Japanese

A timeless masterpiece left by the Japanese fusion / urban pop giant. From city pops such as Hiroshi Sato, Junko Hirotani, Etsuko Sai, and Piper to Yumin and Seiko Sawada, and a number of sharp anime records such as "星へ行く船" and "夢の碑", this person in the history of Japanese music. The original was a super rare album released from in 1982, but the long-awaited first analog reissue from , which is also known for the reissue of Japanese ambient / ambient music such as Takashi Kokubo and Yas-Kaz. A masterpiece aerobic record produced as a soundtrack to TBS TV's "Aerobics" by Ken Morimura, who is known as the keyboardist of the salsa band Orchestra del Sol! A masterpiece that will surely fascinate disco boogie-city pop and Balearic lovers. Come on while this is! Limited to 500 copies.

This is a great masterpiece that further updates the boundaries of what can only be described as his unique style. As a member of the famous hip-hop crew, Origami, he has been active with Nanorunamonai. In 2021, he released his self-produced full-length album. This is an instrumental version of sibitt's self-produced full-length album "SHINGANGINGA" released in 2021.

Following their recent solo releases Soniscope (Dauw) and Cells #5 (SAUNA 064CS), Berlin-based multi-instrumentalist Midori Hirano and Tokyo based string experimentalist Atsuko Hatano have teamed up for their first collaborative full-length: Water Ladder. An intense, multilayered continuation of earlier collaborations (Atsuko was featured on Midori's debut LP back in 2006), the foundation for this new collaborative album was laid when they shared stages in Berlin (Ausland) and Japan in 2019. Working remotely at first, they later recorded parts of the album in Nara's snoihouse (using omnidirectional polyhedral speakers). "As we rallied back and forth with our recordings in the process of creating this album, unanticipated fluctuations and irregularities emerged, coming together into a kind of music with a unique resilience and buoyancy that cannot be confined to existing molds. It was as though we had built a Water Ladder to bridge the gap between us," explains prolific composer and viola player Atsuko Hatano, who's been busy recording solo and with colleagues such as Jim O'Rourke, Eiko Ishibashi, Mocky, Tatsuhisa Yamamoto, Takeo Toyama, and Anzu Suhara (Asa-chang and Junrei). Kyoto-born, Berlin-based Midori Hirano, who's also been releasing music under her MimiCof moniker, adds multiple instruments to the ever-changing sonic landscapes of Water Ladder -- an album defined by suspenseful and seemingly suspended compositions that often feel like floating in midair, a sensation the musicians compare to "that distinctive feeling you get from riding a high-speed elevator, where you can no longer tell whether you're going up or down." Devoid of birdsong, the late summer air is nevertheless full of buzzing, whirring, hissing sounds on foreboding album opener "Summer Noise," a cinematic intro with slow-moving piano chords and an ominous build-up over the course of its sprawling eight minutes. Elsewhere, sudden bursts of viola cut through nighttime peace ("Nocturnal Awakening"), followed by "Cotton Sphere" -- which makes the sensation of floating in midair complete: harmonies and melodies rise and form to fall apart again. Whereas the title track truly explodes half-way in, the final "Cascade" brings closure to the electro-acoustic six-track collection: the floating continues. "Water cannot retain its form on its own, and can take any shape as effected by external forces. Its movements cannot be captured by eyesight alone: A body of water that appears to be crashing down into a deep, bottomless waterfall could actually be rising up very slowly into midair," says Atsuko. "This is an invitation for you to cross the ever-transforming Water Ladder built between Midori and myself."

An important title is coming from Constructive, a new offshoot of SN Variations, a hot label in the UK that includes Chris Watson, Richard Skelton, and Lucy Railton. The latest album released just a few days ago was one of the strongest of the year, and now we have another new release. Last Afternoon" is a masterpiece of this year by Japanese composer Takuma Watanabe, who is known for his many film scores and collaborations with big names such as Relativity, UA, and David Sylvian. This is a rework of that album by Vladislav Delay aka Delay. Against the backdrop of tranquil and languid ambience, a mass of intense sounds pours out. Designed by Joe Gilmore of SUPERPANG, a new sanctuary for current Italian experimentalism, and mastered by Joe Talia! Limited to 500 copies.

