Browse by Label: IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN (JAPAN)

Artist:	VA
Title:	Extra 2003
Label:	IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN (JAPAN)
Format:	BOOK/2CD
Price:	$21.00
Catalog #:	IMJ 302/3

"Bilingual English-Japanese. 128 pages in total. This is a special issue supplementing the well-received Improvised Music From Japan 2002-2003 (IMJ-301), the launch issue of an annual magazine (published last December). While the annual magazine provides an overview of the year's trends, each Extra will include an expansive special feature on a particular theme. The special feature of IMJ Extra 2003 is 'Improv's New Waves,' a close look at Japan's young improvisers (with an emphasis on electronics musicians). It contains a comprehensive essay by music critic Yoshio Otani, and interviews of artists like Taku Unami, com-yas and Tetsuro Yasunaga, BusRatch, Takefumi Naoshima, Kazumi Namba, asuna, and nentegaine, as well as articles on labels associated with these artists--Hibari Music, commune-disc, cubic music, and Flyrec. In addition to the special feature, Extra includes interviews of Ami Yoshida, Shoji Hano, and Katsura Yamauchi; a conversation between Tetuzi Akiyama and Toshimaru Nakamura; and a wealth of CD reviews. The two accompanying CDs contain 17 tracks by musicians presented in the special feature (asuna, Masafumi Ezaki, Takefumi Naoshima, Kazuhiro Kinoshita, Ju Muraoka, Masahide Tokunaga, DJ Peaky, DILL, Taku Unami, Taku Hannoda, nentegaine, aen, Yoichiro Shin, Kazumi Namba, Takumi Toki, Teruyuki Ohshima, and BusRatch), plus two bonus tracks--a sax solo by Katsura Yamauchi, and a duo by Shoji Hano and Masaharu Shoji (19 tracks in all)."

Artist:	VA
Title:	Improvised Music from Japan 2004
Label:	IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN (JAPAN)
Format:	BOOK/2CD
Price:	$30.00
Catalog #:	IMJ 304/5

"Here's Issue 2 of the annual periodical covering the improvised music scene in Japan. It's packed with artist interviews, musician-penned articles, essays by music critics, and CD reviews -- all in both English and Japanese. At a total of 192 pages, it's 30 pages fatter than Issue 1. Featured artists are Tetsu Saitoh, Michel Doneda, Kazue Sawai, Kazuo Imai, Aki Onda, Yumiko Tanaka, Samm Bennett, Tetuzi Akiyama, Haco, Uchihashi Kazuhisa, Ami Yoshida, Masahiko Okura, Sachiko M, Otomo Yoshihide, Taku Sugimoto, Luc Ferrari, Kang Tae Hwan, Park Je Chun, and Mi Yeon. All but one of the recordings on the attached CDs are previously unreleased. The 20 tracks (10 per disc) are by Four Color (Keiichi Sugimoto), Masahiko Okura, Shuichi Chino, Samm Bennett, Tetuzi Akiyama/Martin Ng, Yumiko Tanaka, Han Bennink/Kazuo Imai, Une Chance pour l'Ombre (Michel Doneda/Tetsu Saitoh/Kazue Sawai/Kazuo Imai/Le Quan Ninh), Optrum (Yoichiro Shin/Atsuhiro Ito), Naoaki Miyamoto, Sachiko M/Toshimaru Nakamura/Otomo Yoshihide, Mi Yeon, Park Je Chun, and Kang Tae Hwan."

Artist:	VA
Title:	Improvised Music from Japan Extra 2006 Special Berlin Issue
Label:	IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN (JAPAN)
Format:	BOOK/2CD
Price:	$26.00
Catalog #:	IMJ 308/9

