Music from Japan

* Matt laminate and embossed sleeve, insert card, CD and24-page book with text by David Toop, drawings by Akio Suzuki and photography by Lawrence English  * In August 2013, David Toop and Akio Suzuki visited Australia. During a residency on Tamborine Mountain (an anglicized version of the Yugambeh word Jambreen), the pair were joined by Lawrence English for a series of site specific, environment-led improvisations created around the fringes of the Tamborine plateau. Embedded in place, these reco…

Will Long's work as Celer traverses a nebulous and morphing galaxy of sound that centers around textured ambience and extended durational pieces. A long-time resident in Tokyo, his work explores the way in which sound can operate in an evolving atmosphere, coalescing with everything, and everyone, around it. With In Light Of Blues, Long pivots away from long-form works to create a series of vignettes that capture the essence of his aesthetics interests. The record condenses and refines his compo…

* 150 copies * Celer's ‘Being Below’ is a collaborative release between Past Inside the Present (US) and Two Acorns (JP).  This is a mini-album of short songs created with digital and analogue instruments. Written with a structure that reflects shifting states, overlooking the past and future as a split pathway with the present endlessly fluctuating between. The pangs of rumination. An exercise in loop-less writing.

Legendary Japanese rock outfit Les Rallizes Dénudés were formed in 1967 and incredibly, for a group that had only one official release (Oz Days Live, a double vinyl compilation release in 1973), played their last gig almost 30 years later in October 1996. The band's name apparently means "fucked up and naked," which more than adequately describes their music. Formed by band leader Mizutani Takashi, the music remained remarkably familiar over the years, and is best described as high volume, raw, …

** Deluxe vinyl LP version. Limited edition to 299 copies ** Mademoiselle Anne Sanglante Ou Notre Nymphomanie Auréolé, the double-barreled name for Masonna, of course, is one of most prolific, adventurous, and respected noise artists, making dozens of releases on his own legendary and astonishing label Coquette, presenting them in very limited editions, sometime totally confidential (one sole copy), and reflecting his predilection for 60’s psychedelic music revisited in its own very peculiar way…

Pianist Satoko Fujii and trumpeter Natsuka Tamura performing in the studio in Krakow, Poland, for a duo of sublime power and great dynamic, modern jazz with a wealth of influence and performed with technical prowess.

* 2021 stock* Masami Akita exercises his bestial side in a hairily psychedelic follow-up to his Wildwood (2016) CD, also for Dirter Promotions.  Wildwood II is dedicated to the Wildwood Trust, who support British wildlife through protecting endangered native species and re-connecting people with the natural environment around them.   In both parts Masami Akita a.k.a. Merzbow flashes his fangs and hypercolour fur in a torrent of digital noise that could be said to transcend the boundary between h…

Originally released as a cassette in 1994 by Drahtfunk Products, Gnosis shows Mayuko Hino, Ryuichi Nagakubo, Fumio Kosakai, Hiroshi Hasegawa, weaving a tapestry of strange exotic vistas and harsh chafing textures, exploring sonic depths and caverns not heard before or after. A standout and much sought after gem in the C.C.C.C. discography. Remastered by Hiroshi Hasegawa in April 2021, and finally available in a generous edition on digipak CD.

** 2021 Stock. Limited edition CD housed in a digipak and obi strip ** 'Kannazuki' - the traditional name for the tenth month of the year in the Japanese lunar calendar - is a truly unique moment, a glimpse into a one-off improvisation of a quartet of musicians (Haco, Takako Minekawa, Dustin Wong, Jára Tarnovski) which took place in Tokyo in 2017. Recorded by Hideaki Hayashidani at Nanahari, the moment is described by the musicians as a “musical adventure”, a “translucent entanglement”, and a mo…

Not content with liberating what many consider the rarest soundtrack on both the cut-throat Italian and Japanese collectors markets (with the repress of the music to Eiichi Yamamoto’s erotic-historic Pinky anime psych cinematic feature Belladonna Of Sadness), Finders Keepers Records return to the composer Masahiko Sato’s bottomless well in an attempt to retrieve the elixir which enticed us in the first place. From a clutch of thirteen lost cues which never appeared on the mythical Italian-only s…

