Funny rat
Free jazz drummer Shoji Hano and German saxophone giant-leading European free improviser Peter Brotzmann first met in Japan in the early eighties. In 1990 Hano went to Europe for the first time and played with Brötzmann; then he invited Brotzmann to Japan for a duo tour in fall '91. This album is the complete recording of a concert they gave during that tour, at Aku Aku in Tsukuba. In '92 Hano released (on his label EGG) a cassette tape of that performance, with the same title, omitting one of t…
Onjo
Otomo New Jazz Orchestra with Otomo Yoshihide, Axel Dörner, Aoki Taisei, Tsugami Kenta, Okura Masahiko, Alfred Harth, Mats Gustafsson, Ishikawa Ko, Sachiko M, Unami Taku, Takara Kumiko, Cor Fuhler, Mizutani Hiroaki, Yoshigaki Yasuhiro, Nananan Kiriko, Otsu Makoto, Kahimi Karie, Hamada Mariko. Recorded by Kondo Yoshiaki on 24th January 2005.
Recorded
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. Mixed and edited by Yoichiro Shin and Atsuhiro Ito at Incomplete Studio.Mastered by Toshimaru Nakamura. Inside card photo by Miho Kakuta. Design by Akira Sasaki. 'Optrum is made up of Atsuhiro Ito, who plays a modified fluorescent bulb called the O…
Merzbear
Author, activist, painter, and sound artist Masami Akita has been at the foreground of experimental music for over twenty-five years. Inspired by psychedelic rock, free jazz, and early electronic composition as well the physical arts (especially Kurt Schwitters's Merzbau), Masami Akita has created a musical language all his own. Merzbear, the sixth Merzbow release in his utterly essential Merz series for Important Records, pulses and pounds with distorted droning guitar feedback, pulsing noise b…
Live independence
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 overwhelmingly brain-bombing as his previous release on the label (PSF 41), but definitely another important piece in the crucial documentation of Takayanagi's career.
Call in the question
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 introduction to his music as you could hope for (most of his albums from the '60s & '70s are impossible to track down)
Eclipse
Originally released in 1975 as an LP on Iskra Records (ISKRA-001). 'First session 1: Gradually Projection'. 'First session 2: Gradually Projection'. 'Second session: Mass Projection'. New Direction Unit are Masayuki Takayanagi: electric guitar. Kenji Mori: alto saxophone, flute, recorder. Nobuyoshi Ino: bass. Hiroshi Yamazaki: drums, percussion. Recorded by Mikio Aoki in Tokyo, March 14, 1975. Includes liner notes in English by Alan Cummings.
Axis another revolvable thing. Vol.2
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, Tokyo, September 5, 1975. Remastered by Tsutomu Suto. 'Fragment I: Gradually Projection'. 'Fragment IV: Mass Projection'. 'Fragment V: Mass Projection'. All compositions by Masayuki takayanagi. Includes liner notes by Teruto Soejima in Japanese an…
Axis another revolvable thing
restocked! Originally released in 1975 as an LP on Offbeat Records (ORLP-1005). 'Fragment II: Gradually Projection'. 'Fragment III: Percussion Solo'. 'Fragment VI: Mass Projection'. All compositions by Masayuki takayanagi. Masayuki takayanagi New Direction Unit: Masayuki takayanagi: guitar. Kenji Mori: reeds. Nobuyoshi Ino: bass, cello. Hiroshi Yamazaki: percussion. Recorded live at Yasuda Seimei Hall, Tokyo, September 5, 1975. Remastered by Tsutomu Suto. 'One begins to see--and hear--each sound…
Time service
Over the past few years, alto sax player Masahiko Okura has led an astonishingly full and varied musical life. Active as a soloist, as leader of the jazz-rock band Gnu, and as a member of the improvisational trio Bject (with Tetuzi Akiyama and Utah Kawasaki), he also collaborates with many other improvisers, including Otomo Yoshihide, Taku Sugimoto, Ami Yoshida, Axel Dörner, Alessandro Bosetti, Werner Dafeldecker, and Günter Müller. With the recent addition to his repertoire of two more instrume…
s/t
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 student/assistant of masayuki takayanagi’s who later formed east bionic symphonia (essentially an earlier version of this very group with chie mukai) and eventually joined taj mahal travelers and takayanagi’s new direction unit), yasushi ozawa (a membe…
