★Erstwhile Records
2 seconds / b minor / wave
Michael Pisaro and Taku Sugimoto are not generally closely associated, but have quite a bit in common. Both are composers whose primary instrument is the guitar, both have close ties to the Wandelweiser collective (Pisaro is a longtime member), and b…
Motubachii
'Throughout their careers, both Annette krebs and taku unami have explored the areas between composition and improvisation, innovation and repetition, music and ambient sound. On motubachii, their distinctive styles come together to form a whole that…
Musik — Ein Porträt In Sehnsucht
Burkhard Stangl and Kai Fagaschinski both are masters at fluidly combining melodicism and abstraction. Musik-Ein Porträt in Sehnsucht showcases their work as a duo, carefully composed pieces intertwined with judiciously placed field recordings and me…
Imaoto
Since the early nineties, Vienna-based Radu Malfatti has been investigating the edges of ultraminimalism in both his composed and improvised work. On Imaoto, he is joined by empathetic explorer Klaus Filip to create an instant classic. Malfatti and F…
ErstLive 008
Keith Rowe's concluding set, with longtime partner Toshimaru Nakamura, at the AMPLIFY 2008: Light festival, recorded on September 21, 2008 by Taku Unami. AMPLIFY 2008: Light was an intense and deeply immersive experience for all who were lucky enough…
Contact
Keith Rowe (guitar, electronics) and Sachiko M (sine wave, contact microphone). Recorded by Taku Unami at Kid Ailack Art Hall, Tokyo on september 21 and september 23, 2008. Mixed by Taku Unami. Mastered by Toshimaru Nakamura.
Neuschnee
The five tracks on neuschnee form an ambitious meta-song suite, with the various lyrics and musical styles combining to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts. The design is again from Berlin designer Marion Gerth, previously responsible fo…
Soba To Bara
Free improvisation has rarely seen significant new movements as influential as the small group of Tokyo musicians once labeled as "onkyo", who have now been a primary driving force in contemporary improvisation for a full decade. Over that decade, th…
Till My Breath Gives Out
The magic i.d. is a berlin-based quartet exploring the juncture of song forms with abstract music. The band, consisting of margareth kammerer, christof kurzmann, kai fagaschinski and michael thieke, formed in summer 2005 after previously being connec…
Keith Rowe - Taku Unami
ErstLive 006 is from the duo of Keith Rowe and Taku Unami, and took place on the first night of the Amplify 2008: light festival in Tokyo in September 2008. This was the first set they'd ever played together. Keith Rowe: guitar, electronics. Taku Una…
Keith Rowe
ErstLive 007 is a solo set from Keith Rowe, and took place on the second night of the Amplify 2008: light festival in Tokyo in September 2008. This was Rowe's first ever solo set in Tokyo in his 40+ year career. Keith Rowe: guitar, electronics.
Cloud
restocked: The four gentlemen of the guitar are: Keith Rowe guitar, electronics. Oren Ambarchi guitar, electronics. Christian Fennesz guitar, computer. Toshimaru Nakamura no-input mixing board. 'Keith Rowe, Oren Ambarchi, Christian Fennesz and Toshim…
One (Snow Mud Rain)
Peter Rehberg (Pita) and Marcus Schmickler have been two of the leaders in the electronic revolution of the last fifteen years, both on their own and in collaboration with others. One (Snow Mud Rain) is the first duo CD from these two long-time frien…
Bits, bots and signs
Ever since Otomo got into his minimal misuse of stereo equipment phase, a collaboration with Swiss toaster torturers Voice Crack was on the cards. Although Otomo's refraction of high end sinewaves around cranial interiors may not seem like an ideal p…
do
A groundbreaking release from two youngish Japanese improvisers. Sachiko M plays sample-less sampler, and Nakamura uses the no-input mixing board--both instruments which conceptually produce no sound, yet these two conjure it out, somehow."Do" was re…
Points and Slashes
Over the past decade, Swiss-based Günter Müller has collaborated with many of the most prominent Tokyo-based musicians, recording CDs with Otomo Yoshihide, Taku Sugimoto, Sachiko M, Masahiko Okura, and Toshimaru Nakamura. Points and Slashes is the la…
We are everyone in the room
"Two improvising laptop trios, Stilluppsteypa hailing from Iceland and Chicago's TV Pow, met for the first time in the fall of 2000 and embarked on a week-long tour, captured in part on this recording. As in most successful examples of this genre, th…
Good Morning / Good Night
Well, 'Holy Good Night!' seems an appropriate reaction when faced with a substantial double-disc offering from the 'holy triumvirate' of Japanese reduced improvisation and minimal electronics, ie Otomo Yoshihide, Sachiko Matsubara and Toshimaru Nakam…
Wrapped islands
The predominantly Viennese quartet Polwechsel have exhaustively explored the grey areas between composition and improvisation, electronic and acoustic, jazz and classical for much of the past decade. Austrian Christian Fennesz, while initially a guit…
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The saying goes that, given typewriters and an infinite amount of time, a roomful of monkeys could write the complete works of Shakespeare. By that logic, if the same chimps were given a table-full of consumer electronics and a couple of hours, they …