Elegy for Native Tongues
Heavy, ominous psychedelic free-improv from Tokyo, Japan. Julian's Cope album of the month . Tetragrammaton is a trio featuring Nobunaga Ken on drums and percussion, Cal Lyall on electronics and guitar, and TOMO on hurdy-gurdy, saxophone and electronics, and have in the past collaborated with members of Zeni Geva, Acid Mothers Temple, Taj Mahal Travellers, and Damo Suzuki from Can. On Elegy For Native Tongues, however, it’s just the main trio at work, displaying a love for high-volume improvised…
IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN EXTRA 2003
This is a special issue supplementing the well-received IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN 2002-2003 (IMJ-301), the launch issue of an annual magazine (published last December). While the annual magazine provides an overview of the year's trends, each EXTRA will include an expansive special feature on a particular theme. The special feature of IMJ EXTRA 2003 is "Improv's New Waves," a close look at JAPAN's young improvisers (with an emphasis on electronics MUSICians). It contains a comprehensive essay …
Side guitar
Toshimaru Nakamura's main instrument of late has been what he calls the 'no-input mixing board.' Rather than input external sound sources into the mixer, he treats it as a self-contained instrument by controlling its internal feedback -- the result being a truly original performance style. Over the past four years, Nakamura has released the solo NIMB CDs No-Input Mixing Board (on the Zero Gravity label), No-Input Mixing Board 2 (a bruit secret), Vehicle (cubic music), and No-Input Mixing Board […
Hourouurin
The Japanese underground band Johari was create in 1990 by the magic duo Asahito Nanjo (High Rise) and Makoto Kawabata (Acid Mothers Temple) and will became later, in 1995, this shamanistic avant-garde formation Toho Sara. “Hourouurin” is their third opus, after two albums on PSF “Eastern most” (1995) and “Mei Jou Tan Sho” (1999) and some live performances in Europe during the years 1996 and 1997. “Hourouurin” is a weird unit who attempt to achieve a mystic fusion of ethnic music and rock, accor…
Bar
Sachiko M with two sinewaves on one empty sampler. Sachiko M is a musician who uses the sampler as an instrument. Rather than apply the device's original function of sampling recorded material, she makes music using nothing but its internal test tone sine waves. Her approach to this radically minimalistic sound and meticulously thorough music has created a sensation worldwide. Currently one of the most sought-after improvisers on the scene, Sachiko M collaborates with influential artists both in…
Time service
Over the past few years, alto sax player Masahiko Okura has led an astonishingly full and varied musical life. Active as a soloist, as leader of the jazz-rock band Gnu, and as a member of the improvisational trio Bject (with Tetuzi Akiyama and Utah Kawasaki), he also collaborates with many other improvisers, including Otomo Yoshihide, Taku Sugimoto, Ami Yoshida, Axel Dörner, Alessandro Bosetti, Werner Dafeldecker, and Günter Müller. With the recent addition to his repertoire of two more instrume…
Aluk
Vienna artist Klaus Filip plays music using nothing but sine waves produced with 'lloopp,' an improvisation software program he invented and continues to refine. Toshimaru Nakamura makes music simply by controlling a mixing board's internal feedback, inputting no external sounds. Two artists with highly individual playing methods, they came together to create this album of improvisational works. Two of the three tracks were recorded in a Tokyo studio in May of 2005, when Filip came to Japan alon…
In case of fire take the stairs
Kaffe Matthews (laptop), Andrea Neumann (inside piano), Sachiko M (sinewaves, contact microphones). Recorded live in Tokyo, 3/17/02. Although I and II include two and three tracks, respectively, each is a single work. They are divided into multiple tracks for listeners' convenience. Kaffe Matthews created her sound by live-sampling and processing her own and the other musicians' sounds as they played.
Debon
Brast Burn was a legendarily obscure Japanese ensemble that existed in the first half (I presume) of the 1970s. For many years, they were known only as an entry in the notorious Nurse With Wound list, with no way for anyone to check them out. Thus this CD. First off, I'll say that it sounds really good. One would never guess that it was a transfer from vinyl. Brast Burn has been cited/promoted at various times as the "Japanese Faust". I feel that this is incorrect. A better analogy would be to …
Tiger thrush
The long-awaited solo album of amazing 'howling voice' performer Ami Yoshida is finally here. It's hard to believe Yoshida's sounds, with their myriad nuances, are those of a human voice -- they could easily be mistaken for minute digital noises. Over the past several years, this artist's work -- including projects with Yoshihide Otomo (guitar, turntable); and the duos Cosmos, with Sachiko M (sinewaves), and Astro Twin, with Utah Kawasaki (analog synthesizer) -- has garnered considerable attenti…