Experimental / Abstract

Volume 3. The fifth chapter focuses intensively on 1991 - a transformative year for Merzbow. New sampling delay effects from Next and Digitech enabled more rhythmic, cut-up approaches, marking decisive evolution from previous decade's collage techniques. These sessions were originally produced by mixing multiple 4-channel cassettes, but for this release appear largely unedited - raw material preserved without typical layering and processing. New mixes were created using a TASCAM MFP-01 to replac…

Volume 2. The fifth chapter focuses intensively on 1991 - a transformative year for Merzbow. New sampling delay effects from Next and Digitech enabled more rhythmic, cut-up approaches, marking decisive evolution from previous decade's collage techniques. These sessions were originally produced by mixing multiple 4-channel cassettes, but for this release appear largely unedited - raw material preserved without typical layering and processing. New mixes were created using a TASCAM MFP-01 to replac…

The fifth chapter focuses intensively on 1991 - a transformative year for Merzbow. New sampling delay effects from Next and Digitech enabled more rhythmic, cut-up approaches, marking decisive evolution from previous decade's collage techniques. These sessions were originally produced by mixing multiple 4-channel cassettes, but for this release appear largely unedited - raw material preserved without typical layering and processing. New mixes were created using a TASCAM MFP-01 to replace the unav…

Travelling suggests movement through sonic landscapes - each passage a journey into unknown territory. The title invites traveler's mindset: openness to unfamiliar sounds, acceptance of discomfort, willingness to be transformed by the journey. This 1990 recording captures Merzbow testing new configurations in preparation for the decade's major works. The traveler enters foreign territories without expectation of comfort or comprehension. Similarly, listeners approaching Travelling should abandon…

A wry commentary on audiophile culture, Crash For Hi-Fi Tapes revels in deliberate destruction of fidelity. While enthusiasts pursue ever-more-transparent reproduction, Merzbow embraces distortion, clipping, and overload as expressive tools. The title suggests violence directed at the medium itself - tapes crashed, pushed beyond design parameters. High-fidelity recording promised perfect reproduction; Akita responds by demonstrating that imperfection and degradation carry their own aesthetic val…

This alternate version of legendary Cloud Cock OO Grand material offers fresh perspective on one of Merzbow's most celebrated early-90s works. The title's surrealist absurdity reflects Akita's Dadaist engagement - language pushed beyond sense into pure sonic evocation. "Cloud," "Cock," "Grand" - the words resist logical combination, instead creating irrational poetry. The existence of multiple mixes raises questions about identity and authenticity in experimental music. If noise is supposed to b…

The provocative title merges ecological and fetishistic imagery - characteristic Merzbow juxtaposition refusing easy interpretation. "Ecobondage" suggests nature constrained by human activity while carrying erotic connotations connecting to Akita's longtime engagement with transgressive sexuality through his Pornoise label and BDSM-influenced imagery. Ecological themes would become increasingly central following his veganism adoption, but even here, years earlier, Akita demonstrates awareness of…

Material H2 strips Merzbow's sound to elemental components - pure sonic matter awaiting transformation. The "H2" designation evokes hydrogen, the simplest element, suggesting return to first principles. Just as hydrogen combines to form more complex molecules, these basic sonic elements combine to create Merzbow's elaborate constructions. Akita works with sonic substance like a sculptor with clay - shaping, texturing, building structures from raw matter. The "Material" series title acknowledges …

The title references the Japanese white-toothed shrew (Crocidura dsinezumi) - an early indication of animal themes that would become prominent following Akita's veganism adoption in 2003. The shrew exists in perpetual urgency, eating constantly or dying - a quality resonating with Merzbow's relentless intensity. These tiny creatures live at the edge of metabolic possibility, their hearts beating impossibly fast. This prescient animal reference - predating Akita's formal commitment to animal righ…