There was something in the air in the urban corners of late ‘60s Japan. Student protests and a rising youth culture gave way to the angura (short for “underground) movement that thrived on subverting traditions of the post-war years. Rejection of the Beatlemania-inspired Group Sounds and the squeaky clean College Folk movements led the rise of what came to be known in Japan as “New Music,” where authenticity mattered more than replicating the sounds of their idols.

Some of the most influential figures in Japanese pop music emerged from this vital period, yet very little of their work has ever been released or heard outside of Japan, until now. Light In The Attic is thrilled to present Even a Tree Can Shed Tears, the inaugural release in the label’s Japan Archival Series. This is the first-ever, fully licensed collection of essential Japanese folk and rock songs from the peak years of the angura movement to reach Western audiences.

In mid-to-late 1960s Tokyo, young musicians and college students were drawn to Shibuya’s Dogenzaka district for the jazz and rock kissas, or cafes, that dotted its winding hilly streets. Some of these spaces doubled as performance venues, providing a stage for local regulars like Hachimitsu Pie with their The Band-like ragged Americana, Tetsuo Saito with his spacey philosophical folk, and the influential Happy End, who successfully married the unique cadences of the Japanese language to the rhythms of the American West Coast. For many years Dogenzaka remained a center of the city’s “New Music” scene.

Meanwhile a different kind of music subculture was beginning to emerge in the Kansai region around Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe. Far more political than their eastern counterparts, many of the Kansai-based “underground” artists began in the realm of protest folk music. They include Takashi Nishioka and his progressive folk collective Itsutsu No Akai Fuusen, the “Japanese Joni Mitchell” Sachiko Kanenobu, and The Dylan II, whose members ran The Dylan cafe in Osaka, which became a hub for the scene.

Even a Tree Can Shed Tears also includes the bluesy avant-garde stylings of Maki Asakawa, future Sadistic Mika Band founder Kazuhiko Kato with his fuzzy, progressive psychedelia, the beatnik acid folk of Masato Minami, and the intimate living room folk of Kenji Endo.

Nearly 50 years on, this “New Music” is born anew.

ジャパニーズ・シンセ・プロッグの先駆け的存在であるFar East Family Bandでの活躍でも知られ、自身の音楽を「ヒーリング・ミュージック」と題して、膨大な数の作品を大いに編み出した日本屈指のニューエイジ・ミュージック作家/ミュージック・セラピスト、宮下富実夫。1999年に残された最後の未発表音源がアナログ・リリース。66年に音楽家としてのキャリアを始動、69年には東京のロック・ミュージカル「Hair」にも結成メンバーとして参与、伊藤詳や深草アキ始め、多くのニューエイジ作家を輩出したジャパニーズ・サイケデリック/プログレ・バンドの金字塔、Far East Family Bandを結成。同バンドは、今もその威光衰えることのない、4枚の傑作アルバムを残しています。高校の頃には黒帯になるほど、空手に熱中したことから東洋思想にも関心を持ち、さらにステージでの負傷を鍼治療のみ(!)で癒してからは東洋医学にも接近していくことに。本作はNHKが日本の名瀑を紹介する番組に関連して日本を代表する名瀑こと那智の滝にて宮下が奉納した演奏から得たインスピレーションをもとに制作。リバイバル以降の現行ニューエイジとも遜色ないセンスに満ちた響きを聞かせる、音楽の音絵巻のような極上アンビエント作！

japanese living legend electronic music producer “takayuki shiraishi”, this album is his debut album on legendary experimental music label in osaka in late 70’s to beg 80’s which was run by yuzuru agi when shiraishi was high school student. shiraishi had a big influence from the music of post punk, new wave ,kraut rock…, this album is his unique mixture of that kind music style. one of the most demanded alternative music album in japan is finally reissued. remastered from original tape and mastering by kuniyuki takahashi.

