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OP 012CD
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Atsuhiro Ito, visual artist and sound performer, has performed live many times. This CD comprises two Tokyo performances; for the first, at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art in 2009, Ito used his handmade "fluorescent lamp" instrument (OPTRON) and some junk objects that were exhibited as an installation. The second performance, at Vacant in 2010, was created with a female actor and tech-noise unit Miclo Diet, mixing Ito's OPTRON junk noise and the industrial rhythms of Miclo Diet. Cover artwork by Ito. Cardboard sleeve. Limited edition of 280 copies.
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OPA 020CD
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The details of Shikisokuzekuu-Kuusokuzeshiki (1964) are unknown except that it was created at the NHK electronic music studio. According to Toshi Ichiyanagi, there were various discussions about the title, but it would seem to have been eventually broadcasted on the radio with the title Kuu after a producer renamed it. Here, the original title is used, following Ichiyanagi's initial intention. This work has no relation to the short experimental film Shikisokuzekuu (1974), produced by filmmaker Toshio Matsumoto with tape music by Ichiyanagi. Extended Voices was released in 1967 on the Extended Voices LP on Columbia's Odyssey sublabel; a new version mixing baritone voices of Takashi Matsudaira to a monaural tape part was released by Omega Point in 2014 (OPX 013CD), but since the stereo version was found later, it is added here as a tape work without voice. Tape recording provided by Gregor Meyer. Gatefold cardboard sleeve. Liner notes in Japanese and English. Edition of 500 copies.
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OP 013LP
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Needless to say, Akio Suzuki is one of the representative sound artists in Japan. Many of his previous releases are sometimes interpreted as the work of a hermit or wizard creating beautiful sounds with his self-made musical instrument called "Analapos," glass harmonica (De Koolmees), and stone flute, but the title of Suzuki's first sound piece, aidan ni Mono wo Nageru (Throwing Things at the Stairs) at Nagoya Station in 1963, reflects his perspective on the noises in his work. This LP consists of two 2009 performances created with the use of radio. "Howling Objects," with reverberation of a large museum space, and "a i sha," in which the radio moves throughout the museum, can be noise itself, but they exist in accordance with the method of "Oto-date" and "Tadori" for which Suzuki has been continuously searching. Here, an approach to Suzuki's hardcore sound in his nature is surely concentrated. "It was at a solo exhibition in the Minamigaro gallery in Nihonbashi, Tokyo in 1976 when I held the premiere showing of 'Howling Objects'. When I inserted the microphone into the cylinder of the stand type Analapos, and played echo sound, I was surprised to cause a howling. From that incident, I arranged iron 'wappa' boxes (cylindrical containers formed by bending a thin plate), inserted two wireless microphones with echoes in the boxes and moved the position of the boxes to search for a sound. ... In the performance I did at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, I used roll papers, microphones and radios to revisit 'Howling Objects'. These radios and microphones used from the 1970s have been increasingly degraded in recent years, so this performance has become the last one. 'a i sha' is a performance in which the two radios used in 'Howling Objects' are loaded onto a small dolly and moved around the museum. After setting the radios to AM, selecting the noise wavelengths and tuning the two radios to be able to hear an interesting rhythm, I adjust the volume to an appropriate level and start. As the sound landscape changes by the directionality of radio by moving over to a corridor, wide space and a window, I share the sound field with the people who happen to be there by chance and the people chasing the dolly" --Akio Suzuki. Full-color cover photo on sleeve. New liner notes in Japanese and English by Suzuki. Limited edition of 250.
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OPA 019CD
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"Kumo no Ito" (trans. "The Spider's Thread): "In 1977 I started the project of a musical piece for a female narrator and 4-channel electronic sounds using the text of the well-known Akutagawa novel. I worked with a hand-made analog synthesizer which had been installed two years before in my home studio in Tokyo. Needless to say, the editing was done without digital machines. I worked with the recorded tapes together with scissors and splicing tape. It was the resonance-adding apparatus that I operated which was very important as a sound effect. The part for the synthesizer was made manually, recording the short fragments and collecting them onto one tape through several tape recorders. My studio was full of a lot of tape fragments. I think the situation in those days was stupendous but I didn't feel distress. The manual procedure was usual at that time, so I could rather enjoy the process of advancing towards the goal step by step. After the long term of manual work, I completed a 4-channel 10" tape of 7mm width which should be played 38cm per second. The original novel Kumo no Ito was translated into several languages. I have worked with the text narrations in German, French and Italian etc., but now I have only the German version recording." --Hiroaki Minami (Reading: Setsuko Kawauchi).
