Electronic / Japan

Another superb mystic and meditative harmonics originally release by ALM and now fully reissued.

*Comes with Obi strip* “Next Millennium Vibrations” drifts through warped tape loops, ambient zones and sampled oriental percussion with comical electronics, conjuring a surreal, meditative and disorienting atmosphere. Mako weaves fractured beats with ethereal melodies, blending kosmische, lo-fi psychedelia, and avant-garde experimentation.

*2023 repress!!* Long out of print the 4th issue of archive series of NHK electronic music studio. Originally, Kosugi's “Catch Wave '71” was included in this issue, but, by a problem between composer and publisher, the CD was cancelled after several days of selling! Eventually, instead of Kosugi, Ranta's “Kagakuhenka” was up for renewed issue. 1. “Divertimento” Keitaro Miho     This is a live performance of live percussion instruments and electronically produced percussion instruments. Until the…

One of the pioneers of Japanese electronic music, Makoto Moroi, composed "Kusabira" for Kyogen (traditional comedy theater) with electronic sound in 1964. "Kusabira" means "mushroom." A strolling Buddhist monk, Yamabushi, tried to exterminate many mushrooms that grew in the garden of a man's home. However, his magic did not take effect on them but also the Mushrooms began to increase. The man and Yamabushi were driven out of the home by a large Mushroom, finally. In this work, Moroi used abstrac…

In 1991, Yuji Takahashi and Mamoru Fujieda collaborated in staging a sound installation at the Sezon Museum of Art in Tokyo, making extensive use of the new artistic possibilities provided by the advent of personal computers. In this installation, a culmination of their investigations into the aesthetic use of new technology, these two renowned leaders of Japanese experimental music used sensors and transducers on objects and in the space itself, via MIDI conversion, to trigger pianos, synthesiz…

** Limited edition of 150 hand-numbered copies in printed box with silkscreened covers and printed insert. ** A hazy, claustrophobic bridge between minimalism, drone, creative conceptualism, ambient music, and noise, we’re thrilled to offer the first ever vinyl reissue of Nord’s “Psycotron - 1” - one of the greatest and most sought-after holy grails of early Japanese Noise. Recorded by Hiroshi Oikawa only a handful of years before his complete disappearance and originally issued in 1984 as a ca…

LP + 7" EP version. Wewantsounds is delighted to announce the release of Ryuichi Sakamoto's classic LP"Ongaku Zukan”, originally issued in Japan on his own School label in 1984. The reissue will replicate the original Japanese release, which offered two versions: a normal edition featuring the LP with a bonus2-track7" EP, and a limited edition which includes a 3-track 12" EP in place of the7". Remastered by Saidera Mastering in Tokyo the reissue boasts the original gatefold artwork plus an extra…

​Ryuichi Sakamoto's third solo album "Hidari Ude No Yume" (Left Handed Dream) was originally released in 1981 on the Alfa label. Save for a small-scale Dutch vinyl release in 1981, it is the first time the album's original Japanese edition is released outside of Japan (the European release on Epic Records included significantly different tracks and mixes). Newly remastered from the original tapes by renowned engineer Bernie Grundman, this LP edition comes with original artwork featuring a striki…

LP version. Wewantsounds continues their Ryuichi Sakamoto reissue series with the release of the 1985 album Esperanto, composed for a performance by New York avant-garde choreographer Molissa Fenley. Produced and performed by Sakamoto with contribution by Arto Lindsay and Japanese percussionist Yas-Kaz, Esperanto is a fascinating instrumental work mixing electronica, ambient and synth pop. Released in Japan in 1985 on Midi Inc.s' School label, the album has never been released outside of Japan u…

*Packaged in an old school, tip-on sleeve. Includes hi-res digital download* Legendary debut album by Junko Tange (mystery woman who showed up on the NWW list), originally issued by Osaka’s Vanity Records in 1979. Dadaesque recitations and sparse guitar, piano and electronic meanderings combine for a beguiling, hypnotic dreamworld. Officially licensed from the custodians of Yuzuru Agi's Vanity Records archives, this edition has been fully remastered from new transfers of the original analog tape…

