"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 presen…
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 …
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 fro…
The first release in Omega Point's series, Experimental Music of Japan. This is the live recording of the music performance held at the installation exhibition of Chiharu Shiota in the gallery of Kanagawa Kenmin Hall in Yokohama, Japan in October 2007. The performance was defined as "art complex" by Toshi Ichiyanagi from a musical standpoint, and the content consists of live computer improvisation as well as some acoustic, programmed pieces performed on piano by Akiko Samukawa, Toshi Ichiy…
Several tapes that were discovered at Aki Takahashi's house and audio sources that have been put on hold until now are being released collectively. The time periods and contents of the sounds vary, and most of the detailed data are not known. Nevertheless, the contents are all very intriguing, including live recordings by Hiroyoshi Suzuki from the days of "Jikken Kobo" (Experimental Workshop), never-before-heard works by Toru Takemitsu, and the strange electronic music of Joji Yuasa. We decided …
"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 tha…
*2022 stock* "'Emerald Tablet' was recorded at the NHK electronic-music studio in 1978. It is made up of only the sonic ingredients of a tubular bell, cymbals, and 'kin,' a largish-sized bell used for Buddhist memorial services in Japan. The attack of the sound of each instrument was eliminated, and the work was taped through repeated overdubbing. This produced a variety of beautiful harmonics that otherwise could not be produced from a single instrument's sound, and the interference of harmonic…
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; h…
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, I…
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 …
This is volume 2 of Omega Point's Obscure Tape Music of Japan series. Hitomi-Za is an experimental puppet theater group that still exists today in Japan. This recorded performance took place from February 13-17th in 1962 at Sogetsu Kaikan Hall. The program consisted of three parts, and Joji Yuasa, Kuniharu Akiyama and Naozumi Yamamoto composed background sound for each part. This CD consists of two works made from magnetic tape from among the performances. This is the world premiere release of b…
2026 stock Space in the Sun was one of Akio Suzuki’s major sound projects, a unique construction completed in 1988 and located on the merdian line, which took around 18 months to build. Its purpose was to allow Suzuki to spend one day, on the autumnal equinox, purifying his sense of hearing in nature. This release comprises a 44 page book containing plans and materials from the time alongside texts, and two CDs of environmental recordings created on site at Space in the Sun. To date only tiny fr…
The first Manon Anne Gillis release was a single-sided mini-album titled “Angebiguë”, which was Manon’s self-release in 1983. “Angebiguë” was 6-track mini-album in a cold-minimal-synth vein, and any track from “Angebiguë” were not included in her retrospective 5CD Box “Archives Box 1983-2005”, which Art into Life released in 2015. “Angebiguë” was privately released in tiny edition for her friends only and has been a highly sought-after item among collectors. “Vhoysee” is Manon’s long-awaited new…
After decades of working at the margins of experimental electronic music, French composer Manon Anne Gillis returns with Eyry, her ninth solo album and a stunning testament to her unique approach to sound as a tactile, sensory experience. Released on Art Into Life as a limited edition of 300 vinyl copies (with download code), Eyry weaves together voice, breathing, words, and sounds using ingenious methodologies that have defined Gillis' practice since the 1980s.
Since her earliest works in the 1…
4-panel V-fold hard cardboard with Japanese OBI strip, softer insert for CD and a 4-page fold-out booklet in English and Japanese. Lucky restock, few copies available. Stephan Mathieu's original Japanese edition copies of his lost classic, recorded and produced between Summer 2001 and 2004 and originally released on the Headz label from Tokyo in the Winter of 2004. All the factors that make Mathieu's trademark sound today are already in full play here, the spectral drones, early instruments an…
*2023 stock* "This album, the first under the band's name in six and a half years, is a jazz alternative album with a multilingual and hardcore taste that differs greatly from previous albums.
The recording for this album started in June 2020, during a period when many of our activities were being cancelled due to Covid-19. It had been a while since I last met or played with the members of this band, with whom prior to the pandemic I would regularly get together for gigs at various venues or tr…
Recorded at NHK-604-Studio on Nov & Dec 1991 Musicians: Akira Sakata,Tamai Toyooka,Asuka Kaneko, Kyoko Kuroda,Hiroshi Yoshino,Yu Fujii Kiyohiko Semba,Atuy,Fusae Doi, Mishio Ogawa,Shigeri Kitsu,Norihiko Yamanuki.
