Red Brick
Test mixes for Arijigoku (Vivo, 2008)—Merzbow's first full-fledged combination of live drums with improvised noise performance. Drums were recorded separately in a rented studio, then mixed with noise at a later date. This preliminary version offers …
Ensemble Drums
Alternate mixes from two essential albums: Protean World (Noiseville, 2008) and Microkosmos (Blossoming Noise, 2009). Drumming was recorded separately in rented studio space, capturing Akita's return to the instrument after decades.
The first track f…
Drumorph
Primarily computer-based but incorporating sampled drums, this album documents the earliest experiments leading to the full drum integration that would define this period. Finely cut drum sounds ricochet through space in the first two tracks, with fi…
Interrupteur / Tautologos 3 (CD)
1999 re-issue on Blue Chopsticks of the EMI LP with two landmark instrumental compositions respectively from 1967 and 1970.
Chansons Pour Le Corps / Et Si Tout Entière Maintenant (CD)
Two intriguing late 1980's pieces respectively for voice and instruments and a symphonic tale with memorized sounds released on Mode in 2002.
Archives Génétiquement Modifiées / Société II (CD)
Excellent 2008 CD-only release on Robot of the 2000 piece for for memorized sounds coupled with the only CD re-issue of the 1968 recording of the 1967 piece for 4 soloists and 16 instruments.
Chantal (CD)
2004 CD-only release on Avatar/OHM of the touching 1978 portrait of a villager in collaboration with Brunhild Meyer-Ferrari.
Les Anecdotiques (CD)
2004 CD-only release on Sub Rosa of the evocative 2002 radio piece composed using recordings made during trips.
Symphonie Déchirée (CD+DVD)
Wonderful symphony for 17 instruments and memorized sounds composed in 1998, performed by Ars Nova Ensemble and released by L'Empreinte Digitale in 2013 as a set including a DVD with Jacqueline Caux's film of the perfomance plus estras.
Feedback Purple Yellow
Recorded as prototype material for the Here album (L. White Records, 2008) but ultimately unused. Deafening self-made instrument sounds run parallel with dull, boomy distorted noise, their synergy creating a strong sense of speed.
Very few sounds ide…
Coma Test
Coma Test pushes toward sensory overload approaching coma-like disconnection, testing how much the nervous system can absorb. The title suggests medical experimentation, perhaps referencing animal testing practices that Akita opposes, or simply the e…
Bloodour
Bloodour's visceral title ("blood" + "our") suggests shared complicity - the blood is ours, we are responsible. These recordings emerge from the Minazo/F.I.D./Merzbear period, when Merzbow explicitly addressed animal cruelty with unflinching directne…
27 August 2006
Another precisely dated document from the animal rights period, continuing intensive summer 2006 documentation. Together with the August 15 companion, it provides comprehensive insight into Merzbow's live approach during this activist phase - transla…
15 August 2006
This live recording from Metro in Kyoto captures Merzbow in confrontational performance mode. August 15 holds significance in Japan as the World War II end anniversary - whether intentional or not, this historical resonance adds layers of meaning. Th…
Pig AY
Pig AY extends animal-themed titles becoming prominent following Akita's veganism adoption in 2003. The pig - intelligent, social, routinely abused by industrial agriculture - would become a recurring figure in later work. This early reference sugges…
Material For Structure I
Recorded in September 2002, Material for Structure I unfolds across 50 minutes as a continuously evolving sonic organism. The first half emphasizes repetition, gradually building toward chaotic avalanches of sound. Throughout, electronically randomiz…
SCSI Duck 2
The title playfully merges computer technology (SCSI interfaces dominating 90s computing) with animal imagery - collision typical of Akita's conceptual approach. The "Duck" suggests both the animal and evasive movement - ducking, dodging. These recor…
3rd Of May Vol.1
Precisely dated to May 3, 2003, these recordings document Merzbow during the exceptionally productive period yielding Cycle, Merzbird, and Tamago. Listeners familiar with Tamago will recognize kindred elements - particularly drum-like samples eruptin…
3rd Of May Vol.2
Volume 2 features extended development of repetitive elements, with beat-like samples undergoing extreme abstraction through effects processing - documenting Akita's ongoing stylistic experimentation even within established methodology. The continuat…
Necro 2000
As the millennium turned, Necro 2000 marked both ending and beginning - death imagery presiding over Merzbow's laptop era birth. The "Necro" prefix invokes death and decay; the year "2000" signals apocalyptic transition. Y2K anxieties, millennial dre…