"In Japanese only; 80 pages; 21cm (H) x 15cm (W); 2 CDs included. In addition to interviews of 12 musicians/1 group residing in Berlin (Gregor Hotz, Nicholas Bussmann, Merle Bennett, Thomas Ankersmit, Ignaz Schick, Hans Strobl, Pure, Annette Krebs, Andrea Neumann, Caramel Empties, Alessandro Bosetti, Boris Baltschun, and Kai Fagaschinski), this 'extra' issue of IMJ features 2 CDs with 18 tracks by a total of over 30 musicians, almost all of whom are Berlin residents: Adeline Rosenstein/Andrea Neumann, Annette Krebs/Steffi Weismann, Kommando Raumschiff Zitrone, Michael Thieke Unununium, Lucio Capece/Axel Doerner/Robin Hayward, Tunar, Alessandro Bosetti, Tony Buck/Andrea Neumann, Sink, Marzipan Marzipan, Kalkuel & Leidenschaft, Boris Hauf, Phillip Sollman, Thomas Ankersmit, Ignaz Schick/Jason Forrest, Burkhard Beins, Rechenzentrum, and blumm&tau. The interviews were conducted by Toshimaru Nakamura during a visit to Berlin in January 2005 (with the exception of the email interview of Annette Krebs by Taku Sugimoto, which took place between January and April 2006). In addition to discussing their musical activities, the artists share many of their thoughts about the Berlin scene. Their candid views reveal the dynamism that has characterized that scene since the late '90s. Berlin musician Nicholas Bussmann was in charge of the selection of artists for the accompanying CDs, and the result is an ideal compilation for those who want to know more about today's Berlin scene. Through the words and music of musicians on the scene, this issue explores the current situation of improvised music (and related genres) in Berlin."

Artist:	NAKAMURA/TETUZI AKIYAMA, TOSHIMARU
Title:	Meeting At Off Site Vol. 1
Label:	IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	IMJ 501

"Toshimaru Nakamura (no-input mixing board), Tetuzi Akiyama (guitar, turntable, contact microphones). With Ami Yoshida (voice), Brett Larner (amplified ukelin), Thomas Ankersmit (sax), Taku Sugimoto (guitar), Tetsuro Yasunaga (electronics), Toshihiro Koike (trombone), Utah Kawasaki (synthesizer), Jason Roeke (bass), Yoshihide Otomo (guitar), Gregor Hotz (sax), Michel Henritzi (MD players, electronics), Sachiko M (sampler with sinewave), and Bruno Meillier (synthesizer, electronics), Seymour Wright (sax)."

Artist:	OTOMO, YOSHIHIDE
Title:	Ensemble Cathode
Label:	IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	IMJ 502

"Taku Sugimoto: electric guitar, Tetuzi Akiyama: turntable without records, contact microphones, Yasuhiro Yoshigaki: waterphone, Kumiko Takara: snare drum, Masahiro Uemura: bells, Ami Yoshida: voice, Itoken: crotales, Mari Furuta: snare drum, Yoshimitsu Ichiraku: cymbal with bow, Sachiko M: sine waves, contact microphone, Yoko Nishi: prepared 17-string koto, Andrea Neumann: inside piano, Yoshihide Otomo: turntable." "This album was recorded intermittently between May 2001 and March 2002. Most of the tracks were recorded almost like live performances...In terms of musical concept, these pieces are located somewhere between Cathode and Anode. Although the musicians basically improvised, they were given a fairly limited amount of freedom. Depending on how you look at it, however, it could also be said that they were given a great deal of freedom. The pieces were created in such a way that the direction of the whole would not be determined by the will of any one musician or composer. This is similar to the way in which Anode was created. Like all of my works so far, none of these pieces could have been realized without the improvisational and compositional skills of the participating musicians. Thus, they are not 'composed works' in the narrow sense given to this term by traditional Western music; nor can they, in my view, be categorized simply as improvised music. All I can say is that for me, this is the most natural way to make music. The same goes for any type of work I do --jazz, turntable and guitar solos, and so on." - Otomo Yoshihide.

Artist:	MATTHEWS/ANDREA NEUMANN/SACHIKO M, KAFFE
Title:	In Case Of Fire Take The Stairs
Label:	IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	IMJ 503

Kaffe Matthews (laptop), Andrea Neumann (inside piano), Sachiko M (sinewaves, contact microphones). Recorded live in Tokyo, 3/17/02. "Although I and II include two and three tracks, respectively, each is a single work. They are divided into multiple tracks for listeners' convenience. Kaffe Matthews created her sound by live-sampling and processing her own and the other musicians' sounds as they played."

Artist:	YOSHIDA, AMI
Title:	Tiger Thrush
Label:	IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	IMJ 504

"The long-awaited solo album of amazing 'howling voice' performer Ami Yoshida is finally here. It's hard to believe Yoshida's sounds, with their myriad nuances, are those of a human voice -- they could easily be mistaken for minute digital noises. Over the past several years, this artist's work -- including projects with Yoshihide Otomo (guitar, turntable); and the duos Cosmos, with Sachiko M (sinewaves), and Astro Twin, with Utah Kawasaki (analog synthesizer) -- has garnered considerable attention on the improvised music scene both inside and outside Japan. Her 1997 release Spiritual Voice was a collaboration with the CD's producer, Tamaru (bass guitar, effects), so this is essentially Yoshida's first solo album. Consisting of 99 tracks, Tiger Thrush is a compendium of her extraordinary vocal powers. In her own words, it's 'like a pictorial dictionary, arranged by category, of the sounds [she is] currently able to produce'."