Continuing the percussive investigations begun in Volume 1, this installment pushes further into the liminal space between rhythm and chaos. Where the first volume established the conceptual framework, Environmental Percussion Vol. 2 explores its implications more deeply, finding increasingly complex rhythmic patterns within seemingly formless noise. Together, the Environmental Percussion volumes document Merzbow's engagement with rhythm and pulse - dimensions often overlooked in discussions of …

The "Environmental Percussion" series finds Akita exploring the rhythmic potential of non-traditional sound sources - objects, spaces, and acoustic phenomena pressed into service as percussion instruments. These experiments anticipate the more overtly beat-driven work of later periods while connecting to musique concrète traditions of treating all sounds as potential musical material. Akita transforms everyday acoustic phenomena into percussion, finding rhythm where conventional listeners percei…

De-Soundtrack inverts conventional film music logic - rather than supporting images, these sounds demand visualization, compelling listeners to construct hallucinatory cinema in their minds. The "De-" prefix suggests removal, negation, reversal: this is soundtrack stripped of its images, music freed from visual servitude. Akita's late-80s work often evokes dramatic scenarios: chase sequences, explosions, moments of suspended tension. The listener becomes director, editor, and audience simultaneo…

Jinrinkinmouzui exemplifies the dense, layered constructions that defined Merzbow's late-80s output - recordings so thick with information they seem to exceed human perception. Each listen reveals new details buried within the sonic sediment: textures, events, and micro-structures rewarding patient engagement. The title itself resists easy translation, its syllables suggesting bodily processes and material transformations. The recordings operate on multiple temporal scales simultaneously - micro…

The "Batztoutai" period represents a significant evolution in Merzbow's methodology - a turning point that would influence countless subsequent artists. Moving beyond the collage-heavy approach of earlier years, Akita began incorporating record scratching and sampling in more rhythmic, cut-up configurations. This shift was partly technological: new sampling equipment enabled unprecedented manipulation precision. The late 1980s saw Akita acquiring increasingly sophisticated tools - samplers, effe…

Named for the toxic metallic element with a long history in alchemy and medicine, Antimony embodies the corrosive, transformative power of Merzbow's mid-80s work. Throughout history, antimony has occupied a liminal position: useful in small doses, deadly in excess, capable of both healing and harm. Medieval alchemists prized it for its ability to purify gold, while Renaissance physicians employed it despite knowing its dangers. Akita's noise operates similarly - like alchemists seeking to transf…

Agni Hotra" references the ancient Vedic fire ritual - one of Hinduism's oldest ceremonies, performed at sunrise and sunset to purify the environment and establish cosmic harmony. By invoking this concept, Akita suggests that Merzbow's harsh frequencies might serve purifying rather than merely destructive functions. The fire ritual burns away impurities, leaving clarity and renewal in its wake. This alternate mix reveals how studio decisions shape ostensibly "raw" noise - the fire ritual metapho…

By the mid-1980s, Merzbow had established itself as a defining voice in the emerging global noise underground. International cassette-trading networks carried Akita's recordings across borders, connecting Tokyo's experimental scene with kindred spirits worldwide. Age Of 369 documents this confident period - the numerological title invites esoteric interpretation, as 369 appears in various mystical traditions, most notably Nikola Tesla's theories about universal patterns. The number 369 held part…

The French subtitle - "Blood and Rose" - evokes the surrealist and decadent literary traditions that have long influenced Masami Akita's aesthetic sensibility. From its inception, Merzbow has drawn on European avant-garde movements: Dadaism, Surrealism, Fluxus, and the transgressive literature of Georges Bataille and the Marquis de Sade. The lotus flower itself carries rich symbolic weight across Asian traditions - representing purity emerging from muddy waters, spiritual enlightenment rising fr…

The evocative title hints at Merzbow's engagement with visual media- Masami Akita has consistently maintained interests in film, photography, and visual art alongside his sonic practice. Musick For Screen suggests soundtracks for films that may never have existed - or perhaps for films of the mind. The archaic spelling "Musick" connects this work to pre-modern musical traditions, when sound, magic, and spiritual practice remained intertwined.