Deluxe vinyl reissue of R.N.A. Organism's sole LP, remastered by Stephan Mathieu from brand new transfers of the original reel-to-reel tapes. Pressed by RTI, and housed in a hefty Stoughton tip-on sleeve, this edition also includes an expanded insert with an illuminating essay by producer Kaoru Sato. A key document of the late ’70s experimental music scene in Kansai, Japan, R.N.A. Organism’s R.N.A.O Meets P.O.P.O (first released by legendary Osaka label Vanity Records in 1980) is a hallucinatory…

**CD version, to be released on 29.05.2020** "WRWTFWW Records is very happy to announce the official reissue of Motohiko Hamase’s remarkable ambient / environmental / minimalism project #Notes of Forestry, available for the first time since 1988. The album is sourced from original masters and available on vinyl and CD with liner notes from the artist. This marks the third release from the Esplanade Series which focuses on the works of Yoshio Ojima, Motohiko Hamase and Satsuki Shibano.One of the …

**CD version, to be released on 29.05.2020** "WRWTFWW Records is very happy to announce the official reissue of Motohiko Hamase’s astounding ambient house album Technodrome (1993). The album is sourced from original masters and available on vinyl for the first time ever as well as on CD. It comes with liner notes from the artist. This marks the fourth release from the Esplanade Series which focuses on the works of Yoshio Ojima, Motohiko Hamase and Satsuki Shibano.Inspired by John Cage, Jon Hasse…

*2025 stock* Utah Kawasaki's 36th solo album following his previous "Songs I Played 2" released in 2013. “Based on a web page that analyzes the non-disclosed NRPN (MIDI message indigenous to a device) specifications of the Alesis Micron digital synthesizer, I implemented a program that changes its configurable parameter value little by little (like floating in a space that has [Number of Parameters] units of dimensions). I ran that program and let it go on, and recorded two sessions each for an …

50 years ago, Hokkaido-born singer-songwriter Morio Agata released his debut single, Sekishoku Ereji (Red Elegy), an emotive, shuffling piano ballad that (shockingly) sold half a million copies in Japan. While he would never have another Top-40 hit, Agata would spend the next half century issuing a series of idiosyncratic, experimental pop albums. Today, he’s a beloved cult figure, still actively touring and recording in his seventies. In his first decade as a recording artist, Agata released a …

*Includes OBI and 4-page inserts with text in Japanese and English.* "Edo" is a cosmic ambient experimental masterpiece conceived in 1977 by Masashi Komatsubara and developed alongside with Hideki Matsutake (a.k.a. Logic System and reductively defined by many as the "fourth member of the Yellow Magic Orchestra"). As a true sound scientist, he pours all his efforts into this record, and aimed at the widest possible use of an electronic instrument that was at the forefront at that time — the Moog …

Moriuo Agata's “Submarine” and ‘Airplane’ from the 1980 landmark masterpiece and globally significant work “Illustrated Guide to Vehicles” are released as a single! Side A features the Joy Division-esque classic “Submarine,” while Side B is “Airplane,” which uses a collage of Inagaki Ashihō's actual voice as its intro. Released as a single for the first time in its 42nd year.

Kokoro no Kibi, the new release by Shoko Igarashi, is an album of ambient and electronic meditations inspired by the Japanese phrase for “the delicate nuances of the heart”. The Brussels-based composer and saxophonist blends gentle analog textures, improvisation, and subtle harmonic landscape​s.

These pieces were recorded between 1963 and 1973 at the NHK electronic music studio, Tokyo. Includes 12-page booklet with liner notes in Japanese. This version was withdrawn from sale due to objections from Takeisha Kosugi. His track was then replaced by one by Michael Ranta, and the album was re-released under a different catalog number.   1. “Divertimento” Keitaro Miho     This is a live performance of live percussion instruments and electronically produced percussion instruments. Until then, …

Molecule Plane, a project by Yuki Ohtsuka specializing in inducing the dissimilation of the acoustic space itself through sustained tonal layering and associated complex textural transformations, is pleased to announce the release of its new album on Shrine.jp.Yuki Ohtsuka is an electronic musician and mastering engineer living in Kyoto. He studied electroacoustic music composition, acousmonium performance, and sound technology at Osaka University of Arts, where he also completed his master's de…

*2025 repress* Yellow Magic Orchestra is the first official studio album by Japanese electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra. The album was an early example of synth-pop,a genre that the band helped pioneer. It contributed to the development of electro, hip hop and even techno. The album's innovations in electronic music included its use of the microprocessor-based Roland MC-8 Microcomposer music sequencer which allowed the creation of new electronic sounds,and its sampling of video game so…

