Music from Japan

*2026 stock* Nobuo Hara led Sharps & Flats for an astonishing run, well over half a century, and the band became one of the institutions of Japanese jazz, in roughly the same way the Clarke-Boland Big Band held its place in Europe. Active Volcano catches the ensemble in particularly muscular form: arrangements that draw on the funkier, groove-conscious end of seventies big-band writing, brass passages that hit hard without losing definition, and a sense of swing that belongs less to the swing er…

*2026 stock* The Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio in concert at Montreux, and one of the relatively few records that documents the working group on an international stage. By the time of this recording the trio had already been together for years, and the band's mutual understanding shows in the way pieces unfold: long heads, patient solos, and a rhythm section that responds to the leader's harmonic choices before he has finished making them. Yamamoto plays with the bluesy, slightly behind-the-beat phrasi…

*2026 stock* A mid-seventies entry from the Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio, and one of the records where the leader's bluesy, groove-conscious side comes most clearly to the front. The title track is the Ramsey Lewis standard, and the choice tells you most of what you need to know about the date: Yamamoto's trio was a working unit happy to engage with the soul-jazz and groove-jazz vocabularies that had been moving the music since the late sixties. The rest of the programme balances that with the lyrical…

*2026 much needed repress!!* "Written and arranged by Hiromasa Suzuki, and originally released in 1975 on Nippon Columbia, this album is incredible, and truly well-named - funky stuff, indeed! Fat bass, a great variety of guitar sounds, horns and organ, and crisp drums: this is an instant favorite! From the end of the 1960s, saxophonist Jiro Inagaki led groups such as The Soul Mates, and His Black Rhythm Machine, blasting down the jazz rock road before forming Soul Media in 1969. The album Funky…

Chihei Hatakeyama, captivating the world with his beautiful ambient/drone works, and Ken Ikeda, an original improvisational musician radiating a unique presence. This work, both artists spent approximately ten years recording and meticulously editing down to the finest details, explores the theme of “a mental landscape where distorted dreams and crumbling daily life intersect, where anxiety and darkness seep into the cracks, and faint light flickers within the depths of silence.” A total of 16 i…

*2026 stock* Bassist Hideto Kanai was one of the most ambitious composer-bandleaders to emerge from the Japanese jazz scene of the early seventies, a writer of long-form pieces that integrated free playing with chamber-jazz architecture, and a player with the patience to leave space where lesser arrangers would clutter. Q, only the sixth release on Three Blind Mice, is one of his most uncompromising early statements: extended group playing built around Kanai's slow, structural bass lines, with t…

*2026 stock* Trumpeter Shunzo Ohno spent much of his career moving between the Japanese scene and the New York post-bop circuit, a player whose résumé runs through American bandleaders alongside his domestic work, and whose tone bears the marks of both worlds. His quintet date for Three Blind Mice is one of the records where he sounds most explicitly engaged with the modal and spiritual currents of seventies American jazz: Coltrane shadows everywhere, but absorbed into a particular Japanese pois…

The very first record released on Three Blind Mice, a debut for both label and bandleader. Recorded in Tokyo in August 1970, Mine announces the saxophonist Kosuke Mine and sets out, in advance, the editorial stance the label would hold for the next two decades: serious post-bop with European clarity, Coltrane-era heat, and a particularly Japanese sense of restraint that lets the most intense solos hold their shape. Mine's quintet pairs his alto and soprano with trombone, the great Hideo Ichikawa…

Merzbow (aka Masami Akita), animal rights activist, writer, and musician, an Iconic figure in International noise scene. Renowned for his pioneering contributions to the noise music genre, Merzbow has solidified his position as one of its most significant and recognizable figures. From his groundbreaking utilization of tape loops to craft expansive industrial landscapes in the late 1970s, to his transition to laptop-generated static noise at the turn of the century, Merzbow has consistently push…

* Edition of 199 copies * Originally released on cassette in 1985, H·A·D·A·Y·R·O is a landmark of Japanese noise music. It documents the early vision of Solmania and the singular sonic approach of Masahiko Ohno. For years, it remained a cult artifact among collectors and underground enthusiasts. This vinyl edition renews its impact, feeling more like a rebirth than a simple reissue. Solmania was far more than a band; it was Masahiko Ohno’s personal sound laboratory. At the heart of the album are…