Moon ether
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 theremin playing, a taste of impromptu talent, sound effect, etc... Shadowlike, the theremin sings. The ether dances Makigami Koichi. Makigami Koichi ; voice, throat, theremin with moogerfooger. Recorded and mixed by Makigami Koichi, dec, 2005 - feb…
1979 First live
Jutok Kaneko (guitar), Mick (vocals), Hiroshi Yokoyama (synth) and Toshiko Watanabe (drums). 'Miraculously unearthed live tape from one of the earliest incarnations of Tokyo heavy psychedelic legends Kousokuya. For a group with a 25-year history on the Tokyo underground scene, Kousokuya have left very little imprint of their activities. Once heard, though, their sound is unmistakeable Ð a grinding, soaring sonic-blackhole that charts the empty gulfs of tension-space like no one else this side of…
Aluk
Vienna artist Klaus Filip plays music using nothing but sine waves produced with 'lloopp,' an improvisation software program he invented and continues to refine. Toshimaru Nakamura makes music simply by controlling a mixing board's internal feedback, inputting no external sounds. Two artists with highly individual playing methods, they came together to create this album of improvisational works. Two of the three tracks were recorded in a Tokyo studio in May of 2005, when Filip came to Japan alon…
Tayutayuto
Sato’s first studio meeting with Keiji Haino sees a rare melding of open minds and taut strings. Common languages are invented, experimented with and discarded at will. Haino revisits the evocative nylon-strung guitar style he first explored on Hikair yami uchitokeaish kono hibiki (PSFD-8017), laying down fields and forests of string texture, while Sato burns blazing trails of narrow-beam intensity straight through the middle of your skull.
You should draw out the billion and first prayer
The dark elf of the current Japanese noise psych scene, Mr. Keiji hAINO (from Fushitsusha, and many other projects) teams up with Eddie and Bill (they're girls, really!) from the heavy Japanese bass drums combo COA. Previously hAINO has collaborated in a similar fashion with Tokyo heavies Boris, so he's obviously into rockin' with some younger musicians outside of the typical PSF psych folk axis. That's not to say this isn't folky and psychedelic, as parts of it surely are. Together, Bill and Ed…
To start with, let’s remove the colour !
Gorgeous new bag of home-recorded mystery from Haino. Apparently recorded alone, late at night and at minimal volume, these latest recordings tremble with the same deep-welled emotional sensitivity and sense of veiled threat that animated classics like Watashi Dake?, Affection and Era of Sad Wings.
Show the Frog
This work shows Umezu's various musical talent. For example, Umezu changes Irish trad called the Star Of the County Down into Japanese fisherman's folktune by his own interpretation. Or while his recording, he find the way of blowing the highest tone what is limits of possibility of bass clarinet. This highest tone is in the tune called 1970, Umezu's masterpiece. And he expresses his love of Ainu traditional in the tune called Chakton. Chakton is a rhythm pattern of Ainu music. Umezu was inspire…
La drache
Alto sax player Katsura Yamauchi was born in Oita, Kyushu, in 1954. In 2002 he quit his company job to become a full-time musician, and each year since '03 has traveled to Europe and strengthened his ties with musicians in France, Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland, and so on. In the process he met and found a kindred spirit in one of France's leading improvisers, soprano/sopranino saxophonist Michel Doneda (who happens to be the same age as Yamauchi). They've played together many times since…
Sieves
Kato Hideki: electric bass and bass synthesizer; James Fei: oscillators, filters, spring reverb, contact mike, and miscellaneous electronics. Based in New York City since 1992, Kato Hideki -- a former member of Otomo Yoshihide's group Ground-Zero and Tony Buck's band Peril -- has been involved in myriad projects in America and Europe, including Fred Frith and Ikue Mori's Death Ambient, and a multimedia collaboration with Nicholas Collins. Taiwan-born James Fei studied with Alvin Lucier and Antho…