MUSIC

Meitei’s 2020 album 'Kofū' was the bold bookend to an expedition, where sounds were first navigated and then subverted in 2018’s 'Kwaidan' and 2019’s 'Komachi'.

All three albums were Meitei’s attempt at immersive storytelling, reimagining moments of Japanese history he felt were being washed away – not least by the unforgiving sands of time – through wistful compositions that stretched across ambient music, hauntology, and musique concrete.

When it came to finalizing 'Kofū', Meitei found he was left with over 60 fully realized tracks, bursting with ideas that fired in divergent, curious directions. Meitei was content with the 13 tracks he had selected. But when it came time to begin his next album, he found that it had been sitting in front of him all along. He realized his work wasn’t over yet.

Meitei sounds right at home celebrating the past he first reimagined in his previous work. The merriment is palpable in its first two tracks of 'Kofū II' – a loop of cheery whistling amidst the clanking of wood leads into strings, cricket sounds and flutes, all united in bustling harmony.

'Happyaku-yachō' is where it comes into focus. Pitch-shifted vocal samples roam around in the crowded sonic field. “My image of this music is that it expresses the vibrant mood of Edo's merchant culture,” says Meitei, “where old Japanese dwellings were densely packed together in a vast expanse of land.” The affair becomes bittersweet as the track leads into the desolate 'Kaworu', a compositional piece lifted from his 'Komachi' sessions – a final requiem to his late grandmother.

The album is bursting with spectral vignettes of wandering samurais, red lanterns, ninjas, puppet theatres, poets, even a vengeful assassin ('Shurayuki hime', known to Western audiences as ‘Lady Snowblood’).

'Saryō' is as elegant and refined as you would expect. It induces stillness in its repetition, with each synth note a brushstroke. It was inspired by a Sengoku-era tea house he once visited, designed by national icon Sen no Rikyū. Meitei tied it to the reaction he felt while poring over the ink paintings in his grandmother’s house. “The decayed earthen walls and faded tatami mats gave me an emotional impression,” he says. “And the cosmic flow of time drifting in the small room. I decided to put my impression of this into music.”

In 'Akira Kurosawa', an appropriately thunderous track, Meitei finds deep resonance in his vast filmography, which drew equally from Japan’s rich heritage and troubled circumstances post-WWII.

'Kofū II' is not a leftovers album, nor is it a straightforward companion piece. In this album, Meitei has his biggest reckoning with the Japanese identity yet. Over the years, he has attempted to peel back what he believes has defined Japan and its people. After seeking answers with three full-length albums, his fourth poses more questions.

If his first three albums inspired a sense of longing – or, perhaps inevitably, fed an irreparable nostalgia doomed to history – 'Kofū II' compels us to reassess our relationship with the past. By constantly looking back, are we ever afforded a clearer present? After capturing the “lost Japanese mood”, where does that leave its country in the modern world? Meitei offers no immediate answers with 'Kofū II'. It forces you to sit with its disparate moods, to meditate amidst the textured fragments.

'Kofū II' will be released on 180g LP, CD and digital format on December 10, 2021 (LP expected to land January 28, 2022) via KITCHEN. LABEL. Both LP and CD format are presented in a debossed sleeve with obi strip and include a 16-page insert with words in Japanese and English from Meitei, printed on premium paper stock with design by KITCHEN. LABEL founder Ricks Ang, and is mastered by Chihei Hatakeyama in Tokyo, Japan. 

Here's a great one. This is from Death Is Not The End, a great place for digging up antique music from all over the world, from pre-war blues to immigrant music and South American folklore. It's also a great place to dig for antique music from all over the world. This Japanese project follows on the heels of Katsutaro Kouta, which was released in 2018 and was very popular in our store, and contains haunting and unique sounds that show how cultural fusion with the West was beginning to be reflected in popular songs before the influence of Western pop music during the post-war American occupation. This is a work that every Japanese should be exposed to at least once.

Here's a great one. This is from Death Is Not The End, a great place for digging up antique music from all over the world, from pre-war blues to immigrant music and South American folklore. It's also a great place to dig for antique music from all over the world. This Japanese project follows on the heels of Katsutaro Kouta, which was released in 2018 and was very popular in our store, and contains haunting and unique sounds that show how cultural fusion with the West was beginning to be reflected in popular songs before the influence of Western pop music during the post-war American occupation. This is a work that every Japanese should be exposed to at least once.