* Edition of 199 copies * Between 1999 and 2000. By the early 2000s, Merzbow had entered a markedly new phase. The tape collages, junk electronics, and analogue chains that had defined his work across the 1980s and 1990s gave way to a digital practice built around laptop, software processing, and a rigorously composed approach to harsh noise. Across releases such as Merzbeat (2002), Animal Magnetism (2003), and the present album, Masami Akita reorganised his vocabulary around dense, sculpted str…

* Edition of 199 copies * Government Alpha, the project of Yasutoshi Yoshida, is one of the central figures in Japanese harsh noise, emerging from Tokyo's early 1990s underground scene. Through his Xerxes label, he developed a style that is both extreme and meticulously constructed, balancing ferocity and precision with remarkable control. Even at its most chaotic, every sonic eruption feels carefully placed. Originally released on cassette in 1994, The Human Race Was Restored To Life Repeatedly…

Across three decades of uncompromising sound, this series of vinyl reissues traces a raw and evolving lineage within Japanese noise. From the mid-1980s underground to the turn of the millennium, these works capture a continuous process of transformation—where noise is not only pushed to its limits, but constantly redefined. Beginning with Solmania and the 1985 cassette H·A·D·A·Y·R·O, we encounter a foundational moment: a fiercely physical and experimental approach where self-built instruments, t…

Dowser was formed in the late 1980s by Hiroyuki Nagashima. After numerous lineup changes, the current members are Hiroyuki Nagashima (instruments), Masateru Terai (instruments, voice), and Takashi Miyagawa (design). Dowser combines vintage synthesizers such as Buchla and EMS with virtual instruments to construct a distinctive sonic landscape that merges electronic music, rock, noise, and ambient textures. Founder and leader Hiroyuki Nagashima is also an accomplished film composer, having created…

‘Traces of the ceiling’ is the new album by Takako Minekawa, an artistic collaboration between Minekawa who composed, performed and recorded the works contained within - and artist Ippei Matsui, who created and designed the accompanying elaborate five-panel fold out sleeve, risograph inserts, and vinyl. ‘traces of the ceiling’ is also the debut release from Portland, Oregon based shop, label, and event series tone poem. ‘traces of the ceiling’ was recorded in los angeles between 2018 and 2020, a…

A 2018 best-of from Hatsune Kaidan, ten tracks chosen by Jojo Hiroshige from the project's run of releases. The Vocaloid idol Hatsune Miku singing anime themes, Velvet Underground and Yoshiko Sai while Hijokaidan's noise rises to swallow her whole. Noise is melody. On Alchemy.

«Hohai-Bushi» is the meeting between Paal Nilssen-Love and his Large Unit ensemble, here in a 13-person lineup, and the legendary Japanese musician Akira Sakata. Since the 1960s, Sakata has been one of the leading saxophonists in free jazz and improvisation, starting with the Yamashita Trio, continuing with his own ensembles, and later transitioning to younger musicians from various genres, including noise and experimental music. Akira Sakata is a living legend from the last 50 years of radical …

Unconsciousness Silence is the latest ambient exploration from Japanese sound artist Chihei Hatakeyama. Known for his ethereal guitar drones and textured soundscapes, Hatakeyama creates immersive sonic environments that unfold slowly, inviting deep listening and introspection. This release continues his signature approach, blending delicate melodies, subtle electronics, and spacious ambient textures into a meditative journey.

Reemerging three decades on, C.C.C.C.’s Love & Noise hits vinyl for the first time, a still‑devastating artefact where Mayuko Hino’s charged electronics and Hiroshi Hasegawa’s Moog storms turn harsh sonics into something crushing, psychedelic and strangely exultant.

Great and beautifully packaged first uncompromising album of solo violin improvisation and electronically-processed violin tracks by Hideaki Shimada, self-released on Pico in a limited edition of 300 copies in 1986.