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viewing 1 To 14 of 14 items
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IMJ 526CD
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"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."
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IMJ 701CD
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"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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IMJ 528
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"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."
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BOOK/2CD
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IMJ 306/7
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"The 2005 edition of the annual Japanese-English magazine Improvised Music from Japan is devoted entirely to recent albums. Over 350 releases (with a cover photo for each!) are presented. The albums, mainly from 2004-2005, span a wide range of styles -- improv, onkyo, noise, electronics, contemporary classical, free jazz, avant-rock, and more. While contributions from music critics are numerous, this is not just a collection of reviews. Musicians write about their own and other artists' works, label owners about their labels. The articles' styles and points of view are as diverse as the albums they present. IMJ 2005 also includes two CDs with a total of 21 tracks -- by PsysEx, Jio Shimizu, Tetsuya Umeda, mills, sim, Toshihiro Koike, Shuichi Ohori, Chihiro Wada, Toshiya Tsunoda, Kiyoshi Mizutani, VOIMA, Bunsho Nishikawa and Tim Olive, m/s (Minoru Sato), Yasuo Totsuka, Diver, Mitsuhiro Yoshimura, Tomomi Adachi, The Cinngirls, aspects, Yui Kimijima, and Merzbow."
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IMJ 527
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"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 Tétreault (turntable, surfaces, small electronics). When Labrosse and Tétreault 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."
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2CD
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IMJ 524/5
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"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."
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BOOK/2CD
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IMJ 304/5
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"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."
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IMJ 522
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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."
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IMJ 518
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"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 Dörner, Alessandro Bosetti, Werner Dafeldecker, and Günter Müller. 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."
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IMJ 519
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"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 Tétreault 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."
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IMJ 516
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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."
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2CD
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IMJ 508/9
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"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."
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IMJ 505
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"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."
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IMJ 506
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"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."
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