Music From Memory are excited to announce a special compilation that they’ve been working on for some time now; MFM053 – VA – Heisei No Oto – Japanese Left-field Pop From The CD Age (1989-1996). Compiled by long-time friends of the label, Eiji Taniguchi and Norio Sato, Heisei No Oto delves into a world of music released almost exclusively on CD and brings together a fascinating selection of discoveries from a little known and overlooked part of Japan’s musical history. The last ten or so years h…

2007 release ** Packaged in a special oversize sleeve. Recorded live at Earthdom, Tokyo Japan March 3rd 2007. Drum – Lasse MarhaugGuitar – John HegreDance – Reiko ASynthesizer (Ems Synthi), Electronics, Vocals – Masaya NakaharaSynthesizer (Ems Synthi), Vocals – Hiroshi Hasegawa

Building on the back of a series of extraordinary reissues exploring some of the most exciting musical gestures ever produced in Japan, Wrwtfww is back with two of their most exciting releases to date, the composer Somei Satoh’s "Emerald Tablet / Echoes" and "Mandala Trilogy +1". Drawing on work produced between the 1970s and mid 2000s, the majority appearing here in their first ever vinyl pressing, these bristling hybrids seamlessly intertwine sound art, minimalism, ambient and experimental mus…

** 2021 Stock ** Shinichi Atobe exists out of time, producing material that’s both inimitable and genuine. "From the Heart, It's a Start, a Work of Art” was released back in 2017 and is perhaps the most unique and enduring of all of his output over the years. Curiously, it has origins going all the way back to early 2000, when three of the tracks here were originally produced and cut to acetate at D&M in Berlin (in an edition of 5!), presumably lined up as a follow-up of sorts to Atobe’s legenda…

A much-cherished gem from the 1980s underground Japanese music scene returns as Soft Selection 84 is reissued by Glossy Mistakes for its 40th anniversary. Originally released on DIY label Soft, the compilation sees 13 tracks from nine acts spanning minimal, ambient, zolo and more for a beguiling listen.

Recent issue of archve series of NHK electronic music studio. This issue consists of 5 works in 70s – 80s of new generation composers. 1. Jo Kondo “Tokyo Bay” (1987) This piece is a rearrangement of an instrumental piece into electronic music. The original piece was called "Non Projection," a piece for two pianos and orchestra. At that time, we were already in the age of PCs, though PCs were able to create beautiful sounds in the usual sense, Electronic music can only be heard on tape. In this c…

Recent issue of archve series of NHK electronic music studio. Some foreign composers visited and worked at NHK electronic music studio. The frst apperance was Karlheinz Stockhausen's “Telemusik” ('66) assisted by Hiroshi Shiotani, it's included in vol.1 of this CD series. In this new release, three works composed in 70s assisted by Tsutomu Kojima. 1. Jean Claude Eloy “Gaku-No Michi” (1978)French composer Jean Claude Eloy visited Japan three times between 1977 and 1978 and spent a total of nearly…

Recent issue of archive series of NHK electronic music studio. This issue is a collection of Joji Yuasa includes works on past issue of this series. “My Blue Sky (No.1)” and “Music for the Main Pavillion of the Okinawa Oceanic Expo” has released on CD by Omega Point. 1. ”Projection Esemplastic” (1964) – sound fileWhen I was asked to create electronic music for NHK, I decided to use only white noise, which originally contained all frequencies, and cut out various components from it to compose the…

Tip! *Limited edition of 200 copies.* Ferns proudly presents a new release on the label, K.Mizutani's "Inferior's Betrayal". Reissue of the self-produced K7 in 1994 on Kiyoshi Mizutani's Ulcer House label. Mizutani was a member of Merzbow in the '80s and has done solo work since 1989. He has recordings on Ulcer House, ZSF Produkt, Shirocoal Recordings, NEdS, Sounds For Consciousness Rape, Pure, Artware, Kaon, e(r)ostrate, Povertech Industries, and Flenix Records.

