★Improvised Music From Japan

Improvised Music from Japan 2009 takes a look at improvised/experimental music festivals and concert series in Japan. Covered in the book are 33 of the many festival/series events taking place around the country. The articles (some written by the org…

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…

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 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…

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,…

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 Nether…

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--…

Taku Sugimoto is an extremely restrained guitarist who produces very few sounds in performance, allowing silence to be the controlling force. As an improviser and composer, he's garnered international acclaim, and also provoked strong reactions, both…

In the trio album Lunch in Nishinomiya, Haco (contact microphones, oscillators, effects) joins forces with two leading Montreal improvisers known for their innovative playing-Diane Labrosse (sampler) and Martin Tétreault (turntable, surfaces, small e…

Magazine (English and JAPANese) with interviewes FROM Kazue Sawai, Yukiko Tanaka, Samm Bennett, Tetuzi Akiyama, Uchihashi Kazuhisa, Masahiko Okura, Sachiko M, Taku Sugimoto, Kazuo Imai, Aki Onda, texts by Tetsu Saitoh, Michel Doneda, Otomo Yoshhide… …

Tetuzi Akiyama has in recent years attracted tremendous interest on the Japanese and international improvised music scenes. In addition to performing many times in Europe, America, Australia, and New Zealand, he's been releasing a steady stream of so…

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…

Sachiko M with two sinewaves on one empty sampler. Sachiko M is a musician who uses the sampler as an instrument. Rather than apply the device's original function of sampling recorded material, she makes music using nothing but its internal test tone…

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 K…

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…

Starting with her work in After Dinner in the '80s, up to her current activity as a soloist and in projects like the female trio Hoahio, and Yesterday's Heroes, with Terre Thaemlitz, Haco has long been the reigning songstress of avant-garde music. Bu…

Otomo Yoshide (turntables, guitar) is active on a worldwide scale in such fields as free improvisation, composition, and film music. On a trip to Seoul in May of 2002, Otomo made a studio recording with Seoul musicians Park Je Chun (percussion) and M…

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…

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 -- …

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…

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…

Toshimaru Nakamura's main instrument of late has been what he calls the 'no-input mixing board.' Rather than input external sound sources into the mixer, he treats it as a self-contained instrument by controlling its internal feedback -- the result b…

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 …

Vienna resident Radu Malfatti, who turns 60 in December, is a trombonist and composer with a long and impressive career. In the nineties he established the unique compositional/improvisational style, using very few sounds, that he continues to develo…

European free jazz/free improvisation pioneer Han Bennink (drums) made this studio recording with Kazuo Imai (guitar) in Tokyo in May of 2002. Imai, who in the '70s studied with Masayuki Takayanagi and Takehisa Kosugi, currently performs both on his …

The long-awaited solo album of amazing 'howling voice' performer Ami Yoshida is finally here. It's hard to believe Yoshida's sounds, with their myriad nuances, are those of a human voice -- they could easily be mistaken for minute digital noises. Ove…

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 …

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 …

Kaffe Matthews (laptop), Andrea Neumann (inside piano), Sachiko M (sinewaves, contact microphones). Recorded live in Tokyo, 3/17/02. Although I and II include two and three tracks, respectively, each is a single work. They are divided into multiple t…

Taku Sugimoto: electric guitar, Tetuzi Akiyama: turntable without records, contact microphones, Yasuhiro Yoshigaki: waterphone, Kumiko Takara: snare drum, Masahiro Uemura: bells, Ami Yoshida: voice, Itoken: crotales, Mari Furuta: snare drum, Yoshimit…