New Arrivals
Standing Waters
The Italian guitarist Maurizio Abate is a rare breed - an experimental musician from Europe working within, and expanding the American tradition of Guitar Soli, an idiom first pioneered by John Fahey. Abate initially emerged within a diverse series of collaborative released over a decade ago, but, as the years passed, a love for his instrument, with inspiration provided by Fahey’s indication of its potential for application as a one man orchestra, prompted to him to embark on a pursuit of solo …
Re-Verbed (No-Input Mixing Board 9)
Re-Verbed (No-Input Mixing Board 9) is the latest edition from Tokyo-based artist Toshimaru Nakamura. The "No-Input Mixing Board" is a unique instrument pioneered by Nakamura. As its name suggests, it is a mixing console within which external no input exists. The instrument is fueled only by its own feedback. Initially used by Nakamura as a more tonal instrument, creating incredibly high frequency outputs, over time the mixing board has become decidedly more rhythmic and harmonic. It is this son…
Ke I Te Ki
Room40 release Akio Suzuki and Aki Onda's Ke I Te Ki. "Akio Suzuki and I have been performing together frequently for the last five years; we have a tendency to perceive sound as space, or to always consider sound in relation to space. We don't usually hear sound sources as they actually are, since they are always modified by a space's acoustics and its reflections, absorptions, and attenuation. Sound is affected by the conditions and characteristics of a particular setting. We respond to the ex…
Unearth
Unearth is the first solo recording from Australian born, Berlin based composer and drummer Tony Buck in 15 years. Many would recognize Buck from his work with the iconic Australia avant trio The Necks. His history as a player however reaches much further than this engagement. Over the past few decades, Tony has cultivated a language that escapes easy categorization. With Unearth, he delivers his most accomplished solo composition. Built across several years, the record is the culmination of his…
Smoke Under The Water
"I confess to being in a state of ceaseless awe when it comes to Tokyo guitarist, Ueno Takashi. I have had the pleasure to know Ueno now for well over ten years. In that time he has remained a source of constant curiosity and surprise. Just when I think I have the man pegged, he throws out some unexpected musical gesture that completely catches me off guard. Whether it be his work with Saya in Tenniscoats, or his almost endless stream of solo releases, many of which exist in very short run editi…
Gaseneta
"Good things come to those who wait. It's a yellowing cliche but it also applies handily to the life, death, and eventual rebirth of Tokyo's Gaseneta. Formed at university in 1977, the volatile quartet barely lasted long enough to compose four perfect songs, none of which were released during the band's two-year existence. But the music's influence on subsequent generations of punk, psych, and avant-garage rockers belies such inauspicious beginnings. Jun Hamano's prickly, high-velocity guitar sp…
Nihon No Wave
Limited edition of 525 copies on double vinyl with printed inner sleeves and insert with photos and credits. Housed in a deluxe jacket designed with synthetic paper silk-screened and sewn. Nihon No Wave’ surveys a secretive niche of ’70s/‘80s Japanese DIY music inspired by experimental electronic and post punk styles from Europe and North America. All material originally appeared on flexidisc, vinyl and tapes, and is newly remastered and made available for the first time beyond the Japanese dome…
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. Toshihiro Koike is a trombone player who lives in Nagoya. He is the leader of the trio Fuigo, whose other members are Kanji Nakao and Takero Sekijima; and he is also a member of the Satoko Fujii Orchestra. His improvised performances freely using expanded p…
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…
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…
Grains
4th solo disc by Swedish composer Åke Parmerud. Rerelease of 4 of his major acousmatic works. These works had been recorded in 1994 and ’96 on discs that have been sold out for many years. “Grains of Voices” (1994-95). “Jeux imaginaires” (1993). “Les objets obscurs” (1991). “Alias” (1990). Åke Parmerud has successfully pursued a professional career in contemporary music and multimedia art since the late 70s. Although he originally trained as a photographer (1972-74) he went on to study music at …
