PRICE:
$20.00
IN STOCK
ARTIST
TITLE
Ho-aku
FORMAT
CD

LABEL
CATALOG #
EM 1125CD EM 1125CD
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
5/27/2014

An enigma. A band records their second album in 1985, but sits on it for 29 years and releases it as a new album, not a "lost gem," in 2014. The authors of this enigma are known as Inryo-fuen, a Japanese trio formed in 1978, meeting via a Surrealism circle in Yokohama. With the intent of applying the Surrealist idea of Automatic Writing to sound, they began performing their improvised music in 1980, with their first performance at the legendary Tokyo venue Minor, which was run by Takashi Sato of Pinakotheca Records. This second album was recorded after the release of an LP and several singles during the period 1980-1984. The trio of Jun Harada (drums), Naoyuki Masuda (guitar), Masamichi Oyama (keyboard), although involved in the Tokyo/Yokohama underground/independent rock scene, were seemingly sui generis, avoiding punk and post-punk stylistic style-markers, yet decidedly not a part of any synth-pop or electro movements, either. This album, Ho-aku, was recorded in 1985. In the studio, the band projected slides of photos which Masuda had taken in Spain, and used these images as a springboard for the recording process. Still active, the band is, in all likelihood, the longest-running fixed-personnel improvised music group in Japan. Inryo-fuen's Ho-Aku. A new album. Recorded in 1985. Experience the enigma.