★Ftarri
![Paraphrase on Shichikushoshinshu [1664]](https://cdn.soundohm.com/data/products/2023-09/a1670394315_16-jpg.jpg.500.jpg)
Paraphrase on Shichikushoshinshu [1664]
*2023 stock* Published in the Edo era (1664), "Shichikushoshinshu" is a beginner’s guide to three musical instruments—the "hitoyogiri" shakuhachi, the koto, and the shamisen—which includes lyrics and fingerings for songs believed to have been popular at the time. Tai decided to create a new musical instrument in order to perform the shamisen music in "Shichikushoshinshu" (Japan’s oldest shamisen “scores”). The result was the self-made electric stringed instrument he calls the coiled cello. In 20…
Less Action, Less Excitement, Less Everything
The International Nothing is a Berlin-based psycho-acoustic clarinet duo formed by Michael Thieke and Kai Fagaschinski in 2000. They collectively compose multilayered sound sculptures using multiphonics, beat frequencies and difference tones as an integral part of their language. Both musicians might be known as improvisers but in this project they develop and perform exclusively their own compositions crafted with an extreme care for detail and precision. The duo's works have been released on f…
The Dark Side Of Success
The International Nothing is a Berlin-based psycho-acoustic clarinet duo formed by Michael Thieke and Kai Fagaschinski in 2000. They collectively compose multilayered sound sculptures using multiphonics, beat frequencies and difference tones as an integral part of their language. Both musicians are well known as improvisers but in this project they develop and perform exclusively their own compositions.
The duo’s progression from release to release is subtle, but with "The Dark Side Of Success t…
In Doubt We Trust
The International Nothing is a Berlin-based psycho-acoustic clarinet duo formed by Michael Thieke and Kai Fagaschinski in 2000. They collectively compose multilayered sound sculptures using multiphonics, beat frequencies and difference tones as an integral part of their language. Both musicians are well known as improvisers but in this project they develop and perform exclusively their own compositions.Every four years the duo releases an album on the Japanese Ftarri Label. In 2018 they are pres…
Just None Of Those Things
Just released, the 5th album "Just None of Those Things" by the revered psycho-acoustic clarinet duo The International Nothing
Ftarri Fukubukuro 2018
Fukubukuro are special surprise gift bags sold at stores in Japan at the New Year. This fukubukuro CD is being released by the CD shop/label Ftarri to celebrate its fresh start for 2018. Each of the 5 tracks is a solo piece by a different musician. Shuta Hiraki is an electronics musician who creates mainly drone music. He released the CD Unicursal on Kyou Records in 2017. Radio ensembles Aiida, a solo project by A. Mizuki, presents unique performances using shortwave radios as "instruments." Her…
Thought Is The Enemy
Krishnamurti is the duo project of Italian sound artists Giovanni Lami and Lorenzo Abattoir, who aim to create a new type of soundscape using the Indian drone instrument called the shruti box. Originally from Ravenna, Giovanni Lami has since the 2010s been known for diverse activities including his work in artist-in-residence programs, festival appearances, and exhibitions. In recent years he's released numerous recordings, especially from cassette labels. Lorenzo Abattoir, who lives in Torino,…
Ftarri's Harmonium
Why is there a harmonium (reed organ) at Ftarri? It all goes back to the Ftarri Festival held in Tokyo in November 2019. A quartet made up of Klaus Lang (harmonium), Johnny Chang (violin), Samuel Dunscombe (bass clarinet) and Michiko Ogawa (clarinet) was planned for the festival's final day, so Ogawa quickly purchased a used harmonium for Lang. As she lives in Berlin, Ogawa and Ftarri decided that the harmonium would be housed there temporarily and used in Ftarri concerts.Composer Masamichi Kino…
Trio (2CD)
These recordings were mostly made during the daytime at the residency place and concert venue Petersburg Art Space in Moabit, Berlin. While we were recording, people would sometimes show up in the kitchen area on the other side of the room for a coffee break, probably not aware that we were recording music for a potential album. Even though this could have led to frustration and many retakes, it ended up quite unproblematic, and it was nice how it made us aware of both the fragility of our music…
Dented Time
Jazz drummer Per Oddvar Johansen was born in Oslo, Norway, in 1968. He has earned six Spellemannsprisen, Norway's equivalent to Grammy Awards. One of Norway's leading drummers, he has participated in over 80 albums. In May 2018, Johansen came to Japan with his own trio. Paris-based drummer/percussionist Seijiro Murayama is familiar to Ftarri listeners for his many releases of solo and collaborative performances on the Ftarri, Hitorri and Meenna labels. The eight tracks on this CD (each 5 to 10 …
A Rose with No Name 'Sorry'
**Edition of 200** Tokyo-based sound artist and improviser Makoto Oshiro carries out live performances and installations in which he creates sound using self-made devices and remodeled pre-existing objects. Beijing-based musician/poet Yan Jun, one of the leading Chinese artists on the experimental/improvised music scene, creates music and produces installations freely utilizing electronics, field recordings and voice.