"Chaos": "In 1966 I composed a piece of concrète music titled "Taiyo-fu" (trans. "Solar Wind"). It was to be staged as a performance by the Tokyo-based Mieko Fuji Dance Company. The dance performance participated in the National Arts Festival of Agency for Cultural Affairs. The stage concept was to create a new modern dance which suggested that the sun would be perpetually pouring all the energy of light, heat and wind to the earth. I made the music by manipulating the materials of the recorded instrumental sounds, not of the concrète sounds. With the idea of applying the editing and modifying methods of concrète music to the recorded instrumental sounds, I had started with composing a lot of fragments, and then I played them and recorded in our recording studio. Some students from the Tokyo College of Music, where I worked as a teacher, helped me as musical performers. The recorded sound materials were operated in my private studio. Manipulating several tape recorders, I tried to produce the sounds that could not be identified as the original instruments. Thus I created the 70-minute stage music. Fifty years have passed and the digital technology is now easy to access. But I remember the process of my manual operation and I can't wipe the commitment to the music of "Taiyo-fu." Nevertheless, I think the music is too monotonous to be appreciated without dance. So I re-constructed a piece with the sound materials of "Taiyo-fu." The basic idea concerns the cosmic world and the title of the piece is "Chaos." This "Chaos" comes from my illusions about the primordial universe. --Hiroaki Minami; English translated by Mimako Mizuno. Cardboard paper gatefold sleeve. Newly-written liner notes by the artist in Japanese & English. Limited edition of 300 copies.
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OPX 013CD
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Omega Point had obtained the original tape recording of "Extended Voices" composed by Toshi Ichiyanagi (first released by Odyssey/Columbia in 1967 on the compilation of the same name, alongside other pieces for voice & electronics by Pauline Oliveros, Morton Feldman, John Cage, Robert Ashley and Alvin Lucier). The piece consists of electronic sounds and modulated voices which are included on this album in two new 2014 realizations, in collaboration with Takashi Matsudaira, a baritone singer. The CD also adds experimental pieces selected by Matsudaira as well as his own original work, allowing the label to construct "an anthology of extended voices," partially as an homage to the original LP. Features Toshi Ichiyanagi's "Extended Voices (New Version #1)" (1967/2014); John Cage's "Ryoanji" (1983-1985), Takashi Matsudaira's "Shiroi Shojo (A Girl in White) (2014); Shigeru Matsui's "*" (2007); Toshi Ichiyanagi's "Extended Voices (New Version #2) (1967/2014). Housed in a cardboard paper gatefold sleeve. Includes newly-written liner notes in Japanese and English by the artist. Limited edition of 350 copies.
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OPA 017CD
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"Funakakushi" [1]: This electronic work was composed for the opening ceremony of the hotel "Funakakushi-en" in Kagawa prefecture in 1963. It was realized as a sound installation and used many speakers inside a built-in stone sculpture. They were designed by sculptor Mitsu-aki Sora (b. 1933) and were arranged here and there in the main garden of the hotel. The sound was made from a modified Japanese traditional instrument, biwa, as well as from a sea wave sound [2]. The engineer Junosuke Okuyama [3] assisted on electronic devices. "Life Music (tape version)": "Life Music" was originally composed as a tape version in 1964. After that, this work was played in another version with an electronic modified orchestra (contact microphones were placed on all the instruments in the orchestra) [4] at Nissei Theatre in 1966. [5] Junosuke Okuyama designed a special effect machine named Electronics Sound Breaker (=ESB) for the concert. Kuniharu Akiyama, music critic, wrote about this machine in the liner notes to the Orchestral Space LP as follows, "... amplified sound of the orchestra was sent to some effect machines and ESB, and they were driven by tape version. Just then, electronic amplification was cut off synchronously by silent parts of the tape, and only non-effect live sound was played ...."; Housed in a cardboard paper gatefold sleeve. Includes newly-written liner notes in Japanese and English. Edition of 500 copies.
1: "Funakakushi" is the name of the region originated from a tradition in the 14th century.
2: The sea wave sound is not on this source.
3: Okuyama was an engineer for the Sogetsu Art Center. He assisted with electronic effects on John Cage's first Japan concert tour.
4: Unfortunately, Yomi-uri Nippon Orchestra refused this instruction at the concert, and an ordinary microphone was used for the modulation. Therefore, complete realization of this work planned by Ichiyanagi has not been carried out yet.