Black Truffle is pleased to announce Ashioto, the first international solo release from Japanese drummer-percussionist-composer Tatsuhisa Yamamoto. Active for over a decade, Yamamoto has performed and recorded extensively with artists such as Jim O’Rourke, Eiko Ishibashi and Akira Sakata, as well as participating in innumerable improvised and ad hoc groups.

Ashioto presents two wide-ranging pieces that combine Yamamoto’s percussion work with piano, field recordings, electronics, and contributions from guest musicians Daisuke Fujiwara and Eiko Ishibashi.

Beginning with a passage of chiming metal percussion, the first side slowly builds into a rolling, open groove reminiscent of Yamamoto’s work on Eiko Ishibashi’s acclaimed Drag City LP The Dreams My Bones Dream. Spacious piano and synth notes, along with Ishibashi’s spare melodic figures on processed flute, hover above this propulsive rhythmic foundation, the whole effect adding up to a more abstract take on the area explored on Rainer Brüninghaus’s ECM classic Freigeweht.

The LP’s second side opens up a cavernous space filled with ominous electronics and shimmering metallic percussion, which organically transitions into a passage of rumbling piano chords and mysterious concrète sound. Later in the piece, Daisuke Fujiawara’s saxophone enters, playing melancholic melodic fragments that are looped and layered, creating a seasick swaying effect familiar to listeners of James Tenney’s works with tape delay systems. Beginning as delicate bass drum pulses, Yamamoto’s accompanying percussion eventually builds the piece into a raging torrent of free-improv splatter, processed sax and fizzing electronics.

Though grounded in instrumental performance, Ashioto is very much a studio construction, making inventive use of electro-acoustic principles in its editing and mixing. Together with its sister Ashiato – a different take on the same ‘script’ released simultaneously on Japanese label Newhere – Ashioto demonstrates to an international audience for the first time the true breadth and ambition of Yamamoto’s work.

Recommended for all new age / ambient fans. He is a leading figure in Japanese synthesizer music, known for his participation in the Far East Family Band, a pioneering synth prog group in Japan, and has also worked on numerous new age, healing music works and soundtrack work. Ito details. The extremely rare work "Marine Flowers" released in 1986 has been remastered to commemorate the 35th anniversary! The publisher is the attention label in Madrid, Spain, which also worked on the reprint release of Takashi Kokubo and Yuji Toriyama. Like Yumiko Morioka! This work, released from his own label 's series, was composed as a soundtracks of a documentary about wildlife in the sea shot in Palau. One of the most important careers created for Pioneer's LaserDisc campaign! The liner notes were created by Diego Olivas, the administrator of the famous blog . The original is a rare work that is traded even at a high price of over $300, so please take this opportunity!

the 18th album, released in 1985. After a break in her encounters with various musicians and a number of experimental techniques, she sings this album with only the piano of Takeshi Shibuya in the background, and you can feel again the greatness of Maki Asakawa as a jazz singer.

finally! Haruomi Hosono, who has been active in a wide range of fields from Japanese rock to alternative music, techno pop to ambient, including activities at Happy End, Tin Pan Alley, and YMO, created based on the inspiration when he visited India with Tadanori Yokoo. The 1978 masterpiece is a vinyl reissue from Light In The Attic!

A fictional Bollywood OST work by Haruomi Hosono and Tadanori Yokoo, created from the experience of traveling to India, "Cochin Moon" in 1978. A great fun board where the mysterious scent of bubbly electronic sounds repeats, sings pop, and takes you to the sacred place as it is. Limited to 1500 pieces with liner notes and deluxe gatefold jacket specifications described in the English version interview by Mr. Hosono himself. Now in the streaming era, this is vinyl!