This is Otomo Yoshihide's second guitar solo release on doubtmusic. The concept of this work, however, is complely different from that of the first. Here, feedback sound issues from two amplifiers, each connected to one of two guitars placed on a tabletop. Due to this stereo effect, the feedback mutually interferes, producing beatlike fluctuations, creating black holes into which the sound suddenly disappears, sounding completely different depending on the position of the ears, creating the illu…
Trumpeter Itaru Oki's third album from 1975 reissued, a flamed out free jazz masterpiece. Itaru Oki (trumpet), Yoshiaki Fujikawa (alto sax), Keiki Midorikawa (cello, bass, piano), Gozo Yoshimasu (poetry reading on 5). We are very glad to inform that a long time out of printed OffBeat label LP is reprinted on CD. Itaru Oki visited Paris, France in the 70s and when he came back to Japan temporarily in 75, he organized a elite free jazz troop and recorded in studio. 'Phantom Note' is his 3rd album,…
A live album featuring the unit Ten-Shi, consisting of Takayuki Kato and Masataka Fujikake, with two improvising giants, Junji Hirose and Yoshihide Otomo. From the beginning of the album, which begins with a guitar duo, the two groups respond to each other and express themselves in diverse ways one after another, developing a sound that is full of originality throughout.
2023 Stock. The second live recording of the duo by Keiji Haino and Masataka Fujikake released just five years after the previous work "Tomorrow, the alphabet will disappear." While retaining the steel-like strength of the previous album, this is a rock album that pursues his core expression only with guitar, vocals and drums . Keiji Haino – guitar, vocals Masataka Fujikake – drums. If HARD is raised to the power of several tens, will the grains of light pour down? Recorded at Stormy Monday Yoko…
“A large tree thousands of years old, like Akira Sakata, seems to sway a variety of creatures as if they were being drawn to it. Is it a festival with Ming as a Shinto priest? Takeharu Hayakawa, who has a strong thud, changes his behavior like a ninja, and Masataka Fujikake wraps everything up and makes a deep rumbling of the earth. As for me, I'm on the same level as the piano and electronic sounds. Let's just say that it organically connects the past and the present. A rare improvised world th…
*2024 stock* "Released in 2014, this is the first box set to include all four entries in the Godzilla Legend series. Created by Makoto Inoue, the Godzilla Legend series is a synthesized reworking of many of the themes from the Godzilla and other Toho science fiction productions. There have been four releases in the series, with the first in 1983 and the latest in 2011.
For this set, King Records has remastered the music and, aside from some dialogue only tracks in Godzilla Legend III, they all s…
English living legend percussionist, Roger Turner plays in Japan last year and this is one of the live performance in Tokyo. Roger's feathery and dynamic percussion playing and Otomo Yoshihide's noisy electric guitar playing.
An improv meeting of two masters with very different but equally impressive histories. Across two long tracks they give an object lesson in the art of duo improvisation, a format in which both players are constantly exposed with no easy place to hide, although that clear…
Zai Kuning (g., vo., perc., misc.), Otomo Yoshihide (g., turntables, perc., misc.). 'The Asian improvisation of the present, a connection between Singapore, Tokyo and Hong Kong. A vivid 71-minute performance moving back and forth between turbulence and stillness. 'Book from hell' is the denomination of the concert, Zai Kuning organized on September 2008 in Singapore. CD title is used as it is and also CD cover is the poster of 'Book from hell' concert, Zai designed. This is Asian improvi…
restocked! Originally released in 1975 as an LP on Offbeat Records (ORLP-1005). 'Fragment II: Gradually Projection'. 'Fragment III: Percussion Solo'. 'Fragment VI: Mass Projection'. All compositions by Masayuki takayanagi. Masayuki takayanagi New Direction Unit: Masayuki takayanagi: guitar. Kenji Mori: reeds. Nobuyoshi Ino: bass, cello. Hiroshi Yamazaki: percussion. Recorded live at Yasuda Seimei Hall, Tokyo, September 5, 1975. Remastered by Tsutomu Suto. 'One begins to see--and hear--each sound…
Mail from Fushitsusha, which Keiji Haino himself calls 21st-century blues, draws out exquisite dynamics and 'space' - like a nerve being passed through the eye of a needle. Carrying out their sonic explorations while adhering to the Fushitsusha method, these three tough artists create a muscular sound - a sound that turns the rock - blues concept on its head! Keijo Haino sent Seijaku out into the world as his permanent band. At the time of recording, this was to be a single album, but the combin…
Otomo Yoshihide's Guitar Solo "LEFT" was released last summer but "RIGHT" is completely different from "LEFT". the 123 short fragments of Otomo's guitar sounds are run by computer programming at random so no one know how the sound played. This CD is one infinity."-Doubtmusic
"What is most remarkable about the single, 62-minute track on Otomo Yoshihide's Guitar Solos 2015 RIGHT is how consistent, top to bottom, it sounds. Or, viewed through a different lens, how much coherence (real or imagined)…
The Seijaku Trio of Keiji Haino (electronics, guitar, voice), Mitsuru Nasuno (bass, electronics) and Yoshimitsu Ichiraku (electronics), recording 2 years after the "Last Live" album, in an epic voyage of meditative and intricate electronics performed live in Tokyo in 2014 at Club Goodman. As "Last Live" explains, Yoshimitsu Ichiraku can no longer play drums due to physical issues, necessitating this transformation from a heavy abstract blues band into this ritualistic trio. It's a fitting and ea…
