Merzbow
Masami Akita was born in 1956 in Tokyo, Japan. Akita is a graduate of Tamagawa University, Art Department, and majored in Painting & Art Theory. Akita formed the premier Japanese Noise group Merzbow in 1979. Merzbow have released over 300 recordings, on tape, LP and CD, to date, working with many different media such as video, film and CD-ROM, both in the directorial and soundtrack role.
Masami Akita was born in 1956 in Tokyo, Japan. Akita is a graduate of Tamagawa University, Art Department, and majored in Painting & Art Theory. Akita formed the premier Japanese Noise group Merzbow in 1979. Merzbow have released over 300 recordings, on tape, LP and CD, to date, working with many different media such as video, film and CD-ROM, both in the directorial and soundtrack role.
Japanese Avant-Garde
2002 release ** "Most music in Japan has little to recommend it; it is a sonic equivalent of those brutal concrete towers or the transitory chaos of multi-storey teen-fashion emporia in Aoyama. But a sonic underground thrives, creatively if not financially, and perhaps it should be compared with the shabby Golden-gai drinking dens of Shinjuku, faint reminders of a lost time when desire and transgression shared endless cups of sake with political and artistic radicalism... How is it possible to l…
Horn Of The Goat
1995 CD on Freek, a collaboration between Philip Best and Masami Akita featuring also Ramleh's and Breathless' Gary Mundi and Skullflower's and Sunroof's Matthew Bower.
Rilievo
"For many years, I collected every new Merzbow release. I stopped when I realised I couldn’t keep up with playing them; some were still in their shrinkwrap after a year. I didn’t keep up with Merzbow’s output in the last 15 years and only heard what I was sent. I had no idea what a collaboration between Merzbow’s Masami Akita and Agencement’s Hideaki Shimada would be like. The latter is a violin player whose first two LPs from the late 1980s are classics with hectic playing and might include som…
A Wheel of Mani
Spanish producer and composer Pedro Vian and Japanese noise legend Merzbow join forces once again for A Wheel of Mani, a singular work set to be released exclusively on 12” vinyl on June 4, 2025, via Modern Obscure Music. This collaboration follows in the footsteps of their previous joint effort, Inside Richard Serra Sculptures, released last year, where they explored the intersection of sonic abstraction and dense textural landscapes. With this new release, the two artists push even further int…
Collection 001-010
Carrying on their longstanding dedication to the seminal output of Merzbow, Urashima returns with what is unquestionably their most ambitious release to date: “Collection 001-010”, a deluxe, 10 LP vinyl box set limited to 299 copies, gathering together the entirety of the project’s first ten releases, originally released in 1981. Encountering the band in its early incarnation of the duo of Masami Akita and Kiyoshi Mizutani, raw, exposed and bristling with energy, foreshadowing numerous trajector…
B-Semi Live: 24th May 1984
*199 copies limited edition* KontaktAudio presents the first-ever official release of the ultra rare and sought after B-Semi Live 24/5/1984 cassette, a rare and explosive document capturing a crucial moment in Japan’s underground noise and industrial music scene. Recorded at the legendary B-Semi venue in Tokyo, this performance brings together three pioneers - Merzbow, Null (K.K. Null), and Nord - delivering a raw, unfiltered onslaught of early Japanese noise music in its most intense form.
This…
Hatonal
Nobody feels the sound fracturing as Masami Akita, nobody understands noise better than Merzbow. This Japanese artist is for more than forty years the maximum exponent of a style that has been catalogued and denominated with perhaps, the most descriptive word of modern music. Noise can have very diverse connotations, however, when we transfer this term to the pleasure and enjoyment that a piece of music generates in the listener, when we treat non-music as music, we understand that sound express…
The Prosperity Of Vice, The Misfortune Of Virtue
Matte laminate and embossed sleeve, with insert card and fold out poster + vinyl sticker (20cm long). Recorded in 1996, Merzbow's The Prosperity Of Vice, The Misfortune Of Virtue is one of a series of unique editions from his vast catalogue that reveals a side of his practice often under represented. During the late 1980s and into the 1990s, Masami Akita was sometimes working on film and theatre music. In this space he created a series of recordings that capture the full scope of his sound world…
Mercurated
We are excited to announce the eagerly awaited reissue of Merzbow's seminal album 'Mercurated' on double vinyl, originally released on CD in 1996 by Alchemy Records. This milestone in the noise genre captures the essence of Masami Akita's innovative approach to sound, an exploration of the boundaries of auditory experience that continues to resonate with artists and listeners alike. The new vinyl edition features a remaster by James Plotkin, whose expertise breathes new life into the album, reve…
Batztoutai with Memorial Gadgets
Merzbow’s Batztoutai with Memorial Gadgets finally restored in its original 1985 form. A sprawling 3LP of raw tape collage, political subtext, and proto-noise abstraction—essential listening from the dawn of Japanoise.