5: This version was recorded and published as part of the Orchestral Space LP series.
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OPX 012CD
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"I have been interested in junk materials and have made sound works since several years ago. Before then, I listened to experimental music as a fan, but the border between music and non-music became meaningless from encounters with Fluxus, sound-art, media-art and others. Since then, I love the texture of sound itself. I collected abandoned analog televisions when the transmitting system of broadcast signals was changed to digital format in 2011. They are one of my favorite instruments at present, and I hold live performances and installations using them. On this CD I used analog TV, cassette tape recorder, and video players. However, the sounds are not manipulated, and I recorded their spontaneous machine-noise only. It this 'experimental music?' I think it may be 'discovered music.' Obviously, I cannot get away from the fascination with ordinary equipment in my life." --Veltz; Housed in a cardboard paper gatefold sleeve. Includes newly-written liner notes in Japanese and English by the artist himself. Limited edition of 300 copies.
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OPX 011CD
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The Music for Piano series was written under John Cage's influence in his New York years. This CD is the premiere complete recording without simultaneous playing. The series was played and recorded by pianist Takuji Kawai at KEN in Tokyo in October 27, 2012. "Music for Piano No. 1-No. 7" was composed between 1959 and 1961. All the works were written using graphic notations (No. 1, No. 2, No. 5 and No. 6) and instructions (No. 3, No. 4 and No. 6). "This period of my compositions such as 'Music for Electric Metronomes,' 'Stanzas for String Instrument,' 'Duet for Piano and String Instrument,' and 'Sapporo' were all written by graphic notations, which expanded my idea of space in music in later compositions. The premiere of 'Music for Piano No.2' took place in 1959, performed by David Tudor at Living Theatre in New York. No. 5 was by Yuji Takahashi, No. 4, No. 6 and No. 7 were by myself. This is the first time collecting all seven pieces played open to the public and recorded at the same time. Various techniques as well as different qualities of the sounds were created in an amazing manner by pianist Takuji Kawai through my graphic notations. He played all the noises and concrète sounds without using any electronic device but with live natural sounds only to reflect 1950s to early '60s social situations." --Toshi Ichiyanagi
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OPA 006CD
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2013 repress. Kuniharu Akiyama (1929-1996) was well-known as a music critic, mainly of modern and contemporary music. However, his career was not only in the music field -- he was also a very well-regarded avant-garde artist (he especially related to the early Fluxus movement). This release consists of his three unknown tape music pieces. They are very strange. Excerpt from the liner notes: "'Environmental Mechanical Orchestra' (1966) was made for an exhibition called 'From Space to Environment,' carried out at Matsuya department store in Tokyo in November 1966. Akiyama displayed a sound object as part of the exhibit named 'Environmental Mechanical Orchestra.' Although details of this object are unknown, according to some data, it was made from tape recorders, microphones, steel wires and steel plate, as well as modulated environmental sounds. 'Demonstlation' of Nissei Theater' (1963) was made for a new theater designed by architect Togo Murano, which opened at Hibiya in Tokyo in 1963. This recording was for the event called 'Demonstlation.' Akiyama composed tape sound, Hiroshi Mizushima recited text (written by poet Syuntaro Tanikawa), and added lighting effects. 'Music for H.Bomb' (1971) -- unfortunately, the details of this work (meaning of this title, concept, making of sounds and others) are unknown."
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OPX 010CD
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Edition Omega Point presents solo performance pieces by Japanese sound and visual performance artist Kenichi Kanazawa. "Oto no Kakera" ("Fragments of Sound") was based on his participation in an exhibition called Sound Garden in 1987. He cut thick steel plates like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, concerned with the thematic relationships of iron, figures, and sounds. He attacked the pieces with sticks, and then played with their sounds. Various pitches, tones and resonances of sounds were made from the area and shape of each pieces, extending the world of iron sound richly. This CD is a recording of performances in the exhibition "Kenichi Kanazawa, iron as a starting point 1982-2011." Solo Performance is housed in a cardboard paper gatefold sleeve, with newly-written liner notes in Japanese and English. It also includes a summary written by Kanazawa. Limited to 300 copies.
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OPX 009CD
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Kenichi Kanazawa held the exhibition "Oto no Kakera" ("Fragments of Sound') and "Workshop" at the Kawagoe City Museum between 2006 and 2010. At the fifth and final exhibition, he did a workshop and performance with Hiroyuki Ura and Shinjiro Yamaguchi. This performance consisted of some fragments, with Yamaguchi adding his own details. According to his explanation, he tried to capture an invisible figure of music through composition using simple rules and styles. Housed in a cardboard paper gatefold sleeve with newly-written liner notes in Japanese and English. Also includes a summary by the artist. Limited to 300 copies.