Artist:	HANO, SHOJI
Title:	48
Label:	IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	IMJ 505

"Drummer Shoji Hano began his performing career in the '80s, playing with artists like Toshinori Kondo (trumpet) and Kaoru Abe (alto sax, etc.). Since his first European tour in 1990, he has played in many countries and collaborated with a wide range of musicians. Some of Hano's performances with sax players Peter Brotzmann of Germany and the late Werner Ludi of Switzerland, American bassist William Parker, English guitarist Derek Bailey, etc., have been recorded on CD. As evidenced by his great collaboration with power sax player Brotzmann, Hano's drumming, with its amazing strength and speed, is situated firmly in the realm of free improvisation and free jazz; but it also has roots in the rhythmic style of the Kokura taiko drumming he grew up hearing at local festivals in his native Kokura, Kyushu. Hano has established an incomparable and absolutely inimitable style, and the clearest expression of his unique approach is undoubtedly in the drum solo. This performance was recorded live in March of this year at Bin Spark in Tokyo. It is Hano's first all-drum-solo album, and a superior document of the full range of his talent."

Artist:	NAKAMURA/TETUZI AKIYAMA, TOSHIMARU
Title:	Meeting At Off Site Vol. 2
Label:	IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	IMJ 506

"Tetuzi Akiyama plays amplified acoustic guitar on all tracks except #2 (turntable and air duster), and #7 (electric bass). Toshimaru Nakamura plays no-input mixing board on all tracks except #7 (tabletop guitar). Gallery Off Site in Yoyogi, Tokyo -- one of the world's most well known venues for performance of the new improvised music. Off Site's core event is the monthly improvisation series 'Meeting at Off Site', established and still hosted by Tetuzi Akiyama and Toshimaru Nakamura. Following the critical success (both domestic and international) of Vol. 1, released last year, this second CD of live recordings documents the period between December 2001 and May 2002. Like the first volume, it consists of excerpts from concerts by the two Meeting hosts, plus one or two guest musicians. The difference is that here, the excerpts are fewer and longer, allowing the listener to better appreciate each musician's unique style. This CD documents the musical evolution -- which one might even call the Off Site sound -- characterized by extreme quietness and sparsity of sound. This is an indispensable record of the improvised music avant-garde currently gaining worldwide attention."

Artist:	TANAKA, YUMIKO
Title:	Tayutauta
Label:	IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	IMJ 507

Yumiko Tanaka (Futozao Shamisen, vocal). "Yumiko Tanaka made her mark as a traditional shamisen artist specializing in the female-school gidayu style. Tanaka was a member of Otomo Yoshihide's Ground-Zero in 1996-'97, and she is currently involved in a number of fields, ranging from contemporary classical music to free improvisation to avant-garde theater. Among her many international activities, one of the most notable is her participation -- as both musician and actress -- in German composer Heiner Goebbels' acclaimed play Hashirigaki (now on a world tour). Surprisingly, this energetic and multi-faceted musician has to date released no solo or leader recordings -- making this collection of 10 totally improvised solo works a debut CD of sorts. On Tayutauta, Tanaka uses the gidayu shamisen in ways that leave traditional playing methods far behind. Here, the instrument's characteristic flavor is nowhere to be found. The performances -- which incorporate such techniques as plucking, bowing, and the use of 'prepared' objects -- are calm and sedate, but suffused with a strong feeling of cohesion backed by Tanaka's distinctive musical stance and sensibility. This is improvised music of rare quality."

