Reissues
Batztoutai Mix
The "Batztoutai" period represents a significant evolution in Merzbow's methodology - a turning point that would influence countless subsequent artists. Moving beyond the collage-heavy approach of earlier years, Akita began incorporating record scratching and sampling in more rhythmic, cut-up configurations. This shift was partly technological: new sampling equipment enabled unprecedented manipulation precision.
The late 1980s saw Akita acquiring increasingly sophisticated tools - samplers, effe…
Antimony
Named for the toxic metallic element with a long history in alchemy and medicine, Antimony embodies the corrosive, transformative power of Merzbow's mid-80s work. Throughout history, antimony has occupied a liminal position: useful in small doses, deadly in excess, capable of both healing and harm. Medieval alchemists prized it for its ability to purify gold, while Renaissance physicians employed it despite knowing its dangers.
Akita's noise operates similarly - like alchemists seeking to transf…
Agni Hotra (2nd Mix)
Agni Hotra" references the ancient Vedic fire ritual - one of Hinduism's oldest ceremonies, performed at sunrise and sunset to purify the environment and establish cosmic harmony. By invoking this concept, Akita suggests that Merzbow's harsh frequencies might serve purifying rather than merely destructive functions. The fire ritual burns away impurities, leaving clarity and renewal in its wake.
This alternate mix reveals how studio decisions shape ostensibly "raw" noise - the fire ritual metapho…
Age Of 369
By the mid-1980s, Merzbow had established itself as a defining voice in the emerging global noise underground. International cassette-trading networks carried Akita's recordings across borders, connecting Tokyo's experimental scene with kindred spirits worldwide. Age Of 369 documents this confident period - the numerological title invites esoteric interpretation, as 369 appears in various mystical traditions, most notably Nikola Tesla's theories about universal patterns.
The number 369 held part…
Le Sang Et La Rose
The French subtitle - "Blood and Rose" - evokes the surrealist and decadent literary traditions that have long influenced Masami Akita's aesthetic sensibility. From its inception, Merzbow has drawn on European avant-garde movements: Dadaism, Surrealism, Fluxus, and the transgressive literature of Georges Bataille and the Marquis de Sade. The lotus flower itself carries rich symbolic weight across Asian traditions - representing purity emerging from muddy waters, spiritual enlightenment rising fr…
Musick For Screen
The evocative title hints at Merzbow's engagement with visual media- Masami Akita has consistently maintained interests in film, photography, and visual art alongside his sonic practice. Musick For Screen suggests soundtracks for films that may never have existed - or perhaps for films of the mind. The archaic spelling "Musick" connects this work to pre-modern musical traditions, when sound, magic, and spiritual practice remained intertwined.
Expanded Musik 2
Expanded Musik (2) reflects the duo's growing ambition to push beyond conventional noise parameters into territories where sound becomes sculptural, architectural, almost tactile. The title references Gene Youngblood's concept of "Expanded Cinema"—the idea that film could transcend traditional constraints to become a total sensory experience. By extension, Akita's "Expanded Musik" suggests sound freed from musical conventions, operating on purely phenomenological terms.
Yantra Material Action
Yantra Material Action stands among the most significant documents of early Merzbow. Recorded during 1981—a watershed year that also produced Collection 010—this album captures the project at a moment of intense creative ferment. The "Yantra" concept, drawn from Hindu and Buddhist traditions, refers to geometric diagrams used as meditation aids. By invoking this concept, Akita signals his early interest in spiritual and philosophical frameworks as organizing principles for sonic chaos.
This reco…
Collection: 010
The "Collection" series holds legendary status in Merzbow historiography—a cornerstone of the project's early catalog that established methodologies Akita would refine for decades. Between 1981 and 1982, he released ten volumes on his own Lowest Music & Arts label, each created by mixing multiple tapes into dense sonic collages. Collection 010 represents the culmination of this early methodology.
Originally recorded on October 26, 1981—the same fertile year that produced Yantra Material Action—t…
Telecom Live
Another excavation from Merzbow's formative period, Telecom Live preserves the raw energy and experimental spirit that characterized the duo's earliest explorations. The "Telecom" title suggests communication systems—appropriate for recordings that document Akita and Mizutani developing their own sonic language, transmitting signals across the boundaries of conventional music.