Cabinets de Curiosité
“Wunderkammern or ‘cabinets of curiosities,’ of the 16th and 17th centuries, were fabulous collections of objects brought together, ordered and displayed to inspire curiosity and wonder. They might include religious relics, stuffed birds and animals, shells, artefacts from distant and ancient cultures, mineral and plant specimens, paintings and drawings. In fact, almost anything. As a small boy, the ‘cabinet of curiosity’ that intrigued me was the large, tabletop radio in our kitchen, with its ‘…
Cycle Nautique
3rd solo album by Canadian composer David Berezan living in the United Kingdom. “Nautical Cycle” (2011-17). After completing a BA in History (1988) at the University of Calgary, a Diploma in Composition (1996) at Grant MacEwan College (Edmonton) and an MMus in Composition (2000) at the University of Calgary, David Berezan moved to the UK and completed a PhD in Electroacoustic Composition (2003) at the University of Birmingham (UK). In 2012 he was appointed Professor in Electroacoustic Music Comp…
Mistpouffers
Mistpouffers is a selection of three compositions completed between 2014-16, composed by French artist and improviser eRikm. Each piece runs approximately 17-18 minutes in length with two based on 8-channel fixed medium and one in stereo. “Draugalimur” (2014-15, 16). Draugalimur (Phantom Limb, in English) is a crossing from the intimate to vast open spaces, traversed by the elements in motion. Ice, air, gas and fire are in perpetual activity in the chaotic and primitive far off. It resembles the…
Troubles
Monique Jean is a composer whose
dense and raw sound universe will inevitably deeply engage the
listener. Her musical discourse is flawless, meticulously written,
giving sound the time needed to accurately deploy in all its sensory
perception. It is An honest sensory, refusing routine, is giving each
pieces of this disc a unique color. This is her third full-length effort with Canadian imprint empreintes DIGITALes, it was mastered by Christian Bouchard and offers two works on Troubles: T.A.…
Ténébrisme
Adam Stanović (né Stansbie) started composing electronic music over twenty years ago. Initial experiments with tape recorders and a four-track mini-disc player led him to read music and technology at both Leeds College of Music (England, UK) and University of Leeds (England, UK), where he was introduced to computer music by Dale Jonathan Perkins. During this time, he started to enjoy international performances of his musical works, and he ultimately graduated with a university prize for outstand…
07043016
With their name compressed into MMMD deliver the debut album
of Modal Analysis, brought by the Greek experimental band itself. Nikos Veliotis and Ilios are currently performing as
the MMMD duo, with further focus on deep monolithic sounds, low
frequencies, inter-modulations, dark textures, and distant folk nuances
through custom made instruments (Cello & Electronic Bass) and
software.
Recorded live at St.Paul's Anglican Church, Athens
Field Music
A fluid dream logic runs deep in William Fowler Collins’ Field Music.
The New Mexican composer of dark minimalism has long centered his
practices upon the slow burn of the drone through guitar, electronics,
etc. That remains the case for Field Music, with Collins extending his
strategies through compositional exercises into rhythm and a diverse
array of conceptual signposts that push his work along unfixed, sometime
oppositional directions. The idea of ‘field music’ can relate to the
arch…
Ecce Homo
Ipek Gorgun's Ecce Homo explores the lighter and darker shades of the human psyche, behavior, and existence, and humanity's ability to create beauty and destruction. What lies in the essence of such complexity has become a core idea for the album, while Gorgun seeks to figure out if there is a true meaning to being human, and human being. Starting with "Neroli" as a human fascination with nature and finalizing with "To Cross Great Rivers"; a never-ending, hopeless dream of the mankind to conquer…
Spring Bloom in the Marginal Ice Zone
Touch issues Jana Winderen's Spring Bloom In The Marginal Ice Zone.
The marginal ice zone is the dynamic border between the open sea and
the sea ice, which is ecologically extremely vulnerable. The
phytoplankton present in the sea produces half of the oxygen on the
planet. During spring, this zone is the most important CO2 sink in our
biosphere. On Spring Bloom In The Marginal Ice Zone the sounds of
the living creatures become a voice in the current political debate
concerning the officia…