Expanded Musik (2) reflects the duo's growing ambition to push beyond conventional noise parameters into territories where sound becomes sculptural, architectural, almost tactile. The title references Gene Youngblood's concept of "Expanded Cinema"—the idea that film could transcend traditional constraints to become a total sensory experience. By extension, Akita's "Expanded Musik" suggests sound freed from musical conventions, operating on purely phenomenological terms.

Yantra Material Action stands among the most significant documents of early Merzbow. Recorded during 1981—a watershed year that also produced Collection 010—this album captures the project at a moment of intense creative ferment. The "Yantra" concept, drawn from Hindu and Buddhist traditions, refers to geometric diagrams used as meditation aids. By invoking this concept, Akita signals his early interest in spiritual and philosophical frameworks as organizing principles for sonic chaos. This reco…

The "Collection" series holds legendary status in Merzbow historiography—a cornerstone of the project's early catalog that established methodologies Akita would refine for decades. Between 1981 and 1982, he released ten volumes on his own Lowest Music & Arts label, each created by mixing multiple tapes into dense sonic collages. Collection 010 represents the culmination of this early methodology. Originally recorded on October 26, 1981—the same fertile year that produced Yantra Material Action—t…

Another excavation from Merzbow's formative period, Telecom Live preserves the raw energy and experimental spirit that characterized the duo's earliest explorations. The "Telecom" title suggests communication systems—appropriate for recordings that document Akita and Mizutani developing their own sonic language, transmitting signals across the boundaries of conventional music. The recordings crackle with the excitement of artists discovering a new sonic language in real-time. Unlike later Merzbo…

Cretin Merz emerges from the earliest Merzbow sessions, when the project existed as an improvisational duo exploring the boundaries between music, noise, and performance art. The provocative title—merging "cretin" with "Merz" (the Dadaist concept developed by Kurt Schwitters)—announces the irreverent spirit that has characterized Akita's work from its inception. These recordings, previously recycled as raw material for other releases, appear here in their original unedited form for the first tim…

The second chapter documents Merzbow's genesis—the formative years when Masami Akita and Kiyoshi Mizutani were developing the sonic language that would reshape global underground music.

The first chapter documents Merzbow's genesis—the formative years when Masami Akita and Kiyoshi Mizutani were developing the sonic language that would reshape global underground music.

The companion volume to Sparrow Color 1 continues Merzbow's exploration of keyboard-driven synthesis, pushing the methodology established in its predecessor into bolder territory. Where the first installment introduced the parameters of this unusual approach, Sparrow Color 2 expands upon them with increased confidence and complexity, demonstrating that Masami Akita's creative restlessness knows no bounds. The continued use of the EMS SYNTHI 'A', Moog Mother 32, and Behringer Model D creates a so…

The title Kaerutope fuses "kaeru" (frog) with "biotope," creating a neologism meaning "frog habitat"—a characteristically poetic gesture from an artist whose veganism and animal rights advocacy have profoundly shaped his work since 2003. For Masami Akita, sound itself becomes ecosystem, a living environment where listeners immerse themselves in complex, interacting sonic organisms. This album showcases Merzbow at his most texturally adventurous. Bit-crushed noise collides with sampled instrument…

Sparrow Color 1 marks a significant departure in Merzbow's methodology - a rare instance of Masami Akita returning to keyboard-controlled synthesis after decades of predominantly laptop-based and analog noise production. Here, he employs a carefully curated arsenal of classic instruments: the legendary EMS SYNTHI 'A' (beloved by everyone from Brian Eno to Pink Floyd), the Moog Mother 32, and Behringer Model D, all manipulated via a Korg Monologue keyboard controller. This configuration yields re…