Atsuko Hatano is a contemporay classical Viola player who works with electronics to add textures and layers to her sound. Located in Tokyo, Japan, she is a commanding instrumentalist and composer who constructs innovative compositions with strings and layered electronics...... ...Cells #5 is an orchestral collection and sequel to her previous album Cells #2 which will also be released on cassette via Imprec’s Cassauna label. Cells #5 required three years to complete and the work features the artist’s signature methodology where the instrumental performances are gradually enveloped by multiple layers of a string orchestration. When not playing solo Atsuko is extremely active recording, collaborating and playing live with Jim O’ Rourke, Eiko Ishibashi, Mocky and many more acts. Atsuko Hatano: Violin, Viola, Cello, Contrabass, Piano (track 1), Xylophone, Oscillator and Chorus Guest Musicians: Eiko Ishibashi: Piano, Marimba, Vibraphone Yuko Ikoma: Accordion Natsumi Kudo: Horn and flugelhorn Icchie: Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Piccolo Trumpet Tatsuhisa Yamamoto: Snare Drum Composed and Mixed by Atsuko Hatano Mastered by Jim O’Rourke Cover by Saskia Griepink

Tetsuo Furudate has been working on projects including electronic music, films, videos creating time passages between old and new pieces, re-reading the past through re-appropriations. All his recent pieces can be watched or just listened to. it is also a cultural mix embracing all eastern and western cultures (from JS Bach to Merzbow). Here he recreates a borderless and timeless universe, where voices and pianos reach emotional moments of great depth. The whole is driven by Tetsuo who, by a continuous mixing, conceives these different pieces as an editor would a film made of borrowings images, archives material and unpublished fragments. The Nocturne, The Nightmare and a Fruit features Keiko Higuchi and Olga Magieres. Tetsuo Furudate was first the collaborator and friend of Zbigniew Karkowski in Japan, together they created some of the most radical but complex pieces under the name of World as Will (after Arthur Schopenhauer's book), some of which were rewritten for the Viennese Zeitkratzer Ensemble. Keiko Higuchi is above all a pianist and performer, linked to jazz and improvisation. She was revealed by Love Hotel (2008), her concerts are like real performances, she is considered as one of the most singular and impressive performing artists of her generation. Olga Magieres, Russian pianist living in Denmark, specializes in improvised music and the syntactic relationship of languages. She has already collaborated with Tetsuo in 2010 with Introduction Of Blue Of Noon, her first opus Piano and Poetry had been praised.

A single cut from the debut album "Orca" by NTsKi, a Kyoto-based electronic music producer/performer. It is a 7-inch single that couples "Takao Remix", which was previously available only on the Japanese CD version of the same album, and the instrumental version by Takao.

Futoshi Moriyama is an Osaka-based electronic music producer who began his musical career in the early 2000s improvised music hothouse of Osaka’s Shinsekai Bridge, an important venue for the “Kansai zero sedai” (Kansai Zero Generation), which sprang up in the wake of The Boredoms’ world-wide success. Kazuhisa Uchihashi was the axis of this Bridge scene; his workshops allowed a generation the freedom to develop their own voices. Moriyama’s early improvisational work often saw him using cheap samplers to surprising ends, but since then his work has moved in a more composed direction, while still investigating electronic sound. This particular release, which appeared initially in 2015 as a cassette on the Birdfriend label, run by Koshiro Hino (aka YPY), was a year in the making. All of the music was composed with software instruments, spurred by a desire to move beyond his previous work, and can be heard as a home-recorded orchestral music.

Takao‘s new album is a rare attempt to recreate a previously released album. He has re-recorded his debut album "Stealth" and presents it here as a completely new work. This is a 50-minute full-length album with two new tracks, "Moon" and "Seven Sands". This new "Stealth" is subtitled 'Gold Edition'. 

=From the 2018 album commentary= 
“Stealth” is the aptly-titled debut album from Tokyo-based composer/producer Takao. Gliding in under the radar with thirteen slyly sweet and subtle miniatures, these pieces are refreshing light-explosions of gentle harmony and modestly grand melodies. Fans of New Age and tonal minimalism will enjoy this music, but its brevity reveals a pop-influenced aesthetic as well, and the level of care and detail in the arrangements and recording evinces a nuanced, surprisingly mature sensibility. There’s a blossoming brightness and elegant simplicity that even calls to mind gentle ghosts of Satie and Debussy.