Yantra Material Action
*199 copies limited edition* Originally named „Merz“, this album should have been Merzbow's first vinyl release, but never came out on vinyl. So actually "Yantra Material Action" is „Material Action 1“, recorded in 1981 - with sticker and insert
Noise Forest
Tip! A classic compilation that emanated out of Osaka, "Noise Forest" brings together a powerhouse of early 90's Japanese noise stalwarts: Merzbow, C.C.C.C., Solmania, Dislocation, Monde Bruits, Masonna, Violent Onsen Geisha, and Incapacitants. The ultimate Japanoise collection, originally released in 1992 on the cult Les Disques Du Soleil label / record store on CD-only, and now impossible to find. Remastered and presented here on deluxe 2LP in matt-laminate gatefold sleeve (first time on vinyl…
Solonoise · 1
Tip! *10 copies limited edition. Soundohm exclusive edition with white cover* Solonoise 1, reissued for the first time since 1989. A tour de force, and a brilliant window to the early years of "Merzbow". Reissued on 4 different colors, and limited to 100 copies worldwide. Hand poured white tape with riso printed artwork by Tori Press.
EKA Varna
Nearly 20 years after the release of their landmark collaboration Multiplication, and nearly 25 years since their first live partnership, Merzbow and John Wiese reunite for a deep immersion into chaotic, raging electronics. Recorded on stage at Koiwa Bush Bash, Tokyo, Japan, December 2023. Digipak CD presented by Helicopter and Troniks. Art and design by John Wiese.
Circular Reference
Masami Akita continues his work as the world's premiere extreme dynamicist on 'Circular Reference,' his latest full-length and first for No Holiday. It's a torrent of synthesized tones colliding against punishing layers of feedback and midrange noise. But there are also snatches of lurching rhythms to be found, as well as moments of relative uneasy calm. More than anything, it's distinctly Merzbow. Released on 2xLP and CD formats, the latest from this titan of noise is sure to please longtime li…
Paradoxa Paradoxa + Material Action for 2 Microphones
Tip! * 25 copies, exclusive Soundohm blue shell cassette / white shell cassette * "Paradoxa Paradoxa": first ever live performance of Merzbow, recorded live at Kid Ailack Art Hall, Tokyo, 22 March 1981. First time ever re-issue on cassette since 1988. An incredible visceral performance, remastered by Masami Akita himself. An incredible chance of owning this very sought-after material. + "Material Action for 2 Microphones", originally released as a cassette on Lowest Music & Arts, Japan in 1981, …
Inside Richard Serra Sculptures
Pedro Vian and Merzbow release their first joint work, an unbounded expression of creativity and experimentation. Over the album's forty-minute duration, listeners can experience a blend of field recordings made by Pedro Vian at the DIA Bacon Foundation, specifically inside Richard Serra's sculptures. These recordings are interwoven with the ambient percussion and melodies characteristic of Vian's work, alongside the piercing and sharp frequencies produced by Merzbow, one of the most acclaimed a…
Tsubame: 13 Japanese Birds Pt. 12
This is December 2009's Bird CD from Merzbow. Tsubame is the 12th and 2nd to last in the series. Merzbow's 13 Japanese Birds is a 13 month series of releases inspired by Olivier Messiaen's Catalogue D'Oiseaux
PiaNoise
For decade, this collaboration was supposed to happen with Dapnom. Now, we enter a new dimension with my own piano ! We worked on this piece of crazy art last year, when the planet started to get wronger and wronger. This album is an ode to our ruin ! Even the most experienced ear will not come out of PiaNoise unscathed. Consecrating the meeting of two consummate artists, this release confronts their universe like a massive head-on shock in the eye of a sound storm by which we sometimes feel tot…
Oersted
*Limited Edition of 299 copies. Black vinyl * Masami Akita's exploration of noise as a musical form has influenced generations of artists and reshaped the way we perceive sound in the context of contemporary music. Oersted stands as a testament to Merzbow's ongoing artistic evolution and his unwavering commitment to pushing sonic boundaries. This limited vinyl reissue, expertly remastered by the wizard of mastering, James Plotkin, with 299 copies available on black vinyl, is a must-have for coll…