to create a musical score for a film inspired by the Hitchcock 1954 film Rear Window, but with a more surrealist, two-sided viewer plot. As filming hadn't begun, I was given the screenplay and timeline, and asked to make specific music that might f…

Full concert recording from Suzuki’s first performance in Milano. Three different sections played on Analapos (one of these is the spiral echo instrument consisting of a coil spring and two iron cylinders that function as resonating chambers, and is played with the voice or by hand), a selection of small stones, and the De Koolmess Glass Harmonica. Recorded in April 2003 at A+MBookstore (a small storefront gallery and art bookstore in central Milano) by Pierre-Olivier Boulant. With three ne…