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OPA 015CD
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"From 1972 to 1973, I was based in New York for my creative activities and live performances. New York at this time was in its golden age of experimental music. Towards the end of my stay, I held a live performance entitled Event '73 to sum up my creative works in New York. The venue for the performance was The Kitchen of the Mercer Arts Center that provided spaces for innovative and emerging artists. This CD consists of a mixture of sounds that were created at a studio prior to the live performance and the sounds recorded live at the performance. I used the Buckla Synthesizer for electronic sound and also for transformation of the sound. The work has four different segments: 1) Diffusion 2) Condensation 3) Chaos 4) Revolution. Each segment's meanings and sounds itself doesn't necessarily correlate to each other. Yet, the images that are evoked by each word express the chaotic world of the day."
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OPA 016CD
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Edition Omega Point presents a collection of early work from Japanese experimental composer Kazuo Uehara. "'Seoul 1982' was composed using recorded sounds as raw material to reassemble the 'historical' soundscape of Korea's capital city, Seoul, in the early 1980s. During this time, despite the political chaos and the tension in the city under the Korean military government, I felt the lively energy in people's lives. The raw material comprised a wide range of different sounds, including the street cries in the downtown, cheerful voices of children in the Namsang area, noise of arterial streets, and conversations of from students at the Seoul National University. Apart from that, the encounter with the Korean traditional percussion music group, Samul Nori, was such a precious moment in my fieldwork. I would like to dedicate this piece to the people in Korea, especially the original members of Samul Nori, and also to the French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson who captured the decisive historic moments. 'Music For Contemporary Dance' is dedicated to Takao Kusuno. In the 1970s, the art space Jean-Jean in Shibuya served as a popular venue for experimental music, theater, dance, etc. Within this movement, I did collaborative works with Takao Kusuno who performed as an artist and dance director. In the 1980s, Kusuno moved his base to Brazil where his outstanding performances won numerous awards until his early passing. This piece was composed in collaboration with Kusuno to explore new approaches for dance. The work has two consecutive parts, subtitled 'Crows Habit' and 'I Am A Clown.' It was not merely contemporary dance, nor Butoh, but it indicated the contemporary room for the dance scene of the time. His work returned home with Brazilian dancers and was staged in Japan in 2009. 'Science Technology Expo '85 - Music For 'Cell Universe'' was specially composed for the Health and Sports Pavilion at the International Exposition, Tsukuba, Japan, 1985. The space was comprised of 27 multiscreen films and stereophonic space. The uniquely designed space controller, the system for moving sound image, made it possible to control the electronic acoustic sound image to create virtual 3D space. 'Homage To Xenakis' was composed at a UPIC workshop held in Tokyo in the 1980s where the composer Iannis Xenakis made remarks on each presented work. The musical composition tool, UPIC, was created by Xenakis, and was developed at the Centre d'Etudes de Mathématique et Automatique Musicales (CEMAMu) in Paris. This unique sound synthesis system allows the user to create music by drawing lines on the board. Xenakis originally envisaged this tool to be used for pedagogical purpose. Other than musicians, the workshop drew participants from children to adults. The piece was composed in collaboration with the computer graphic artist Masao Kohmura and others.