Artist:	RAKU SUGIFATTI (RADU MALFATTI AND TAKU SUGIMOTO)
Title:	Futatsu
Label:	IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN (JAPAN)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	IMJ 508/9

"Vienna resident Radu Malfatti, who turns 60 in December, is a trombonist and composer with a long and impressive career. In the nineties he established the unique compositional/improvisational style, using very few sounds, that he continues to develop. Thirty-something guitarist Taku Sugimoto has since the late nineties followed a similar path, pursuing a playing style marked by extreme sonic spareness. His work has received critical acclaim in Japan and abroad and has greatly influenced many young Japanese musicians. Their 20-plus-year age difference notwithstanding, these two artists have made a powerful impact with their duo performances in Austria and their first Japan tour last December 2002. Futatsu is a two-CD set bringing together one studio piece and two live-performance recordings. The former is a mix (by Malfatti) of recordings the two made separately this year in Tokyo and Vienna. The live recordings are of performances that took place in 2003 in Vienna and on the 2002 Japan tour. In the studio work, sounds are set down one by one on a background of absolute silence. Despite settings that take in background noise and the sound of passing cars, their live performances are as quiet as ever. This amazing recording will give you a new perspective on the relationship between sound and silence."

Artist:	ONDA, AKI
Title:	Bon Voyage!
Label:	IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	IMJ 510

"Aki Onda's many activities since the nineties have included participating in the group Audio Sports, with Eye Yamatsuka and Nobukazu Takemura, and releasing albums under his own name, as well as producing recordings by numerous musicians in Japan and other countries. For three years beginning in 2000, Onda was a composer in residence at Dartmouth College (in New Hampshire). He recently shifted his base of activity to New York, where he is working with cassette recorders and electronics to create highly abstract, original works of music. To make this album, Onda spent two years editing a huge collection of field recordings that he'd amassed over a 14-year period (between 1988 and 2002), randomly taping sounds in locations around the world. To Onda, this is both a document and a memory of a personal journey. Various sounds--a city's hustle and bustle, the chirping of birds, music being played, children's voices--are layered one atop another. Except for the last track, there is little in the way of what would normally be called a 'work of music.' On the other hand, no work digs so painfully deeply into the interior of the artist Onda."

Artist:	YOSHIHIDE/PARK JE CHUN/MI YEON, OTOMO
Title:	Loose Community
Label:	IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	IMJ 511

"Otomo Yoshide (turntables, guitar) is active on a worldwide scale in such fields as free improvisation, composition, and film music. On a trip to Seoul in May of 2002, Otomo made a studio recording with Seoul musicians Park Je Chun (percussion) and Mi Yeon (piano). Known as a brilliant student of Kang Tae Hwan, the pioneer of the Korean improvised music scene, Park was formerly a member of Kang's band. Mi Yeon, an artist firmly grounded in contemporary classical music, has collaborated with Park for a number of years. Some of the five works on this CD are partially overdubbed with separately recorded improvisations by Gunter Muller (electronics, selected drums), Sachiko M (sine waves), and Yumiko Tanaka (futozao shamisen). This is Otomo's first trio project with percussion and piano, as well as one of his rare collaborations with Korean musicians. The tension-filled performances are superb. This uniquely fascinating recording should not be missed."

Artist:	BROTZMANN/SHOJI HANO, PETER
Title:	Funny Rat
Label:	IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	IMJ 512

"Free jazz drummer Shoji Hano and German saxophone giant/leading European free improviser Peter Brotzmann first met in Japan in the early eighties. In 1990 Hano went to Europe for the first time and played with Brotzmann; then he invited Brotzmann to Japan for a duo tour in fall '91. This album is the complete recording of a concert they gave during that tour, at Aku Aku in Tsukuba. In '92 Hano released (on his label EGG) a cassette tape of that performance, with the same title, omitting one of the pieces played in the concert. The omitted number is restored on this CD release (track four), making for a total of five pieces. Since that tour Hano and Brotzmann have continued to play together frequently. This valuable recording captures the powerful collaboration of that early period."

Artist:	NAKAMURA, TOSHIMARU
Title:	Side Guitar
Label:	IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$18.00
Catalog #:	IMJ 513

"Toshimaru Nakamura's main instrument of late has been what he calls the 'no-input mixing board.' Rather than input external sound sources into the mixer, he treats it as a self-contained instrument by controlling its internal feedback -- the result being a truly original performance style. Over the past four years, Nakamura has released the solo NIMB CDs No-Input Mixing Board (on the Zero Gravity label), No-Input Mixing Board 2 (a bruit secret), Vehicle (cubic music), and No-Input Mixing Board [3] (Alcohol). These releases and his many live performances in Japan and abroad have been widely acclaimed. But Nakamura started out as a guitarist, and still plays his guitar from time to time. Side Guitar is the solo guitar album he's been itching to make. The title comes from the term used in the sixties and seventies, in the heyday of Japanese 'Group Sounds' bands, for backup -- or rhythm -- guitar players. This is Nakamura's homage to the 'side guitar' playing he once aspired to. Don't be misled, however, by the album title, or by the track title 'Rhythm Guitar'. This is still the Nakamura of the no-input mixing board: the sound, consisting mainly of feedback from the guitar, is uniquely abstract. As you listen, you'll catch sight of a musician who remembers his 'side guitar' -- idolizing self of 30 years ago as he pursues the joy of making sound."

