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Otomo Yoshihide

Otomo Yoshihide (born August 1, 1959 in Yokohama, Japan) is a Japanese experimental musician, turntablist and guitarist. He played in rock bands while at college, but turned to improvisation after discovering free jazz and free improvisation musicians like the guitarist Derek Bailey, the saxophonist Kaoru Abe and guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi (from whom he had lessons). Otomo studied at Tokyo University from 1979 where he took a course on ethnomusicology in which he concentrated on Japanese pop music during World War II and the development of musical instruments during the Chinese Cultural Revolution (samples of instruments and music from this period are found in several of his records).

Otomo Yoshihide (born August 1, 1959 in Yokohama, Japan) is a Japanese experimental musician, turntablist and guitarist. He played in rock bands while at college, but turned to improvisation after discovering free jazz and free improvisation musicians like the guitarist Derek Bailey, the saxophonist Kaoru Abe and guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi (from whom he had lessons). Otomo studied at Tokyo University from 1979 where he took a course on ethnomusicology in which he concentrated on Japanese pop music during World War II and the development of musical instruments during the Chinese Cultural Revolution (samples of instruments and music from this period are found in several of his records).

Member of: FEN
Utsunomia Mix - 007 "Soul Boat"
In May 2023, the experimental music/acoustic project "Utsunomia" was launched by acoustic geniuses Yasushi Utsunomiya + Gallery Nomart + .es (dot es). MIX". Starting with the simultaneous release of their debut trilogy in May of the same year, Utsunomia Mix has released five albums in six months and two more in the following year, 2024. The Utsunomia Mix series is packed with unique features, including the first-ever combination of live performances, links with contemporary art, and unique recor…
Hummingbird and Four Flowers: Turntable and Harmonium Solo Live
The year 2022 was the 10th anniversary of the opening of Ftarri’s physical store in Suidobashi, Tokyo. To mark this milestone, several solo concerts by musicians with whom Ftarri has had close ties since the time of its predecessor, Improvised Music From Japan, were held in the Ftarri store performance space in autumn 2022. The musician who performed on October 3 was Otomo Yoshihide. That day Otomo planned to play turntable only, but when he spotted the store’s harmonium, he had the idea of usin…
Humankind
The fifth installment of Yasushi Utsunomiya's divine sound "Utsunomia MIX" series! Free, immaculate, and unrestrained, even a single note is a miraculous improvisation that is divine. Otomo Yoshihide and Isobata Shinichi, a guitar duo of two former students of Takayanagi Masayuki, Otomo and pianist sara's first duo, and lastly, a trio. An hour of intense human drama! It has been more than 30 years since Otomo and Isobata were students of legendary guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi (passed away in 19…
In Residency At Bitches Brew
*2023 stock* "In December 2018 I had a four-night residency at the Bitches Brew jazz club in Yokohama. These concerts were organized by Mr Kenny Inaoka, founder and editor-in-chief of the webzine JazzTokyo.com and a prodigious jazz record producer and Seiichi Sugita, the owner of the Bitces Brew. They managed to invite some of the greatest improvisers from the Tokyo area to join me for four concerts in a row. This album captures some sound memories of those unforgettable performances with fantas…
Duo-1
*2023 stock. 400 copies limited edition* Improviser Junji Hirose is not just a sax player; in the 1980s he started playing the SSI (self-made sound instrument), which he created by combining numerous devices and everyday objects from which noise sounds are produced in a scattered way. In 1989, Hirose recorded the SSI/turntables duo album "Silanganan Ingay" with Otomo Yoshihide and released it independently as an LP. Three decades later, in 2022, a new SSI/turntables duo album by Hirose and Otomo…
Otomo Yoshihide Live in Shenzhen
Over the years, Otomo’s music has spanned across Free Jazz, Noise, Free Improvisation, Sound Art, popular music, film scores, and compositions for large amateur ensembles. Carrying the lineage of the Japanese Free Jazz movement that developed in the 1960’s, Otomo has exploited the sonic possibilities of both the electric guitar and turntable. He is one of the key figures who defined a now internationally recognized genre of Japanoise. His band Ground Zero, which was active throughout the 1990’s,…
Eastern Saga: Live at Tusk
Turkish free jazzers Konstrukt continue their series of exciting collaborations with Otomo Yoshihide, highly repudiated multi-instrumentalist and composer in the experimental world. #4 in the continuing series of Konstrukt collaborations on Karlrecords is a live document of the concert by the Turkish freeform group with the Japanese experimental musician Otomo Yoshihide from the TUSK Festival 2018. Konstrukt, the Istanbul based free jazz/freeform group founded and led by Umut Çağlar and Korhan F…
Modulation with 2 electric guitars and amplifiers
This is Otomo Yoshihide's second guitar solo release on doubtmusic. The concept of this work, however, is complely different from that of the first. Here, feedback sound issues from two amplifiers, each connected to one of two guitars placed on a tabletop. Due to this stereo effect, the feedback mutually interferes, producing beatlike fluctuations, creating black holes into which the sound suddenly disappears, sounding completely different depending on the position of the ears, creating the illu…
AMPLIFY 2002 | Balance
2003 release ** Featuring: Thomas Lehn, Toshimaru Nakamura, Tetuzi Akiyama, Günter Müller, Christof Kurzmann, Taku Sugimoto, Keith Rowe, Marcus Schmickler, Otomo Yoshihide, Burkhard Stangl, Sachiko M, Cosmos. "A document of the 2002 Amplify festival in Tokyo curated by Erstwhile's Jon Abbey. Disc 1 and 7 are smaller club shows that took place outside the Festival proper, disc 2 is a studio session that took place around the time of the festival and discs 3-6 feature eight of the twelve sets that…
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