Speed, Glue & Shinki's second release, originally released in 1972 on Atlantic and often referred to as Tiger, brought together a number of tracks not included on Eve, as well as some new recordings that took a very different musical slant. Joey Smith decided that since he could he handle himself admirably on drums, it was time to challenge a new instrument, so he bought a synthesizer. Drafting in friend Mike Hanopol to take over the bass-playing duties from the departed Masayoshi "Glue" Kabe, S…
Speed, Glue & Shinki's 1971 debut album, Eve. Ex-Food Brain guitarist Shinki Chen, bass player Masayoshi Kabe (also known as M Glue) and Filipino Vietnam war veteran Joey "Pepe" Smith, who doubled as both the trio's drummer and vocalist, released two legendary albums in the early '70s. Eve, the earlier of the band's two efforts, was probably the band's only "real" recording, as the self-titled second release in 1972 was put together by Smith from studio outtakes of Chen's guitar playing and trac…
** 2021 Stock ** Meeting at GOK Sound studio in Kichijoji, Japan in front of a small audience, Swedish baritone saxophonist Mats Gustafsson (The Thing, Fire!) also performing on flutephone and live electronics, and Otomo Yoshihide (Ground-Zero, Regenorchester) performing on guitar, turntable and banjo, recorded these eight amazing improvisations of unusual and unique attitudes and timing. After 2 years it materialized on CD work at all. Mats Gustafsson's strongest baritone saxophone, self-made i…
**2006 release, long out of print, very few copies available** One of the rarest albums ever from the mighty Masahiko Satoh, a composer and arranger,as well as a key figure in the avantgarde music from Japan. Originally issued on Japan Columbia in 1970, the two sides of very free piano show a sensitivity that's really amazing – still moments of freedom that reflect Satoh's connection to the avant garde of the time, interwoven with his own sense of cosmic creation, in ways that are similar to his…
**2006 release, long out of print, very few copies available** Trumpeter Itaru Oki Trio's landmark debut album from 1970 reissued, a flamed out free jazz masterpiece. Itaru Oki (trumpet), Yoshiaki Fujikawa (alto sax), Keiki Midorikawa (cello, bass, piano) for sure one of the earliest free jazz players and albums from Japan. And this album is possibly his finest effort, eclectic and saturated with ethnic elements, quirky, free form.Japanese trumpet player Itaru Oki represents one of the very firs…
A much-needed and expanded reissue of this 1970s Offbeat label LP of cellist Keiki Midorikawa in duo with Masahiko Togashi, Masayuki Takayanagi and Masahiko Sato. Keiki Midorikawa (cello, bass), Masahiko Togashi (percussion, drums), Masayuki Takayanagi (guitar) et Masahiko Sato (piano). Recorded on January 16, 1976 at Nichi-futsu kaikan, Tokyo. The original LP of this work has duo with Takayanagi on A side and duo with Sato on B side. But in the concert, Midorikawa played duo with Togashi about …
Dive back into the primal heart of Krautrock with Amon Düül's "Experimente", a stunning collection of rare and obscure live material excavated from the same incendiary late '60s sessions that birthed their legendary debut Psychedelic Underground. This previously unreleased treasure captures the band's unbridled spontaneity, delivering a sonic assault that's as hypnotic as it is feral.
Amon Düül's jam sessions on Experimente are pure, unfiltered ritual – predominantly instrumental eruptions domin…
Sold out at the label. Sparkling or Silent finds crys cole and Oren Ambarchi pausing their restless, always‑on‑the-move discographies at a curious angle, as if turning the light slightly to see what has been glinting at the edges all along. Both artists have long carried an electroacoustic sensibility in their work - in cole’s hyper‑attentive treatment of small sounds and negative space, in Ambarchi’s use of guitar and electronics as malleable matter rather than fixed instruments - but here that…
While most holidaymakers in Greece lounge by the pool, soak up the sun on sandy beaches, or pick up a few souvenirs, British jazz pianist Greg Foat took a different path last year. Inspired by the island of Samos, he returned not with trinkets, but with Impressions of Samos – a captivating album blending synthesizer, grand piano, and traditional Greek folk instruments with immersive field recordings.
Teaming up with Sokratis Votskos and The Giorgos Pappas Trio on Blue Crystal Records, Foat craft…
The late, great experimental duo Coil left behind a legacy of uncompromising artistry that continues to influence musicians decades after their final performances. "Live One", now receiving a definitive reissue, captures the band's otherworldly stage presence and transformative soundscapes at their most visceral peak. Originally documented during Coil's celebrated live appearances at the turn of the millennium, this essential recording showcases John Balance and Peter Christopherson at their mos…
A decade after its long-awaited release, Coil's landmark album Backwards returns in a special 10 year anniversary vinyl reissue. The black vinyl edition comes in a gatefold matt-laminate sleeve with silver detail, honoring the album's elusive, mercurial nature with understated elegance. After the ground-breaking release of 1990's Love's Secret Domain, Coil were not dormant - far from it. The main project was Backwards, which was started in 1992, updated considerably between 1993 and 1995, and tr…