Music from Japan

Following the wave of critical acclaim for his debut, the prodigious Japanese saxophonist Kosuke Mine cemented his place in the modern jazz world with the release of his 2nd Album, recorded in Tokyo in late 1970 and originally issued on the revered Three Blind Mice label. Now, this pivotal work is available again, celebrating a new generation of jazz lovers and collectors. Rising to the forefront of the Japanese jazz scene, Kosuke Mine assembled an all-star quintet featuring trombonist Takashi I…

For the better part of the 50s and 60s, Masayuki Takayanagi was among Japan's best-respected jazz guitarists. But it wasn't until his experiments with tabletop guitar led him down the seductive path of sonic experimentation that he became the stuff of legend.  “Ginparis” (literally translated as Silver Paris) was known as the chanson cafe in Tokyo, Ginza, and the performances often centred around chansons but eventually became the session venue for young jazz musicians. They left their mark on a…

Tava Tava Records proudly announces the release of “Tokyo Violenta 4: The Golden Age Of Sonny Chiba”, a special black vinyl edition featuring the unforgettable compositions of legendary Japanese composer Watanabe Chumei. Available via leading international retailers in 2025, this LP pays tribute to the audacious era of Japanese cinema personified by martial arts icon Sonny Chiba. This highly anticipated original EU pressing (catalog TTSLP05) immerses listeners in the visceral soundscapes that sc…

Tip! “Chwalfa” (Welsh for “dispersal, rout, upheaval, upset, or a confused or chaotic state”) documents the first return of Incapacitants to the UK since 2016. With the windows boarded up and the subs doubled, two ordinary looking blokes Toshiji Mikawa and Fumio Kosakai obliterate OTO’s usual whisper hush with clipped out, scorched earth tape loops and pedal chains - transporting the room to the planet’s furnace core and back again. It’s all music, all at once, in a whorling vortex of time bendi…

Jinya Disc presents an essential collection celebrating the multifaceted genius of Masayuki Takayanagi, featuring three pivotal recordings that span different periods and approaches in his revolutionary career. Holy Holly Holly captures Takayanagi's final "Angry Wave's" project in a vital 1985 live recording, featuring twin double basses creating oceanic depths beneath his razor-sharp guitar work. Stardust reunites three Japanese jazz pioneers in an intimate 1979 session, showcasing rare warmth …

In 1980, Fujio Yamaguchi joined Les Rallizes Dénudés for a legendary studio recording session. Now, the fiery intensity of those early sessions will finally be unleashed from the archived tapes!

Tip! Tip! Tip! This work consists of sound and a collection of AI-generated images. The image collection is a compilation of AI-generated images used in a projection at the Merzbow Free Noise concert held on January 6, 2025, at WWW in Shibuya, Tokyo. The use of such visuals in Merzbow is rare in recent years, and of course, the use of AI-generated images in a live performance is a first. The concert was divided into two parts, and one of the rehearsal recordings of the songs performed in the fir…

To mark the UN’s International Year of Glaciers' Preservation, sound artist Yoichi Kamimura presents “ryūhyō,” a rich sonic portrait of Japan’s drifting sea ice. Blending underwater and aerial recordings, the album reveals the melting voices and fragile ecology of Ryūhyō’s vanishing world.

Rudolf Eb.er’s Psychospirituelle Fermentationsrituale I–IV, via Frei zum Abriss Kollektiv, melds occult sound, psychomagick, and experimental ritualism. Limited 8" lathe cuts and digital release offer collectors unique, transformative audio art.

** 180-gram pressing with a Japanese OBI and a new translation of Haruomi Hosono's original 1975 liner notes. Blue Ocean Vinyl. ** Fifty years after its original release, Haruomi Hosono's Tropical Dandy finally receives its first-ever international reissue through Stones Throw Records, marking a momentous celebration of one of Japanese music's most influential yet overlooked masterpieces. Originally released in 1975, this cult classic marked Hosono's pivotal shift toward genre-blending fusion, c…

The titans of Tokyo harsh noise, Incapacitants, return to tear another hole in the fabric of reality with "Achilles Tendon Rupture", their new full-length assault on Coherent States. This isn't just noise; it's a psychic evisceration, a full-body immersion in white-hot static, the gnashing of heavy electronics and distorted vocalizations clawing from the void. Incapacitants wield a uniquely particular sonic violence upon the listener. The dominant trademark of their sound is the feeling of asphy…

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…

CD Edition. The mythology surrounding Les Rallizes Dénudés has always been built on whispers, fragments, and the tantalizing promise of lost recordings waiting to be discovered. Now, Temporal Drift presents one of the most significant archaeological finds in Japanese underground music: Jittoku '76, a previously unknown tape capturing the legendary psychedelic noise pioneers at their most vital during a July 30, 1976 performance at Kyoto's iconic Jittoku venue. Those close to the band have long m…

*300 copies limited edition* First released in 2012 on Japanese label Youth Inc. as a 10xCD Box and long time sold out. After 13 years this completely re-mastered Super-Merz-Sonik album is finally going to be re-released on OEC! The Merzphysics set features previously unreleased recordings from 1993 to 1995, focusing on pure noise made before the introduction of synthesizers and other electronic instruments. The noise is described as being linked to grindcore, having a sense of speed, and was re…

*300 copies limited edition* A sporangium (from Ancient Greek sporá 'seed' and angeîon 'vessel') is an enclosure in which spores are formed. It can be composed of a single cell or can be multicellular. Virtually all plants, fungi, and many other groups form sporangia at some point in their life cycle. Sporangia can produce spores by mitosis, but in land plants and many fungi, sporangia produce genetically distinct haploid spores by meiosis. Sporangium is brand new "merzsoniks"! Equipments used b…

*199 copies limited edition* Aka Meme by Merzbow was first released on Music-Cassette in 1983 on Masami'a own label ZSF Produkt and on V2 Uitgave (a Sub-label of V2 Organisation). Tape was later re-released in other two editions but is long time sold-out and impossible to find. Finally OEC is going to re-release that special tape once more. This is Industrial-Noise from the very first era made by the master of Japanoise. Recordings are mixing many different sounds that range from: ritual-sounds …

Susumu Yokota’s 1994 ‘Acid Mt. Fuji’ is reissued for its label’s 30th anniversary. The album blends ambient acid, techno, and Japanese mysticism, inspired by Hokusai’s ‘Red Fuji’, pioneering Japan’s rave scene and Yokota’s global influence.

**Photo Book: 210×150 mm, 108 pages, hardcover with exposed spine binding, gold-foil letterpress, full colour on premium matt paper** In the final month of 2024, Meitei arrived in Beppu, a city long steeped in vapor, myth, and mineral memory. Invited to create onsen (hot spring) ambient music commemorating Beppu’s 100th anniversary, he immersed himself in the city’s geothermal psychogeography, where sound rises from the ground and time clings to mist. Known for his Lost Japan (Shitsu-nihon) work…

**180g vinyl, 12″ sleeve with capped obi, 12pp booklet, gold-foil letterpress, offset printed, full colour on premium matt paper** In the final month of 2024, Meitei arrived in Beppu, a city long steeped in vapor, myth, and mineral memory. Invited to create onsen (hot spring) ambient music commemorating Beppu’s 100th anniversary, he immersed himself in the city’s geothermal psychogeography, where sound rises from the ground and time clings to mist. Known for his Lost Japan (Shitsu-nihon) works, …

Skintone Edition Vol.1 begins the remastered reissue of 14 essential Susumu Yokota albums from his Skintone label (1998–2012), released individually and in two box sets over 18 months, celebrating Yokota’s innovative legacy in ambient and electronic music.