Environmental Percussion Vol. 1
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
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
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…
Batztoutai Mix
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…
Antimony
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 (2nd Mix)
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…
Age Of 369
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…
Le Sang Et La Rose
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…
Musick For Screen
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
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
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…
Collection: 010
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…
Telecom Live
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
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…
Por#1&2 Vol. 2
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.
Por#1&2 Vol. 1
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.
雀色 2 Sparrow Color 2
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…
Kaerutope
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…
雀色 1 Sparrow Color 1
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…
Indigo Dada
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…