Toshiji Mikawa

Pioneer, innovator and visionary are words easily associated with Toshiji Mikawa. One of the prime movers of Japanese noise, he started his musical activities in the late 1970s and joined the legendary and notorious Hijokaidan. In 1981 he formed Incapacitants to pursue his interest in pure noise, in contrast to the more performance art oriented Hijokaidan of that time. Initially a solo project, later he was joined by Fumio Kosakai to make Incapacitants a duo that has been widely acknowledged for their extreme sound and intense live performances.
Gyo-Kai Elegy is the debut CD release under Mikawa's own name. It grants us a close-up view of his sound which is normally immersed inside Incapacitants' mighty sound structures. We get highly detailed, unforgiving electric annihilation, invoking images of imaginary lifeforms trapped inside cages of silicon crystals. Occasionally the sound expands into juggernaut drones or floats away into a cavernous space that seems to be inhabited by morbid bats screaming at piercing sub-ultrasonic frequencies. Once again, Mikawa-san shows us all how to create noise with intensity, perspective and character without a hint of compromise.