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OPA 014CD
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...In Textile Pavillion Of EXPO '70. At the EXPO '70 in Osaka, many avant-garde artists contributed architectural, space, environmental design and sound works. In the Textile Pavillion ("Sen-i Kan" in Japanese), Japanese composer Joji Yuasa and filmmaker Toshio Matsumoto presented a remarkable experimental event, "Space Projection 'Ako'" for multi-channel tape music and image projection. Also included in the presentation at the Pavillion was background sound for several spaces and objects, composed by Joji Yuasa, mainly. This original master tape was provided by Yoshimasa Matsumoto, the sound operator at the Pavillion, who was also a sound engineer for '60s film and television which included "Ultra Q," "Ultraman" and others. For the first track, "Music For 'Pattern-Slide 'Mon'yoh'," abstract textile images were projected on the walls of a corridor ("Mon'yoh" means graphical patterns). This concrete sound was composed specially for this space. "Music For 'Colourful World'" (by unknown mixer) was played and recorded by three electric guitar players. "White World" involved the same interior space as "Colourful World," except it was painted white, in contrast to "Colourful World." Music for this room was made out of sound material from "Projection Esemplastic" and "Icon For White Noise," both important electronic works from Yuasa's early years. "Voices Of Dolls" featured a group of tall, gentleman-like dolls set in a lobby space, accompanied by meaningless text in Japanese, English and Portuguese coming out of them. The Japanese version is a part of Yuasa's concrete work, "Voices Coming." An English version (by Joseph Love) and a Portuguese version (by Joaquim M. Benoetez) were recorded for this project. For "Voice Of 'Raven' Objects" (by unknown mixer) the artist Masunobu Yoshimura created ravens and arranged them here and there on the Pavillion. The accompanying sound was made from modulated Noh chant and lines from a story coming out of the mouths of the ravens. "Background Sound Of Central Dome" was taken from events such as "Space Projection 'Ako'" that took place in the dome space of the Pavillion. This background sound was prepared from marimba modulated by a square wave. Premiere recordings on disc, housed in a cardboard paper gatefold sleeve in an original design. Includes newly-written liner notes in Japanese & English. Limited edition of 500 copies.
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OPA 013CD
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One of the pioneers of Japanese electronic music, Makoto Moroi, composed "Kusabira" for Kyogen (traditional comedy theater) with electronic sound in 1964. "Kusabira" means "mushroom." A strolling Buddhist monk, Yamabushi, tried to exterminate many mushrooms that grew in the garden of a man's home. However, his magic did not take effect on them but also the Mushrooms began to increase. The man and Yamabushi were driven out of the home by a large Mushroom, finally. In this work, Moroi used abstract electronic sounds, like on his earliest works, and he modulated Kyogen lines into concrete sound -- so noisy and strange in all of Moroi's electronic works. The second piece is "Sinfonia - Shin - For S.M." (1972). This is Moroi's most important work using Japanese traditional instruments. The origin of this work was based on Arving Toffler's 1970 book Future Shock, and it was composed as spacephonic music by a 4-channel recording system. This is committed work by the young genius player Susumu Miyashita, who plays various kinds of koto, gongs, percussion and Indian flute bansuries. The sharpness of the performance is so wonderful, and also some transformed human voices are inserted in the middle part of this work. Both of these two works together contrast "comedy" with "tragedy." This work was released on LP in 1973 (Victor). This is the first time "Kusabira" has appeared on disc, and this is the first CD reissue of "Sinfonia-Shin-For S.M." Cardboard paper gatefold sleeve in its original design. Newly-written liner notes in Japanese by the artist, translated into English. Limited edition of 500 copies.
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OPX 006CD
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This CD is a remastered reissue of a very limited CD-R released by Omega Point in 1999. This is the sixth volume in Edition Omega Point's Experimental Music Of Japan series. Atsuhiro Ito was born in 1965. He launched his career as a visual artist in the late '80s, and in '98 began presenting sound performances at art exhibitions. Ito made use of fluorescent lighting (which is also an element of his art installations) in the creation of an original musical device called the Optron. In addition, Ito is active in a number of musical units. One of these is Optrum, the explosively loud "extreme optical noise-core band" consisting of Ito and drummer Yoichiro Shin, and another is free jazz trio Kazuo Imai Trio with Kazuo Imai, a guitarist who is also a member of Marginal Consort, and Manabu Suzuki (electronics). He published his own label Gotobai Recordings in 2009. "My homemade instrument is called the Optron -- it outputs flicker-noise of fluorescent lamps as sound directly. In the early years of its conception, it was not only uncontrollable and unstable, but also the sound was so barbaric. However, I had no intention of controlling the system and performing it as music. I recorded the electric 'phenomenon' by flicker of fluorescent lamp innocently. I first named the Optron sound system when I performed a live show after the release of the CD-R. The sound materials of this CD-R were not recorded as noise-performances, but rather, they would be called recordings of phenomenon as effect from experimental works, and an extension of my installation works. This 'fluorescent performance' had not gotten a good reputation from my acquaintances in those days. However, I was interested in the lights and sounds simply, and it is not too much to say that it's only a feeling of 'wow, it's so exciting!'" --Atsuhiro Ito; Housed in a cardboard paper gatefold sleeve with newly-written liner notes in Japanese & English by the artist himself. Limited edition of 400 copies only.
