★Ftarri
Songs
The concept of Songs, the duo project of guitarist Taku Sugimoto and vocalist Minami Saeki, came about in the second half of 2016. By that December they had already made recordings of their music, and the following February they released their debut …
Duo and Trio
This is the 1st CD release commemorating the 6th anniversary of Ftarri, the CD shop in Suidobashi, Tokyo. Seijiro Murayama, who lives in France, is active mainly in Europe, giving truly original performances using drums, percussion and voice. Toshihi…
Skullmarks
The group Common Objects was formed in 2005 by the British harpist/composer Rhodri Davies. The group has had a fluid membership, but in recent years its core members have been the six musicians performing on this album: John Butcher, Angharad Davies,…
Idiophonic
Seijiro Murayama (percussion, voice) lived in France for many years and is currently based in Paris. Alto sax player Jean Luc Guionnet, who lives in Paris, is also known as a pipe organist. The two musicians have released three CDs to date: Le Bruit …
Taku Sugimoto / Stefan Thut
Guitarist, composer and improviser Taku Sugimoto frequently performs overseas as well as in Japan. He's also a member of the Suidobashi Chamber Ensemble, which consists of five Japanese musicians. Stefan Thut is a Swiss cellist and composer. Both Sug…
Molecules
Limited edition of 400. This masterful performance was born of the meeting of two master improvisers, Kazuo Imai from Japan and Roger Turner from the UK. Imai, who studied with Masayuki Takayanagi and Takehisa Kosugi, is one of Japan's leading improv…
Land of the Hermits
Improviser/composer Hiroyuki Ura, sculptor Kenichi Kanazawa, and classical pianist Satoko Inoue released two CDs on the Meenna label in 2017, and the three artists are united again in Hermits. The earlier CDs, Scores and Scores at Ftarri (both releas…
In Doubt We Trust
After a four-year interval, The International Nothing has come out with a new album! The International Nothing is the duo project of Berlin-based clarinetists Kai Fagaschinski and Michal Thieke. Both musicians are well known as improvisers, but in th…
Whose Words ?
Guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama is an influential improviser who performs inside and outside Japan and has numerous CD releases on Japanese and overseas labels. The five tracks on this CD are improvisational performances by the trio of Akiyama and Swedis…
Downdate
Seijiro Murayama, a percussionist/drummer currently based in Japan, lived in France for a number of years and has received acclaim in the west for his musicianship. He performs frequently both inside and outside Japan. This is Murayama’s first sol…
Scores at Ftarri
It’s been five years since Ftarri, an online CD shop and record label specializing in improvised music, opened a physical store of the same name in Suidobashi, Tokyo. This is the fourth title in a four-CD series celebrating the store's fifth anniv…
Ftarri After Tomorrow
It’s been five years since Ftarri, an online CD shop and record label specializing in improvised music, opened a physical store of the same name in Suidobashi, Tokyo. This is the first title in a four-CD series celebrating the store's fifth anniver…
Quintets: Berlin, San Diego
In recent years, guitarist Taku Sugimoto has been active as a composer, providing works to musicians inside and outside Japan, and also as an improvisational musician. He often works with composers and musicians in the sphere of the Wandelweiser scho…
Ftarri de Solos
It’s been five years since Ftarri, an online CD shop and record label specializing in improvised music, opened a physical store of the same name in Suidobashi, Tokyo. This is the third title in a four-CD series celebrating the store's fifth annive…
Ftarri Jam
It’s been five years since Ftarri, an online CD shop and record label specializing in improvised music, opened a physical store of the same name in Suidobashi, Tokyo. This is the second title in a four-CD series celebrating the store's fifth anni…
Music Performance 'KIYOH'
Yumiko Tanaka is a gidayu shamisen player active in the fields of contemporary classical and improvised music as well as traditional Japanese music. Tanaka performed as a musician and actress in Hashirigaki (premiered in 2000), a music theater pro…
Immediate Landscapes
Sound artist Akio Suzuki crisscrosses the world with his self-made instruments. British tenor/soprano sax player John Butcher is a leading figure in improvised music. These two musicians have been carrying out duo performances since 2002. The six tra…
Listening to the Footsteps of Living Ones Who Are Still on the G
This is a duo album by Toshimaru Nakamura, a mixer player based in Tokyo, and Martin Taxt, a tuba player living in Oslo. Instead of a conventional tuba, Taxt plays a custom-made “microtonal tuba” capable of producing microtones. In this album, Nak…
Suidobashi Chamber Ensemble
Suidobashi Chamber Ensemble (SCE), formed in spring 2016 on the initiative of flute player Wakana Ikeda, is a chamber group which periodically performs contemporary/experimental music concerts. The five members are Wakana Ikeda, Yoko Ikeda (viola), A…
A Crescent and Moonflowers
The musicians who appeared in the concert at Ftarri, Tokyo, on June 5, 2016, were young improvisers active in the Tokyo area: Straytone (modular synthesizer), Yui Nakamura (voice), Takashi Masubuchi (guitar), and Masahide Tokunaga (alto sax). Three o…