WRWTFWW Records presents its third collaboration with Japanese electronic/ambient/synth-pop crew Interior, this time with the release of band member Daisuke Hinata’s forgotten solo treasure from 1989: Tarzanland. The feel-good/smooth ride LP is available as a limited-edition turquoise and light pink vinyl housed in a heavyweight 350gsm sleeve with obi strip. Available on vinyl for the first time ever, Tarzanland is late 80s California sun-soaked kankyō ongaku, minimalistic proto-chillwave, the s…

Akuphone is proud to present Fuji-Yuki’s latest masterpiece, "One Butoh". A musical immersion into the most exciting avant-garde dance style of the past century. Created in Japan in the 1960s by Tatsumi Hijikata, butō is the "dance of the obscure body". It broke with the traditions of classical Noh and Kabuki Theater, which, at the time, seemed outdated in the national context. Nourished by a European artistic avant-garde, butō stands out as a mirror of the socio-political turmoil of a post-Worl…

What if Japanese city pop met no wave? Neither in your wildest dream such occurrence could be real, but let’s make things clear. Frank Chickens could have been possibly forerunners for several famous alternative bands, Cibo Matto on top of all, but sure had a development on their own. Our history began in London, early eighties, art duo Frank Chickens is the original creation of Japanese performers Kazuko Hohki and Kazumi Taguchi. All of a sudden the band debuts with a pair of singles and a full…

WRWTFWW Records is honored to announce the first ever vinyl release for esteemed Japanese producer, composer, and environmental music luminary Yoshio Ojima’s rare forgotten album Club, previously only released as a limited edition of 50 cassettes back in 1983. The electronica/proto-techno/experimental gem is available as an LP reissue supervised by the artist, sourced from the original masters and housed in a heavy 350gsm sleeve. Only 500 copies were made. A precious and sought-after item among …

The two works which comprise this retrospective release project - "Plan for Sleep” (1984) and "Every Dog Has His Day” (1985) - are collaborations between Yamanaka and Furuhashi which were foundational to the music development of Dumb Type's aural legacy and intermedia innovations at large. Their early stage music possessed a unique charm and innovation, serving as an essential element at the core of their art. Through this project, the legacy of these works is to be re-evaluated, and the essence…

In the performance of this work, "Plan for Sleep" (1986), created simultaneously with “Every Dog Has His Day” (1985), Yamanaka took on the role of sound operation. The performance begins with a minimal piece where the tones of the electronic organ and striking phrases from the piano and saxophone race forward in syncopation. Following this, various sound fragments drift over a deafening industrial beat reminiscent of machine noises. There are also pieces that transform the typing sounds of a typ…

2013 release. CD reissue of a cult LP from a early 80s weird Japanese oddity, an amalgam of synthesizer and vocoder processed vocals reciting Missa Ordinarum (!) dusted with bright electronic sound and plenty of reverb. Includes a 16-page booklet with Latin lyrics and Japanese translations, a discussion between Shigeaki Saegusa and Hiroyuki Namba, and liner notes by Shigeaki Saegusa and Hiroyuki Namba

Limited edition of 99 copies, includes an extensive booklet of artwork and a hand-numbered official certificate. Housed in a black varnished and silkscreened wooden box. This is the friends edition with an additional 7", a cassette, and a long sleeve T-Shirt. The records are pressed on red vinyl. This 10Lp-Set in a black varnished and silkscreened wooden Box is a comprehensive Anthology of the „Godfather of Noise“ early works, carefully selected and mastered by Merzbow himself. Is there anything…

“Kaze ga kanjō o hakobu. Subete ga kawarudarou” is Tokyo-based musician Fuantei’s debut and first album for 901 Editions. The music describes ephemeral, everyday moments that evoke deep and suspended emotional states. A frivolous and trivial time fragment made memory, the embrace and realisation of change, the reverberating lights of a habitual sunset. 風が感情を運ぶ。すべてが変わるだろうKaze ga kanjō o hakobu. Subete ga kawarudarou.The wind carries emotions. Everything will change.

CD version. WRWTFWW Records present the reissue of impossible-to-find cult album Lady Maid by Japanese outfit Normal Brain. Originally released in 1981 as a limited vinyl pressing of 300 copies on Agi Yuzuru's fabled experimental label Vanity Records (R.N.A. Organism, Dada, Sympathy Nervous, Tolerance), Lady Maid is a testament to the creativity of the early '80s Japanese electronic and experimental scene, encapsulating a prolific era when audio gear became affordable for musicians to explore so…