This album was studio-recorded on February 22, 2017, when Oshiro was visiting …
6 Chords
Guitarist Cristián Alvear was born in 1979 and lives in Santiago, Chile. Active on the international contemporary/experimental music scene, he has since 2010 released numerous recordings on labels in various countries. Musician and programmer Klaus Filip was born in 1963 and resides in Vienna, Austria. ppooll, the software he developed, is used regularly by many improvisers, including Filip himself.
This album is comprised of a single track of 40 min., 58 sec., divided into six parts. Klaus Fili…
Guitars
Taku Sugimoto is a Tokyo-based guitarist and composer. Improvisation is one aspect of his work, but currently his main activities are composing and performing composed pieces (including those of other composers). He continues his global and concentrated interaction with composers from around the world, particularly those closely connected with Wandelweiser. Ftarri had previously released two albums under Sugimoto's name alone—Septet (2015) and Quintets: Berlin, San Diego (2017). On both CDs, his…
In Cotton and Wool
** 300 copies** With his innovative performances, Berlin-based trumpeter Axel Dörner has been a leading figure on the improvised music scene since the 1990s. Internationally popular no-input mixing board player/improviser Toshimaru Nakamura structures sound by controlling mixer feedback. These two musicians released the CD "Vorhernach" on the Ftarri label in 2007, and In "Cotton and Wool" is their second duo album. The four tracks on this album (each between 7 and 12 minutes) were recorded in a …
Electric Powered Music Concert
This is the 2nd CD release commemorating the 6th anniversary of Ftarri,
the CD shop in Suidobashi, Tokyo. In recent years composer Masamichi
Kinoshita, cello player Tomoki Tai, and composer/computer musician
Takumi Ikeda have departed from their usual musical activities to hold
“Electric Powered Music” concerts–periodic improvised music performances
featuring electrical machinery and devices. These three plus guest
Takuya Harashima (biwa, flute, voice) performed together in an Electric
Po…
Duo
This is the 4th CD release commemorating the 6th anniversary of Ftarri, the CD shop in Suidobashi, Tokyo. Suzueri uses prepared piano and several self-made instruments placed nearby to produce a variety of original sounds, which she combines in constructing her performances. Makoto Oshiro continues to create new sounds with the many new self-made instruments he devises. A duo performance by these unique musicians is recorded on this CD. Amid the drone formed by the roar of many sounds, suzueri f…
Trio and Septet
This is the 3rd CD release commemorating the 6th anniversary of Ftarri,
the CD shop in Suidobashi, Tokyo. It documents a concert held at Ftarri
in June 2018, featuring Beijing-based musicians Zhu Wenbo and Zhao Cong.
The first set was an improvised performance by Zhao Cong (electronics,
objects), guitarist Takashi Masabuchi, and alto sax player Masahide
Tokunaga (25 minutes). In the second set, a septet consisting of these
three musicians plus Zhu Wenbo (buzzer, clarinet, whistle), Yuma
T…
Sextet
While touring Europe in autumn 2017, Minami Saeki (voice), Wakana Ikeda (flute), Yoko Ikeda (viola), and Taku Sugimoto (guitar) visited Switzerland and joined up with Swiss composer/musicians Stefan Thut and Manfred Werder. This CD is a recording of five pieces they performed at the concert venue Theater Delly in Solothurn, Switzerland, on October 9, 2017. Thut played cello, and Werder used glockenspiel and typewriter. Each of the five musicians other than Saeki provided a composition of his or …
Breathing
Singer-songwriter Tomoe Takizawa has two previous album releases, Watashi, Kona ni Natte (Narisu Compact Disc) and a b c b (Headz). Additionally, Takizawa is an improviser who regularly gives improvisational performances at Ftarri using various instruments and objects as well as voice. This album explores her appealing qualities as an improvisational musician. Tracks 1 and 5, short pieces of 2-3 minutes recorded by Takizawa at her home in January 2016, serve as the album’s introduction and endin…
Tumo Plays Cristián Alvear
Yuma Takeshita, who plays a modified bass guitar that he calls an electro-bass, and drummer/percussionist Yuji Ishihara have established reputations for musical excellence. Takeshita and Ishihara perform improvised music together in their duo project, Tumo. In 2017 Tumo gave a series of four concerts at Ftarri in which they performed composed works. On the occasion of a visit to Japan by Chilean guitarist Cristián Alvear, the duo performed “DosCuatro” [2017], a text score work they had commissio…