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OPX 008CD
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This is the eighth volume in Edition Omega Point's Experimental Music Of Japan series. Japanese composer and synthesizer artist Kazuo Uehara was born in Osaka in 1949. He studied composition in Tokyo and in New York and is a Professor of Music at the Osaka University of Arts, teaching composition, experimental music and also multi-media performance. His music has been performed in France, Germany, the U.S., and other countries and he has also performed his interactive live music and multi-media pieces at major festivals in Sweden, Bulgaria, Russia, France, Poland, Brazil, China, Korea and other countries. He was the main prize-winner at the Bourge International electroacoustic music competition in 1983. In 1990, he was awarded a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts. He has been producing the International Festival for Contemporary Music in Japan since the 1980s. "'Assemblage' is a word from the domain of modern art. This is one of the techniques in the expression of art. The word means 'mixture,' originally. I decided that assemblage would be the concept of this CD. A collage by Picasso is similar example. Dadaism is also another similar example. I try to express new directions in music by using the assemblage technique. 'Music Collage Re-Mix Version' is based on the live recording of a performance from Brazil in 1989 -- a collaboration with a Brazilian dancer and her voice. 'Pont De l'Alma De Paris' was a piece composed at INA-GRM, which is well-known as the place where musique concrète was created by Pierre Schaeffer. The title of this piece 'Pont De l'Alma' is the name of the metro station in Paris. I tried to express the harmony between traditional images and contemporary images of Paris. 'OTO Mandala 2' -- usually a mandala is created as a visual image but in this piece I tried to create a mandala image by using sound with bandoneon by Miho Kurosawa. 'Sound Work 1' is the first piece I composed by using a personal computer. I used NEC PC 8-bit which came out in the beginning of the 1980s. I tried to create very simple synthesized sounds. 'Forest Of Gombe' is a piece on the subject of nature from a chimpanzee's forest in Africa. 'Assemblage 2004' was composed using the assemblage technique using various sounds, noises from nature and instruments like piano and biwa. 'Meteora Version 1.0' is the name of a strange rock from the northern part of Greece. 'Meteora 1' is created as acousmatic music." Housed in a cardboard paper sleeve. Including newly-written liner notes in Japanese & English by the artist. Limited edition of 400 copies only.
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OPA 001CD
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2010 repress. Volume one of Omega Point's Obscure Tape Music of Japan series, featuring Joji Yuasa's "Aoi-no-Ue" (1961) and "My Blue Sky" (1975). Joji Yuasa (b. 1929) is one of most important composers in Japan after World War II. "Aoi-no-Ue" was composed for experimental theater at Sogetsu Art Center. The sound of this work is made from the chants of Japanese traditional "Noh" theater. "The text is recomposed by me keeping the original words. And it was sung in the style of Noh-chant by three brothers ... This work is composed mainly based on the metamorphosed sound of Noh-chant. The other sound is concrete sound such as bird songs, water drops, glasses, the warped sound of a vibraphone, some generated electronic sound and others. These sound sources are diversely changed, metamorphosed through all the possible electronic techniques at that time, and finally mixed and reconstructed on stereophonic tape. This piece had taken almost half a year to complete, working with the excellent sound engineer Zyunosuke Okuyama at the Sogetsu Art Center." --Joji Yuasa. This package also includes his final electronic music piece "My Blue Sky No.1," made at NHK electronic music studio. This studio was the '60s and '70s mecca of Japanese electronic music. Yuasa explains: "In this work only clicks, pulses and the various kinds of beats induced from them -- varying pitches, width and their frequency of pulse -- are adopted. For example, I controlled successively occurring pulses of low frequency sine wave by means of triggering with the frequency of the square wave." Limited edition of 500 copies for this second edition. Housed in a cardboard paper gatefold sleeve in the original design. Newly-written liner notes in Japanese and English by the artist himself. New and quite different cover art for this second edition by Ryuhei Yuasa.
