Japanese Art Sound Archive
The Caesarean Operation, 1973
Limited 80 copies, numbered. Legendary 1973 recordings by the sound artist Yoichi Niisato. The cassette tape recorder played an important role in Niisato's unusual works - as the recording of his footsteps in a subway car - through a cicle of works titles 'Research' that were subsequently described in his autobiographical book, Story, which was published in 1982. "The break is over, and I put on my work clothes. Don’t be cool. The hands that hold a drill are singing. There is a feeling of cold,…
Gas’ Disk, 1970
Production Gas (hereinafter, Gas), an anonymous artist group that was active in Nagoya from 1969 to 1974, released a 7-inch LP record, Gas’ Disk, in 1970. It includes four songs; “Gas no Theme (Gas’ Theme),” “Uta (Song),” “Proo” and “Hiren (Sad Love),” and the group name and title was branded on the wooden jacket. This type of self-produced record was referred to as “private record,” “angura (underground) record” or “personal record” at that time. The members contributed money to press 1,000 cop…
This Accidental Co-action as an Incident 1972
Restocked, reduced price - Limited 100 copies, signed and numbered. As a co-action by Norio Imai, Toru Kuranuki, and Saburo Muraoka, we inject the sound of our heartbeats into a street corner for 10 days from July 20th, 1972. The heatbeat sound is transmitted through three sets of equipment that respectively consists of a tape recorder inside this cafe, a speaker on its roof, and an oscillograph in its show window. In this co-action street noise and the rhythm of human as a living matter interpe…
An Introduction to Methods from Cognition No.III 1973
Restocked, reduced price Limited 80 copies, numbered. Legendary 1973 recordings by the sound artist Morihiro Wada (1947-2007). When a transition from one articulated time and space to another begins, language is generated as a factor for the first time. When language needs a certain meaning, it means that a beautiful misunderstanding of communication has already begun.I can’t do anything but see a discrepancy between what is actually expressed and me. The greater the discrepancy is…, there is…
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Number of Sheep Who Jumped over the Fence
Restocked, reduced price Signed and numbered box, limited to 80 copies. Comes with inserts and and a photo of exhibition in 1974. “Number of Sheep Who Jumped over the Fence” by Fumio Takamizawa was originally presented in 1974. Throughout the history of Japanese art, there has been artists that filled museums, galleries, studios and other public spaces with all sorts of sounds. In most cases, however, once the sound faded, it couldn't be heard again. Within Japanese art history, which has been …
Staying/Walking
Limited 80 copies, signed and numbered. Legendary 1972 recordings by the conceptual artist Kenichiro Ina. The work uses sound as a medium to record human’s simplest and most primitive acts, “walking” and “staying,” through a definite period of time. Sounds captured by cassette recorder themselves only refer back to what they originally indicate. However, to put recording between self and the world (things except one’s self) would enable the contemplation of phenomena between a subject and its ex…