The recordings crackle with the excitement of artists discovering a new sonic language in real-time. Unlike later Merzbo…
Cretin Merz
Cretin Merz emerges from the earliest Merzbow sessions, when the project existed as an improvisational duo exploring the boundaries between music, noise, and performance art. The provocative title—merging "cretin" with "Merz" (the Dadaist concept developed by Kurt Schwitters)—announces the irreverent spirit that has characterized Akita's work from its inception.
These recordings, previously recycled as raw material for other releases, appear here in their original unedited form for the first tim…
Por#1&2 Vol. 2
The second chapter documents Merzbow's genesis—the formative years when Masami Akita and Kiyoshi Mizutani were developing the sonic language that would reshape global underground music.
Por#1&2 Vol. 1
The first chapter documents Merzbow's genesis—the formative years when Masami Akita and Kiyoshi Mizutani were developing the sonic language that would reshape global underground music.
Tonight At Noon
"Tonight At Noon" compiles tracks from two earlier recordings sessions: one session from 1957 with Jimmy Knepper on the trombone, the drummer Dannie Richmond, Saxophone player Shafi Hadi and the pianist Wade Legge, which were released on the album "The Clown" (Atlantic 1260). The second session took place in 1961 with Booker Ervin and Roland Kirk on the saxophone, Knepper, the bassist Doug Watkins, Mingus at the piano and Richmond on the drums, and was released on "Oh Yeah" (Atlantic SD 1377).
T…
Layering Buddha
For AI-41 Astral Industries presents a vinyl reissue of Robert Henke’s multifaceted concept album ‘Layering Buddha’. An erudite masterclass on sampling and composition, ‘Layering Buddha’ encapsulates the material process of metamorphosis and a well of nascent, ever-present potentialities. This new edition comes remastered by Henke himself.
Originally released in 2006, ‘Layering Buddha’ began with a curious encounter with the ‘Buddha Machine’ - a pocket-sized, battery powered playback device tha…
Radio Lusaka
Includes deluxe 12-page booklet with unpublished photos, lyrics, translations, and liner notes written by NTS radio host Jamal Khadar. Before there was a Zambia, there was Alick Nkhata. Born in Kasama in 1922 to a Tonga father and Bemba mother, Nkhata would become the voice of a nation that did not yet exist - and help sing it into being. Vocalist, guitarist, bandleader, broadcaster, archivist, freedom fighter: he moved between these roles as effortlessly as he moved between lonesome country sli…
Percussion Bitter Sweet
August 1961. Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Max Roach - the man who reinvented jazz drumming alongside Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in the 1940s, the co-leader with Clifford Brown of the definitive hard bop quintet until tragedy struck in 1956 - enters the studio with something to say. Something that cannot wait. Something that demands a new language.
The year before, Roach had recorded We Insist! Freedom Now Suite for Candid Records, a searing response to the Civil Right…
Four For Trane
August 10, 1964. Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. A young saxophonist from Philadelphia enters the studio to record his first album as a leader for Impulse! Records. At his side, as co-producer, stands the man to whom he owes everything: John Coltrane. Archie Shepp was twenty-seven years old when Four For Trane was recorded - an age that in 1964 jazz still meant being an emerging voice. Born in Fort Lauderdale but raised in Philadelphia - the same Philadelphia as Coltrane, eleven…
LA Dusseldorf
Gatefold cover, blue vinyl. Düsseldorf. Düsseldorf. Düsseldorf. Düsseldorf. The mantra repeats for thirteen minutes, hypnotic as a highway journey, ecstatic as a stadium anthem. It's 1976 and Klaus Dinger - the drummer who invented the motorik beat, the man who alongside Michael Rother created Neu! and redefined the very concept of rhythm in rock - has a new machine to drive. He's christened it with the name of his hometown on the Rhine. And the first record he makes with this new formation is c…
Songs & Prayers From The Izaiho Ritual, Kudaka Island
* Includes a 28-page booklet with liner notes by Senri Miyazato in Japanese and English (English translation by Linda Havenstein) * Historical recording of the sacred Izaiho ritual, an inauguration ceremony of female priests held once in twelve years in Kudaka island, which is located approximately five kilometers east west from the Okinawa island. Izaiho ended in 1978 due to a lack of successors, and this is a recording of the final ritual.