Artist:	BENNINK/KAZUO IMAI, HAN
Title:	Across The Desert
Label:	IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$18.00
Catalog #:	IMJ 514

"European free jazz/free improvisation pioneer Han Bennink (drums) made this studio recording with Kazuo Imai (guitar) in Tokyo in May of 2002. Imai, who in the '70s studied with Masayuki Takayanagi and Takehisa Kosugi, currently performs both on his own and with the annual five-member collective improvisation project Marginal Consort. Across the Desert contains nine duo pieces. Imai plays both acoustic and electric guitar while Bennink delivers strong, constantly changing rhythms. Here are two musicians who know their instruments inside out. Their unique affinity is powerfully conveyed in these dynamic exchanges."

Artist:	NAKAMURA/TETUZI AKIYAMA, TOSHIMARU
Title:	Meeting at Off Site Vol. 3
Label:	IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$18.00
Catalog #:	IMJ 515

"Gallery Off Site in Yoyogi, Tokyo, is one of the world's most well known venues for new improvised music. Meeting at Off Site, the monthly improvisational performance series hosted by Tetuzi Akiyama and Toshimaru Nakamura, has in recent years been Off Site's main event. The six tracks on this CD are edited recordings of the Meetings of May through October, 2002. This is the final collection of original-format Meetings, in which hosts Akiyama and Nakamura improvised with one or two guest musicians from Japan or overseas. (Subsequently, the format was changed to a solo session by a guest musician.) In other words, it is the final segment of a trilogy. Here is the 'Off Site sound,' characterized by extreme quietness and sparsity of sound. As a document of internationally recognized cutting-edge improvised music, Meeting at Off Site Vol. 3 should not be missed. Guest musicians are Hakon Kornstad, Masafumi Ezaki, o.blaat, Sachiko M, Oren Ambarchi, Keiichi Sugimoto, Paul Hood, and Gunter Muller."

Artist:	BENNETT, SAMM
Title:	Secrets of Teaching Yourself Music
Label:	IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	IMJ 516

Samm Bennett (Korg WaveDrum, vibrators and contact mics, Korg ER-1, Alesis AirSynth, Casio VL-Tone, CD player, Bias, bumble ball, can, gong, beepers, effectors and crank-toy with portable karaoke mic). "Percussionist Samm Bennett was active on the New York improvised music scene in the '80s and '90s. Later he moved to Tokyo, where he's been involved in multidirectional projects including SKIST (his duo with Haruna Ito) and R.U.B. (his trio with Kazuhisa Uchihashi and Ned Rothenberg). From early on, Bennett has explored the fusion of acoustic and electronic. At the same time, he's employed a variety of materials -- electronic drums like the Korg WaveDrum (his main instrument), household products, toys and so on -- in the creation of a highly original, richly colored sound that subtly combines humor and seriousness. While the playful title suggests that anyone, regardless of talent or experience, can enjoy making music with familiar objects, what this album of 19 tracks (almost all live recordings) makes abundantly clear are Bennett's fine musicianship and excellent taste. Bennett has released quite a few leader and co-leader recordings, but this is only his second solo album to date -- his first since 1984. It's worth the 20-year wait."

Artist:	M, SACHIKO
Title:	Bar Sachiko
Label:	IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	IMJ 517

Sachiko M with two sinewaves on one empty sampler. "Sachiko M is a musician who uses the sampler as an instrument. Rather than apply the device's original function of sampling recorded material, she makes music using nothing but its internal test tone sine waves. Her approach to this radically minimalistic sound and meticulously thorough music has created a sensation worldwide. Currently one of the most sought-after improvisers on the scene, Sachiko M collaborates with influential artists both inside and outside Japan. Her projects include Filament, a duo with Otomo Yoshide, and Cosmos, a duo with Ami Yoshida. This is Sachiko M's third solo album, following Sine Wave Solo (Amoebic) and Derive (Noise Asia). While the two earlier recordings are made up entirely of short tracks, Bar Sachiko is a single 60-minute performance using just two sine waves. A shocking creation."