Jinya Disc presents a live concert by New Direction. The album includes 2 tracks performed by Masayuki Takayanagi - Guitar, and Kaoru Abe - Alto Saxophone. The first album track: Thursday / Gradually Projection, was recorded on June 18, 1970 at Tokyo. The second one: Jha / Mass Projection was recorded on May or June, 1970 at Tokyo. Masayuki 'Jojo' Takayanagi was a Japanese jazz / free improvisational musician. He was active in the Japanese jazz scene from the late 1950s. Was one of the earliest …

** Matte laminate and embossed sleeve, monochrome print and includes a full colour collage fold out poster from Masami Akita ** Scandal collects together three newly unearthed and revised pieces from Merzbow recorded between 1992 and 1995. Each of the pieces here typifies work that sits at a nexus between the experimental cassette and electronic collisions of Masami Akita’s late 1980s works and the emergent noise language that resolved into a series of now legendary recordings completed during t…

** Deluxe 40-minute Cassette, limited edition of 150, each with full-color six-panel j-card in clear Norelco case, plus full-color outer o-card featuring collage art by Masami Akita **  "Triwave Pagoda" is a blistering sonic depiction of space travel through rough and choppy atmospheres. Turbulence is ever-present and the cacophonic, dying equipment is about to give out. But the occasional shooting comet is still visible. And behind the controls is an impeccably credentialed master of flight who…

** 2021 Stock. Limited edition of 186 hand-numbered copies. Full on-body printing cassette housed into a very special handmade glossy cardboard slipcover sealed with two stickers. ** Xn Recordings presents Okinawa Kaidan: Saya No Yume Ha Yoru Hiraku (Saya’s “My Dreams Bloom At Night”) by Saya Kaidan. Performer – Jojo Hiroshige, Junko, Futoshi Okano, Toshiji Mikawa, Okinawa Electric Girl Says. Producer – Jojo Hiroshige.

** 2021 Stock. Orange Translucent Limited edition of 486 hand-numbered copies. Released in a plasticized foldout sleeve ** Xn Recordings presents Sound of the Sea by Hijokaidan. Artwork – Katsushika Hokusai. Design – Masahiko Ohno. Drums – Masami Akita. Electric Guitar – Jojo Hiroshige. Electronics, Voice – Fumio Kosakai, Toshiji Mikawa. Performer [Hijokaidan Are] – Fumio Kosakai, Jojo Hiroshige, Junko, Masami Akita, Toshiji Mikawa. Voice – Junko.

** 2021 Stock. Original PAL Videotape, Numbered ** Vanilla Records presents Like a Vagina T.V. by Masonna. 1994 Live Recording.

** 2021 Stock. Original PAL Videotape, Numbered ** Vanilla Records presents Extreme Gospel Nights 2 by Incapacitants. Recorded Live at Sengawa Gospel June, 1993. Cameraman, Design [Sleeve] – Michio Teshima. Instruments [All], Voice – Fumio Kosakai, Toshiji Mikawa. Producer – Incapacitants, Vanilla Records.

** 2021 Stock. Original PAL Videotape, Numbered ** Vanilla Records presents Between Life and Death by Dissecting Table, performed Live at 3rd November 1991 at Koenji 20000V. Artwork – Jun Hiroshima. Bass – Kenji Kamei. Composed By – Ichiro Tsuji. Percussion – Tatsuya Yoshida.

** 2021 Stock. Original Videotape, Numbered ** Vanilla Records presents Live at Middle East Cafe Boston 21 Sep 1990 by Merzbow. Perfomed by Masami Akita and Reiko Azuma. Remixed at Fuji Planning Studio. Sound mastered at ZSF Produkt Studio. Acknowledgment for Fuji Planning, Rightbrain, Ron Lessard (RRR). Recorded live at Middle East Cafe, Boston, USA 21 Sep 90.

** 2021 Stock. Original Videotape, Numbered ** Vanilla Records presents Deep Electronics Live by C.C.C.C. The VHS in NTSC format contains the recording of the Live at Bears, Osaka Aug. 10. 1991. Bass – Ryuichi Nagakubo. Cameraman – Michio Tejima. Design – Akifumi Nakajima. Electronics – Fumio Kosakai. Electronics, Performer – Mayuko Hino. Synthesizer – Hiroshi Hasegawa.