Celebrating four decades of uncompromising sonic exploration, Merzbow marks the 40th anniversary of his artistic journey with Indigo Dada—released simultaneously with its companion piece Kaerutope in 2019. This twin release strategy itself constitutes a statement: even at this career milestone, Masami Akita refuses to rest on a single achievement, instead offering parallel visions that illuminate different facets of his current practice. The album pays homage to the centennial of Dadaism with "D…

Masami Akita, the relentless force behind Merzbow, delivers a crystalline distillation of his sonic universe with Kaoscitron. This album represents a remarkable synthesis—a deliberate reset that channels decades of noise experimentation into something startlingly fresh yet unmistakably essential. After more than four decades of relentless sonic exploration, Akita proves that reinvention remains not just possible but inevitable. The album unfolds as a triptych of sonic approaches. Opening track "…

Soft Items sends out their third release through Sensorisk Verden — An exercise of bringing another being to mind. Translating unconscious material into images or sounds, perhaps a past- or future self. The protozoa. A message abrubts. A door slams. A strange whistle. Personifying these noises as bridging entities between the known and the unknown.

Juho Toivonen's third album navigates memory's fluid terrain through off-key piano, tape loops, and spectral melodies. Featuring Ramo Sinnemäki's trumpet, this Nordic ambient masterwork recalls Basinski while exploring childhood fragments and imagined futures. Pure Scandinavian melancholy—essential contemporary ambient.

Tip! *200 copies limited edition* This project, entitled Transmissions From The Radio Midnight, started around 2006, when I acquired a Sony TCM F59 — an AM/FM radio and cassette recorder combined in a slim, handheld body. Since then, whenever I went on a trip, I would throw it into my suitcase and take it around with me. No matter which country I was in, upon returning to the hotel room I made a habit of listening to the radio into the late hours of the night. As soon as I would snuggle into bed…

Moondog And His Friends was originally released in 1954 on the Epic label as a 10 album and is resplendent with the same sparse yet rhythmic percussion as is found on his various other albums. Despite the And His Friends credit there is little mention of any of them on the original sleevenotes, save for a mention for his wife who performs on the oo, a triangular instrument that sounded similar to a harp. There is no doubt that Moondog was considered musically different at the time he made these …

Mitar Subotić Suba (Rex Ilusivii) was one of the most prominent ex-Yugoslav producers and sound artists. His work encompassed not only successful production on some of the cult ex-Yugoslav records, but also works in the field of music for theatre, experimental electronic music, and installations. After moving to Brazil in the 1990s, he further explored his interest in local culture and released his essential work "São Paulo Confessions". Almost at the same time, he produced "Tanto Tempo", a semi…

*20 copies limited release* Live performance recorded in July 2023 at Trattoria San Biagio in Orsenigo (CO). Electronic rhythms blend with long guitar improvisations over deep bass lines. The Telamons lead, a forest becomes a mountain, and the faithful move forward through lysergic journeys filled with presences.

*20 copies limited release* Gabriele Ghezzi (Guitarist for Node and Telemons) first solo project. The songs are recorded live, allowing his technique guitar practice to follow the edges of the drum machine and effects taken to the extreme. A fiery project born from the machines. Psy-death-core.

Enhet for Fri Musik's “Låt Oss Vada Genom All Ängslan Tillsammans” stands as one of their most evocative works, weaving delicate melodies, tape hiss, spoken word, and dreamlike atmospheres into a truly unique listening experience. This is a perfect opportunity to immerse yourself in their singular universe and own an essential piece of modern experimental music history.

Unterhaltungen mit Larven und Überresten by Läuten der Seele (Christian Schoppik) unfolds as a haunting electroacoustic collage. Looping fragments from vintage “Heimatfilme,” field recordings, and diverse instruments evoke a surreal, dream-prone nostalgia. The album balances hypnotic repetition with spectral detail, drifting between tenderness and uncanny unease.