Artist:	OKURA, MASAHIKO
Title:	Time Service
Label:	IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	IMJ 518

"Over the past few years, alto sax player Masahiko Okura has led an astonishingly full and varied musical life. Active as a soloist, as leader of the jazz-rock band Gnu, and as a member of the improvisational trio Bject (with Tetuzi Akiyama and Utah Kawasaki), he also collaborates with many other improvisers, including Otomo Yoshihide, Taku Sugimoto, Ami Yoshida, Axel D�rner, Alessandro Bosetti, Werner Dafeldecker, and G�nter M�ller. With the recent addition to his repertoire of two more instruments --the bass clarinet and the 'tube,' a reed instrument of his own invention made from a tube and a mouthpiece -- he has further enriched his musical vocabulary. Okura has released three CDs with Gnu and two with Bject. Time Service is his very first solo album. None of its six tracks contain the slightest trace of Gnu's pop sensibility. This is a highly abstract work that brings out the subtle tones and resonance of the alto sax, bass clarinet, and tube, and illuminates Okura's unique musicianship. A masterpiece."

Artist:	AKIYAMA AND MARTIN NG, TETUZI
Title:	Oimacta
Label:	IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	IMJ 519

"Tetuzi Akiyama has in recent years attracted tremendous interest on the Japanese and international improvised music scenes. In addition to performing many times in Europe, America, Australia, and New Zealand, he's been releasing a steady stream of solo and group recordings on these countries' labels. Oimacta, a duo album he recorded in a Sydney studio with Martin Ng (turntable feedback), promises to become one of his most widely recognized works. Akiyama's instrument here is the acoustic guitar. Ng, who lived in Sydney at the time of recording and has since moved to the U.S., is known for his duo album with Sydney guitarist Oren Ambarchi, and for his participation, along with Martin T�treault and Otomo Yoshihide, in the 'Turntable Hell' UK tour of May '02. If you didn't know beforehand what instruments the musicians were playing on these four tracks, you'd be hard put to identify the sources of their sound. Its rich colors, and the mysterious atmosphere it evokes, are awe-inspiring."

Artist:	HIDEKI/JAMES FEI, KATO
Title:	Sieves
Label:	IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	IMJ 522

Kato Hideki: electric bass and bass synthesizer; James Fei: oscillators, filters, spring reverb, contact mike, and miscellaneous electronics. "Based in New York City since 1992, Kato Hideki -- a former member of Otomo Yoshihide's group Ground-Zero and Tony Buck's band Peril -- has been involved in myriad projects in America and Europe, including Fred Frith and Ikue Mori's Death Ambient, and a multimedia collaboration with Nicholas Collins. Taiwan-born James Fei studied with Alvin Lucier and Anthony Braxton following his move to the U.S. (also in '92). Now living in New York, he's active as a composer and improviser, and as an instructor at Columbia University's Computer Music Center. Fei is also a sax player, although he doesn't use the instrument on this album. In recent years, Kato and Fei have been performing as a duo at live music venues and galleries in New York. Sieves was made through a process of excerpting, editing, mixing, and mastering electronic performance and recording using feedback; live-performance-like analog mixes; and performance-recording of acoustic reverberation. Not limited to mere documentation and editing, the recording process was treated as a form of improvisation and composition."

Artist:	HACO
Title:	Stereo Bugscope 00
Label:	IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	IMJ 523

"Starting with her work in After Dinner in the '80s, up to her current activity as a soloist and in projects like the female trio Hoahio, and Yesterday's Heroes, with Terre Thaemlitz, Haco has long been the reigning songstress of avant-garde music. But she isn't only a highly acclaimed vocalist and composer/lyricist; in recent years she's been exploring areas unrelated to vocalizing or pop melodies, with projects that focus on the sounds that surround us in our daily lives. One of these is View Masters ('the sound collection and observation organization'), which produces a large-scale annual event; another is Stereo Bugscope, which is documented on this album. The name 'Stereo Bugscope' refers to a performance system that detects oscillating sounds emitted by the circuitry of electronic devices. It also signifies the act of listening to the electromagnetic world that emerges from the inside of devices such as computers, cell phones, MD players, and wireless routers through the use of two inductive microphones (pickups). The oscillating-circuit sounds come from the IC board and clock, and the electromagnetic noise comes from the electrical current that turns the fan and drives the motor. These signals are ordinarily so faint as to be inaudible. The sound is then electronically amplified, which makes it at first seem very extreme, but at the same time amazingly beautiful."