This work "The Apointed Cloud" was developed in 1987 as a large-scale sound installation, and despite being positioned as a representative work of Yoshi Wada, his activities are , It has never been reported to Japan.
Included here are a variety of pipe organ-style instruments, large-scale self-made instruments that combine huge metal plates and junk materials, in addition to installations that vibrate and be beaten under computer control. It is a live performance that announces the opening of the exhibition of works in which the artist participated. This is a very different content from the installation that was open to the public, and it is a one-time performance on November 8, 1987, which was handed down only by the invited guests who experienced this performance at that time and was half legendary.
Bagpipes by Yoshi Wada and other improvisational field artists, percussionist Michael Pagres, who co-starred with David Tudor and others at the Merce Cunningham Dance Company performance, and computer programs were created. At the same time, David Reina assisted the electronic sound in the performance of La Monte Young.

These 28 tracks, 72 minutes in total, cover a wide range of musical styles and eras, from the 60s to the present, urban to rural, primarily by Thai vocalists and musicians, with contributions from Japan and the Philippines. 60s-America-style pop by Suri Yamuhi and the Babylon Band as well as contemporary EDM, trap and hip hop sounds are all present, but the core of this soundtrack are luk thung and molam classics from the 70s and 80s by Angkhanang Khunchai, On-uma Singsiri, Dao Bandon, Khwanta Fasawang and “The Countryside is Great” by Rungphet Laemsing, a pivotal song in the film. All tracks are complete versions, some incorporating dialogue from the film. This CD-only OST features English lyrics, and liner notes by the film’s directors Katsuya Tomita and Toranosuke Aizawa, plus Iwao Yamazaki, Young-G and MMM of the Kuzok team, and Soi 48. This is the first soundtrack release by EM Records. 

TRACKS: 

01. Pai Tuktuk Dwai - DJ Pai Dwai 
02. Pai Massage Dwai - Young-G (stillichimiya/ Omiyuki CHANNEL) 
03. The Smell of Money - Suri Yamuhi & The Babylon Band 
04. You've Left Me Alone - Suri Yamuhi & The Babylon Band 
05. Porra - XXXSSS Tokyo 
06. Only Som Tam - On-uma Singsiri 
07. The Countryside is Great - Rungphet Laemsing 
08. Isan Radio 
09. Bong Ja Bong (Pipe, oh Pipe!) - Dao Bandon 
10. Burn! Burn! Burn! ~ Surfin' Dien Bien Phu - Suri Yamuhi & The Babylon Band 
11. I Will Buy You Back - Bar Nong Khai Band 
12. Samet Love - DJ Pai Dwai 
13. That Goddam Motorsai - Khwanta Fasawang 
14. The Stench of Night – from Chit Phumisak's poem - Surachai Jantimathawn 
15. Saramanda - DJ Pai Dwai 
16. Tamarind Leaf (molam) - Angkhanang Khunchai 
17. Bahn Swairon - Khun Narin's Electric Phin Band 
18. Khaen Whistle Reprise (JRP Tondo mix) - DJ Kensei feat. Tondo Tribe 
19. Vang Vieng Bank (Change Yen to Lao) OST mix - DJ Kensei 
20. Xieng Khouang's Daughter - Thong Boonma (lam), Le Boonma (khaen) 
21. Get Em - XLII 
22. Paun's House - Suri Yamuhi & The Babylon Band 
23. Xanadu - Young-G (stillichimiya/ Omiyuki CHANNEL) 
24. Kanom Party - Young-G (stillichimiya/ Omiyuki CHANNEL) 
25. The Song of an Angel - Suri Yamuhi & The Babylon Band 
26. Ying's Story - Subenja Pongkon 
27. Isan Lam Phloen - Angkhanang Khunchai & The Ubon Phatthana Band 
28. Full Moon (Atsani Phonlachan) - Yuzo Toyoda, Takeshi Yamamura 

He made his debut at the age of 17 on Vanity Records. He is also a member of Tristan Disco, a no-wave dub obscure unit. A pioneer in the world of Japanese techno, Takayuki Shiraishi compiled a compilation of his rare recordings under the name MLD between 1983 and 1986. This is a piece that confirms Shiraishi's unique and offbeat style that crosses over from post-punk to dub to industrial. This is a must-have for fans of Mannequin Records and Minimal Wave. Mastered by the French genius Krikor Kouchian, limited to 500 copies.