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OPA 012CD
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...Miniatures Of Concrete Works. Edition Omega Point presents work by legendary Japanese composer Joji Yuasa -- one of most important composers in Japan after World War II. "Nadja, Twincling in Stars" (1963) is the incidental music, by NHK Radio, based on "Nadja" by Andre Breton who made "Declaration of Sur-Realisme." The actual chart of constellations was played by three players (violin, piano and vibraphone) which was used as the music score. Birdsong, electronics, and sound generated from inside the piano using music concrète techniques were constructed at the NHK Electronic Music Studio where Yuasa's first so-called pure electronic piece "Projection Esemplastic For White Noise" was made in the same year of 1963. "Music For A Cenotaph For Industrial Victims" (1972) was set in the woods of Tama Hills, in the suburb of Tokyo. The music consists of echoing wooden bells in the woods, made from lowered marimba moderated by square wave, various metamorphosed sounds reminiscent of industrial work to accompany the offering flowers by the attendants, and again, more reverberant sounds of wooden bells. "Music For The Main Pavillion Of The Okinawa Oceanic Expo" (1975) is a musique concrète work which was made for the Oceanic Expo in Okinawa prefecture in 1975. Folk music with an indigenous stringed instrument (Jamisen), voices of various sea birds, the engine sound of a boat, and metamorphosed instrumental sounds reminiscent of the wind and waves combined with orchestral chamber music. Italian folk song "To The Sea" is arranged for chamber orchestra and recorded by the composer as an important sound source of this work. Limited edition of 500 copies only.
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OPX 004CD
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"At first, Agencement was started as an anonymous tape music project in 1985. It started from an indie movement that had occurred in inverse proportion to the calm situation of Japan's mid-'80s domestic improvised music scene. As for activity of violin performances that I started from the influence of European improvised music after it is related to the edit of underground music magazine named Avant-Garde that Kanazawa University students issued from 1976 until 1979, several years have passed from beginning. I played the violin in various places at that time, for instance, I have participated at the '2nd Ten Minutes Solo Improvisation Festival' (1982) at Kyoto Seika University, and I sometimes performed violin + live electronics solo at Merzbau cafe, etc. I was gradually editing them with multi-track though the magnetic tapes that recorded live performances. Such a work style originates from the drawing works which I started producing when I was a teen. The work of my 1st LP was made by using a cheap analog multi-track tape recorder and took 1 year. The flow of such time has not basically changed in the studio work of me digitalized now too. In 1986, I was able to come in contact with artists such as Merzbow, Toukaseibunshi, 10T and others through compilation cassette releases, etc. Masami Akita who had contact for several years recommended it though I did not think that I make LP of myself at first." --Hideaki Shimada
Hideaki Shimada was born in 1962 in Kanazawa and began work with violin solo improvisation in 1980. He started tape music project Agencement in 1985, where he creates multi-layered violin improvisation and records them on magnetic tape. He has performed live in the noise music scene since the early '90s. In 2000-2003, he collaborated with Kiyoharu Kuwayama (Lethe) and Kiyoshi Mizutani in "Lethe Voice Festival" in Nagoya. In recent years he has improvised with Katsuyoshi Kou, Mori-shige, and also a sound event curated by Toshi Ichiyanagi in 2009. Housed in a cardboard paper gatefold sleeve with artwork by the artist. Includes newly-written liner notes in Japanese & English. Limited edition of 500 copies.
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OPX 005CD
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Subtitled: Acousmatic Electronic Works. This is the fifth volume in Edition Omega Point's Experimental Music Of Japan series. Sound performer, composer and sound engineer Kazuya Ishigami was born in 1972, in Osaka. He graduated from Osaka University Of Arts in 1994. He composed his pieces for INA-GRM in August 1997. His Radiophonic work "Sonic Escapism," "2nd 49" and "Whisper Of Sound God" were broadcast from Deutschlandradio in 2005-2008. Ishigami studied at music academies in Japan and France, and since 1997, has also acted as a noise/improvisation unit Billy? and Daruin. This CD consists of two recent works of "Acousmatic Electronic Music." Works in this style may be more challenging for electronic music fans because they are so academic, but Ishigami's sound is exciting and cool. "Hosshin no Kizashi" is a work based on the theme of prayer by priests in the Buddhist temple of Senkoji (in Osaka). Hosshin means "departure bodhi mind." "Hosshin no Kizashi" means there is still a hesitation. "Otokamui no Sasayaki" (trans. "Whisper of sound god"); "Oto" means "sound" in Japanese. "Kamui" means "god" in Ainu. Housed in a cardboard paper sleeve. Including newly-written liner notes in Japanese & English by the artist. Limited edition of 500 copies only.
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OPA GQ
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A quarterly magazine for graphic work, gq was issued in the 1970s. The magazine was re-produced in 2008, and the newest issue devoted to kinetic sculptor Jean Tinguely was completed in 2009. Edition Omega Point made a special CD for the edition comprised of rare sound materials from Toshi Ichiyanagi's Music For Tinguely, released here for the first time ever. Also includes the track released on OPA 005CD. Toshi Ichiyanagi is a well-renowned Japanese avant-garde composer who made brilliant pieces of tape music. Most of his works have not been issued on CD, or have only been issued in very small editions. Housed in a cardboard paper gatefold sleeve. Newly-written liner notes in Japanese and English by Toshi Ichiyanagi. Limited edition of 300 copies only.