Artist:	SUGIMOTO, TAKU
Title:	Live in Australia
Label:	IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN (JAPAN)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	IMJ 524/5

"Taku Sugimoto is an extremely restrained guitarist who produces very few sounds in performance, allowing silence to be the controlling force. As an improviser and composer, he's garnered international acclaim, and also provoked strong reactions, both positive and negative. This two-CD set documents Sugimoto's live performances, in Australia in September 2003, of two of his own compositions (one per CD): 'Dot (73)' and 'Music for Amplified Guitar.' Environmental sounds -- listeners' coughs, footsteps, and chair scraping, as well as noises from outside -- make their way clearly and naturally into Sugimoto's live concerts. Occasionally there's a sound from his guitar; it's as if he were collaborating with the sounds around him. This is very much the case on Live in Australia, and particularly on Disc 1. As the performance began, so did a rain shower, which grew more intense, filling the space with a sound like white noise. Over this background noise, Sugimoto quietly plucked a handful of short sounds. The set includes a long (1,000+ word) essay by Sugimoto that sheds new light on his musical ideas."

Artist:	FILIP/TOSHIMARU NAKAMURA, KLAUS
Title:	aluk
Label:	IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	IMJ 526CD

"Vienna artist Klaus Filip plays music using nothing but sine waves produced with 'lloopp,' an improvisation software program he invented and continues to refine. Toshimaru Nakamura makes music simply by controlling a mixing board's internal feedback, inputting no external sounds. Two artists with highly individual playing methods, they came together to create this album of improvisational works. Two of the three tracks were recorded in a Tokyo studio in May of 2005, when Filip came to Japan along with trombonist Radu Malfatti. The third was studio-recorded the following June, when Nakamura in turn visited Vienna. The performances move along in a calm, detached manner, but also contain exquisite warmth and tension born of the whispering and murmuring of electronic sounds. A kind of sound that could only come from these two artists."

Artist:	LABROSSE/MARTIN TETREAULT/HACO, DIANE
Title:	Lunch in Nishinomiya
Label:	IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	IMJ 527

"In the trio album Lunch in Nishinomiya, Haco (contact microphones, oscillators, effects) joins forces with two leading Montreal improvisers known for their innovative playing -- Diane Labrosse (sampler) and Martin T�treault (turntable, surfaces, small electronics). When Labrosse and T�treault came to Japan in 2003, they found a kindred spirit in Haco. The three recorded an improvised music session at Haco's studio in Nishinomiya (near Osaka), and later completed the construction and mix through an e-mail exchange between Canada and Japan. This is not Haco the songstress. With exquisite balance, the trio combine a variety of grating, explosive, scraping, vibrating sounds (noises) with precise breathing and dynamism, tension and relaxation. The result is extremely delicate electroacoustic sound."

Artist:	YAMAUCHI/MICHEL DONEDA, KATSURA
Title:	La Drache
Label:	IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	IMJ 528

"Alto sax player Katsura Yamauchi was born in Oita, Kyushu, in 1954. In 2002 he quit his company job to become a full-time musician, and each year since '03 has traveled to Europe and strengthened his ties with musicians in France, Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland, and so on. In the process he met and found a kindred spirit in one of France's leading improvisers, soprano/sopranino saxophonist Michel Doneda (who happens to be the same age as Yamauchi). They've played together many times since. Both musicians have performance styles characterized by a total absence of melodious phrases and a constant exploration of the nature of sound. Continuing in this direction, La Drache is permeated throughout with fresh yet tension-filled sound structures. All five tracks were recorded in France in 2004."

Artist:	UMEDA, TETSUYA
Title:	Ocket
Label:	IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	IMJ 701CD

"This is the debut album of Osaka-based sound artist Tetsuya Umeda (born in 1980). Active mainly in the fields of sound installation and performance, Umeda presents works that invariably explore the character of a particular space through physical phenomena and electricity-induced minimal movement. Ocket is made up of nine performance works produced and recorded in 2003-04 and featuring Umeda's self-made speaker tool. The impression of viewing the sound from the space above results in an effect that is closer to 'observation' than to 'performing.' Through this experimental endeavor, each track attains an unimaginably beautiful, prismatic resonance. Stimulating."

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