“Morning Picture”, the work of 1984, became the pioneer of the trend of ambient music that flourished in the mid-1980s.

This work, in which he knitted all the songs by himself and confined a beautiful melody, was released by Klaus Schulze’s “Innovative Communication”at that time, and Floating Points picked it with his own DJ MIX, both domestically and internationally. It is being evaluated.

In recent years, the long-awaited recurrence of the masterpiece, which is recognized as a masterpiece of high-purity modern new age-ambient, and also as a representative work of Japanese Balearic.

Two years after “Morning Picture”, “Touch of Rain” was made in 1986 by skillfully incorporating the taste of fusion.

This work, which was played colorfully with many top musicians such as Masashi Akiyama on guitar and Hideo Yamaki on drums, will be reproduced as much as possible to reproduce the specifications at that time.

All the songs are composed by him, such as “What Do You Do When It’s Spring?”, Where the reverberation quietly sways in a transparent sound space, and “Empty Blues”, which has a moody saxophone scent. thing. While keeping the originality, it is a fresh and contemporary work.

The Tokyo-based Japanese experimental musician Masaya Nakahara as kwon as Violent Onsen Geisha has been dazzling us with his entirely singular approach to sound since 1989. Harnessing his unique natural approach to mixier by combining techno, pop samples and hip hop, as well as his sister's karaoke singing or his parent quarreling, screams and glass or ceramic bowls broken, he incredibly built a body of work in recorded contexts that has almost no parallel, producing arrangements where all the style and the sonic atmosphere meet in a happy junk room and elaborating his delirious patchwork studio from magneto-phone tapes. His amazing cut-up proved interesting to major band such as Sonic Youth and Beck, who invited him on a US tour in 1995. At the height of his music career as Violent Onsen Geisha in 1998, Nakahara published Mari & Fifi No Gyakusatsu Songu Bukku (Mari & Fifi’s Massacre Songbook) and made his debut as a novelist. In 2001, he received the 14th Yukio Mishima Award for “Arayuru Basho Ni Hanataba Ga” (Bouquets of Flowers Everywhere), and became increasingly active as a writer and movie critic. His best-know cassette Shock! Shock! Shock! released in 1989 from legendary Vanilla Records, first time reissued on vinyl format, takes us deep into the intimately responsive aspects of his work. Despite the density of its structures, that combine the most disparate musical genres with deafening shouts and crashes, Shock! Shock! Shock! feels like a breath of fresh air, fearlessly skirting the line between creative rigor and focused interplay and a playful irreverence in ways that leave you wondering where the hell you are. ‘’For someone who has no musical talent like me, the only thing that I could naturally create was noise.’’ Masaya Nakahara Vinyl with the magnificent mastering by Andrea Marutti is a truly thrilling exchange of collages, vacillating between kitsch, the austere, and boundary pushing structures, all played against and pushed onto the next level by Nakahara incredible talent. Unflinchingly beautiful and creatively challenging, Shock! Shock! Shock! completely defies genre and definition, rising as a wonderful reminder of what noise music is all about. A justly radical zone of creative patchwork sound that renders an engrossing listen that you can’t pull out of once you’re in. Released in an edition of 299 copies sole, unquestionably one of our favorite reissues of the year. Absolutely stunning, this is a stone-cold killer that can’t be missed.

Already low stock at the distributor. A miraculous analog release of the first collaborative work between masters Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Toop, an album that includes the entire concert held in London in August 2018! They have collaborated with Evan Parker, Akiko Yano, Arto Lindsay, Christian Fennesz, and many others in various fields, including film music, sessions in the popular music field, and sound installations. The title is inspired by Japanese horticultural aesthetics, and the recording is a masterpiece of minimalism, with spatial metaphors woven throughout by the two artists' outstanding aesthetic sense.

Satomimagae’s Hanazono is an invitation to revel in your immediate and imagined surroundings, to make time and space for guileless curiosity and garden variety enchantment. A tribute to everyday mysticism, Hanazono is an ecology of simple, cyclical refrains and elegiac entreaties cross-pollinating with ludic and layered folk vibrations.