Music from Japan / All styles

Reissued in 2003 by Show Boat/Sky Station - SWAX-62, the English title for this album is: Throw Away The Books, Let's Go Out on the Street and is subtitled: A High-Teen Symphony. There is a film soundtrack of the same title, but this recording contai…

Opening up Merzbow's new 13-disc series of monthly releases themed around Japanese birds, Suzume gets underway with even more of a bang than the usual Merzbow fare, combining those familiar, expertly wrought noise emissions with wild, flailing drums.…

Self-released Japan-only album from the higher-mind duo of Shizuo Uchida and Hirotomo Hasegawa aka Hasegawa-Shiuzo. Previous releases on PSF and Tiliqua have orbited the O-mind with alla the force of an octopus in zero gravity, with strings and ethni…

Box set from Japanese psychedelic noise legends c.c.c.c. collecting unreleased live material,including very early recordings from some of their first shows in 1990 and their 1992 us tour, along some long unvailible studio classics like the Phantasmag…

Their last LP, issued in 1000 copies and long deleted now; again, an awesome album, Awakening gives us ominous ethnic percussion, growing in intensity, while Photongnoul is slower, more mournful. Taksim II provides energetic, rolling, thundering drum…

their 2nd LP, again released in 300 copies only, a beautiful album of ritualistic music, occasionally ambient, frequently pretty energetic, but always based around complex rhythmic percussion. Unlike some, none of the percussion is synthetic, and the…

Ultrarare 1st album, issued in 300 copies only - In 1985, after the split up of the political unit 'White Hospital', Tomo Kuwabara started up the unit Vasilisk with Yukio Nagoshi (percussions/guitars) and Chiaki (percussions). They made a first album…

Rare 2nd Nord LP issued in 200 copies only. L.S.D. features rough hewn sheets of ominous yet trippy pulsating textural electronics with an obvious debt to the stark teutonic soundworlds of Kluster and (especially) Seesselberg. Any glimmers of transce…

First vinyl release by this Japanese power electronic psych duo (Oikawa Hiroshi & Satoshi Katayama) on cult Pinakotheca label (which also released Keiji Haino's first solo recording back in 1981). Very rare, unplayed copy

A founding member of the Fluxus Movement with Takehisa Kosugi, Yoko Ono and George Maciunas, Yasunao Tone has been doing experimental sound pieces since the early 1960s. For the past ten years much of his work has centered on extending the possibilit…

A pioneer since the early 60s in sound art and digital composition, yasunao Tone has composed for Merce Cunningham (alongside John Cage) and been a member of the groups Ongaku, Hi-Red Center, and Fluxus. He is unabashedly avant-garde and continues to…

JAPROCKSAMPLER is an exploration of the clash between traditional, conservative Japanese values and the wild rock'n'roll renegades of the 1960s and '70s. It tells the tale of key artists in Japanese post-war culture, from itinerant art-house poets to…

Don’t be fooled by the casual title of this release; you will hear a veritable Ghost in the Machine cloaked in pure electronic sounds. Japanese composer Toshimaru Nakamura goes beyond the furthest reaches of sound in his mission to cross the border t…

Long deleted, last copy of this ultra limited vinyl edition of 150 numbered copies by the famous composer JOJI YUASA's legendary earliest example of musique concrete “AOI-no-UE” (1961) and his final electronic music composition “My Blue Sky No.1” (19…

Limited edition of 300 copies. Music For Tinguely was composed in 1963, Appearance in 1967, Music For Living Space in 1969. "in 1967, i was staying in new york for about 10 months with my wife and 2 years old son as a composer in residence under the…

Takehisa Kosugi is without doubt one of the most important and influential figures of the Japanese avant-garde still performing. Over the years he has worked with everyone from John Cage to Sonic Youth as well as being an active member of the Fluxus …

Asian underground compilation with 13 groups. Featuring Li Jianhong, Narita Munehiro, Hano Shoji, Mustangs, Kiyasu Orchestra, Mafeisan, 10, Xiao He, D!O!D!O!D!, Sato Yukie, Yoshiteru Koga Jizo, Kim Young Jin, Li Daiguo, Amature Amplifier, Soonie. "F…

first time ever official reissue, housed in a sturdy mini-lp styled gatefold sleeve. original artwork with reproduction of a rare tree people concert poster opening up in the gatefold. comes with salacious obi strip and 4 pages of extensive liner not…

'Music For Electric Metronomes' (1960). 'For Strings' (1961) + 'Music For Piano No. 4' (1960) + 'Music For Piano No. 6' (1961) simultaneous performance. 'Duet' (1961). 'Parallel Music' (1962). 'Symphony No. 5 'Time Perspective' (1997). 'Piano Concert…

Japanese vocalist and instrumentalist Sachiko (Overhang Party, Vava Kitora, Kosokuya) looses a second, white-hot solo release. Her brilliant debut You Never Atone For on There/Musik Atlack rode gilded wings straight to the heart of the psych sun. The…

Yumiko Tanaka (Futozao Shamisen, vocal). Yumiko Tanaka made her mark as a traditional shamisen artist specializing in the female-school gidayu style. Tanaka was a member of Otomo Yoshihide's Ground-Zero in 1996-'97, and she is currently involved in a…

Small overview of yasunao tone’s life / work / art, including a 3”cd containing a 1979 piece performed by david tudor, john cage, takehisa kosugi, martin kalve, and yoshiharu suenobu.  