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OPA 011CD
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Mamoru Fujieda is a Japanese post-minimalist composer, and Edition Omega Point releases some of his work from the early '80s. Both "Radiated Falling" (1980) and "The Art Of Fugue" (1981) are tape compositions in which sound materials of a prepared piano are electronically-processed and modulated in various ways. "Radiated Falling" is based on "Falling Scale No. 2" for piano (1975). The series of works entitled "Falling Scale" are composed almost entirely of descending scales as their structural elements. In these works, patterns are automatically produced by the difference in the number of scale tones or through the temporal discrepancy made when the tones descend. In "Falling Scale No. 2," a spiral line is successively transformed. The artist piled up the spiral line in several layers with the uneven timbres of the prepared piano producing sound materials for "Radiated Falling." The sound materials were then transformed to layered sonic textures through the ring modulator, the phase shifter, the harmonizer, and various delay processes. "The Art of Fugue" is based on a simple fugue in four voices from the first piece in The Art Of Fugue by J. S. Bach. The four voices were randomly cut into fragments, which were then reassembled to form four new voices. Each of the voices played by a differently prepared-piano was recorded on a multi-track recorder to produce sound materials for the piece. The sound materials for the prepared piano were then electronically-modulated and spatially processed. The randomly cut fragments of the fugue are interwoven at different tempos to make it "The Art Of Fugue" on the brink of collapse.
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OPA 010CD
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...Electronic Symphony No. 1. Little-known composer Hiroaki Minami was a professor of electronic music at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts & Music and is a pioneer of synthesizer music in Japan. He built a private studio for his self-made synthesizer in his home in 1976, and shortly thereafter, he composed this piece, Electronic Symphony No. 1, filled with spacey and very noisy analog synthesizer sounds, much like Roland Kayn's '60s concrète works. Contains liner notes by the artist in Japanese and English; housed in a limited-edition specially-designed cardboard paper sleeve.
The artist himself: "At the age of 15, having more of an interest in technology than music, I began to build radio sets and vacuum tube amplifiers. In the next 20 years, electronics advanced into the realm of transistors and integrated circuits, creating a huge potential for the use of the synthesizer for musical applications. In the '70s as knowledge about experiments in transistors, integrated circuit oscillators, and filter technology became available in electronic technology magazines, I attempted IC even though I only had vacuum tubes to complete an analog synthesizer, and I also purchased 2-channel and 4-channel tape recorders. I was finally equipped with the necessary equipment to create electronic music when tragedy struck my family: my 8 year-old daughter died from liver disease. It compelled me to compose the fifth movement 'Sorrow Song The Stars Sang' of the Electronic Symphony No.1 as the requiem for my daughter. The piece, created from my own analog synthesizer, was distributed throughout the world as an individual work, and only later did I compose the rest of the movements in order to complete Symphony No. 1." --from the liner notes
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OPX 002CD
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This is the second release in Edition Omega Point's Experimental Music of Japan series, featuring the work of Tokyo composer Haruyuki Suzuki (b. 1962). This CD includes four of Suzuki's electronic works -- the oldest piece, "Concret II," was composed in 1985, and is an experiment in sound and noise. The triptych "Go And Back" series composed in 1996, are like versions of the same screenprinting, but made in different colors. While the MIDI data that comprises the structure of the pieces is the same, the varying sound materials used to augment the versions are different. Influenced by Luc Ferrari, Suzuki began composing electronic music using CD-J players in 2005, and "Circuit II," composed in 2006, uses two CD-J players. "Bustling For Luc," composed in 2007 was also inspired by Ferrari, and heavily influenced by the work of American experimental musicians, most particularly James Tenney. The only sounds used here are systematically transformed tidbits of environmental sound recordings of the busy quarters of Tokyo. Haruyuki Suzuki is a mostly self-taught composer. He helped establish the composer's group Tempus Novum in 1991, along with, among others, Hiroyuki Yamamoto, Yoshifumi Tanaka and Hiroshi Yokoshima. He has collaborated with visual and film artists, and has organized lectures and concerts by James Tenney (2001) and Luc Ferrari (2002/2003). Housed in a specially-designed cardboard paper gatefold sleeve, with newly-written liner notes in Japanese & English by Haruyuki Suzuki himself. Limited edition of 300 copies.
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