Tetuzi Akiyama plays amplified acoustic guitar on all tracks except #2 (turntable and air duster), and #7 (electric bass). Toshimaru Nakamura plays no-input mixing board on all tracks except #7 (tabletop guitar). Gallery Off Site in Yoyogi, Tokyo -- …

Toshimaru Nakamura (no-input mixing board), Tetuzi Akiyama (guitar, turntable, contact microphones). With Ami Yoshida (voice), Brett Larner (amplified ukelin), Thomas Ankersmit (sax), Taku Sugimoto (guitar), Tetsuro Yasunaga (electronics), Toshihiro …

Gallery Off Site in Yoyogi, Tokyo, is one of the world's most well known venues for new improvised music. Meeting at Off Site, the monthly improvisational performance series hosted by Tetuzi Akiyama and Toshimaru Nakamura, has in recent years been Of…

In addition to interviews of 12 musicians/1 group residing in Berlin (Gregor Hotz, Nicholas Bussmann, Merle Bennett, Thomas Ankersmit, Ignaz Schick, Hans Strobl, Pure, Annette Krebs, Andrea Neumann, Caramel Empties, Alessandro Bosetti, Boris Baltschu…

This is a special issue supplementing the well-received IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN 2002-2003 (IMJ-301), the launch issue of an annual magazine (published last December). While the annual magazine provides an overview of the year's trends, each EXTRA…

The 2005 edition of the annual Japanese-English magazine Improvised Music from Japan is devoted entirely to recent albums. Over 350 releases (with a cover photo for each) are presented. The albums, mainly from 2004-2005, span a wide range of styles--…

The debut album of The International Nothing -- the duo project of Kai Fagaschinski and Michael Thieke, two Berlin-based clarinetists who are composers as well as improvisers. All eight of the tracks on this recording are composed works. In addition …

Alongside Otomo Yoshihide, Taku Sugimoto, Toshimaru Nakamura and Sachiko M, Tetuzi Akiyama is an essential figure in the world of improvised music. Akiyama, also known as 'The Captain' by his colleagues, has been releasing a multitude of solo and col…

This is the debut album of Osaka-based sound artist Tetsuya Umeda (born in 1980). Active mainly in the fields of sound installation and performance, Umeda presents works that invariably explore the character of a particular space through physical phe…

Drummer Shoji Hano began his performing career in the '80s, playing with artists like Toshinori Kondo (trumpet) and Kaoru Abe (alto sax, etc.). Since his first European tour in 1990, he has played in many countries and collaborated with a wide range …

Ultra-heavy first album by new PSF super group, SANJA, consisting of gravel 'n' glass voiced crooner Kan Mikami, the scene's heaviest tub thumper Toshi Ishizuka, and alto terrorist and veritable rock'n' roll breather Masayoshi Urabe. The three first …

Samm Bennett (Korg WaveDrum, vibrators and contact mics, Korg ER-1, Alesis AirSynth, Casio VL-Tone, CD player, Bias, bumble ball, can, gong, beepers, effectors and crank-toy with portable karaoke mic). Percussionist Samm Bennett was active on the New…

All tracks improvised and composed by Optrum: Atsuhiro Ito: optron. Yoichiro Shin: drums. Recorded by Fumiaki Unehara at Swing Bamboo Studio, Tokyo, March 2006 (except 3, 10, 14,) (3) and (14) recorded by Optrum. (10) recorded live at Muryoku Muzenji…

Another previously unreleased archive release from Takayanagi, the premier Japanese free-guitar stylist. Recorded live in 1970, waves of trademark feedback abound, but also some more serene segments with flute, freedom atmospherics, etc. Not as overw…

Takayanagi is the premier free-guitarist legend in the Japanese underground story. This CD features unreleased material by the master, from 1970. The sound is heavy improv, with Takayangi's explosive feedback wail in prominent display. As fine an int…

Originally released in 1976 as an LP on Offbeat Records (ORLP-1009). Masayuki takayanagi New Direction Unit. Masayuki takayanagi: guitar. Kenji Mori: reeds. Nobuyoshi Ino: bass, cello. Hiroshi Yamazaki: percussion. Recorded live at Yasuda Seimei Hall…

gorgeous 4cd set (each copy packaged in a different cloth bag) by kazuo imai’s marginal consort - a collective formed in one of takehisa koshugi’s classes at bigakko art school in 1975 which continues to this very day...the lineup includes imai (a st…

Voice and theremin solo. Makigami Koichi is one of best voice performer in the world. Moon ether is his improvisation of voice and theremin except 1 & 11 are Asian folksong. This works includes his marvelous Khoomii singing -double voice, humor, free…