DOWN 2 EARTH, which was established by Toshio Nakanishi as a "Nagomimono" music line within the Major Force label, has finally released the album of the group of gods, known as the pinnacle of exotic music, on analog. !

An exotic work that can be said to be an extension of the Watermelon Group, Toshio Nakanishi, Masayuki Kudo, steel guitar player Genichi Tamura, who is also known for activities such as Little Tempo, and Shunji Mori of Natural Calamity gathered in Bali to record. This album is an exotic sound that has been consistently slowed down in line with the label's concept.
A work that can be said to be the highest peak of domestic exotic music.
Works in 1992

Tracklist:
Side A
1.BEYOND THE JUNGLE (there’s something)
2.MOON HOTEL

Side B
1.DEATH A GOOD ADVISER
2. NUMBERS
3.WHEN THE SKY FALLS

DISC 2
Side C
1.MOVING WATER (GET HOT, GET WET)
2.SLACK BABY SLACK

Side D
1.THUNDER ISLAND
2.SPACE COWBOY
3.VOICES

Musique Hydromantique is the second solo album by Tomoko Sauvage archiving many years of her performance-based practice on the waterbowls -- the natural synthesizer of her invention, composed with porcelain bowls filled with water and amplified via hydrophones (underwater microphones). While her first album Ombrophilia (2009) was studio-recorded/composed work, Musique Hydromantique is about experimentation and improvisation with the environment -- acoustics affected by the architecture, temperature, humidity, and the human presence. For more than ten years, Sauvage has been investigating the sound and visual properties of water in different states, as well as those of ceramics, combined with electronics. Water drops, waves, and bubbles are some of the elements she has been playing with to generate the fluid timbre. Since around 2010, hydrophonic feedback has been an obsession -- an acoustic phenomenon that requires fine tuning depending on the amount of water, a subtle volume control, and interaction with the acoustic space. "Calligraphy" was recorded in a genuine echo chamber, with about ten second reverbs, situated in a former textile factory. Like an endless exercise to draw perfect curves and forms floating in the air, the subaquatic feedback frequencies are pitch-bended with the mass of water sculpted by a hand changing its quantity. "Fortune Biscuit" is about the singing bubbles emitted from the pieces of "biscuit" (porous terra-cotta). Depending on the texture of the surface, each biscuit makes different sound. "Clepsydra" (meaning "water clock") features Sauvage's classical technique, a random percussion with dripping water. Sauvage tunes the waterbowls by adding and removing water, making flowing glissando, to find the balance point in ever-changing tonalities. Just as the flow of water is subject to a number of variables such as temperature and pressure, water clocks mark a time that is shifting and relative. However, slowness dominates throughout the album as a result of favoring the full resonance of the instrument. Hydromancy is a method of divination by means of water. Unpredictable bubbles and water ripples become oracles. Evaporation and acoustic space constantly play a chance operation. All the tracks were live-recorded without electronic effects or editing. Recorded during night or very early in the morning, and the whole album is to be listened to during that period of a day. Mastered by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering. CD version comes in a digipak; Edition of 1000.

A deeply confounding trip into the sublime from master of contextual dream-weaving Nozomu Matsumoto on perhaps his most heart-piercingly beautiful work to date, including a 13 minute choral section that might just be the most stunning piece of pseudo-classical/liturgical alchemy we’ve heard all year. Huge recommendation for followers/lovers of Kara-Lis Coverdale, Ryan Trecartin or Mica Levi’s ‘Zola’ score Leading on from his ’Remain Calm’ album to accompany visual components by regular collaborator Nile Koetting, ‘Immunotherapy’ offers therapeutic solace through a personalised form of Japanese environmental music. A conceptual continuation of themes explored on 2018’s ‘Climatotherapy’ and 2020’s ‘Sustainable Hours’; Nozomu’s 3rd solo vinyl release reprises his uncanny ability to evoke a reflective headspace with a blend of classical ambient tropes, text-to-speech synthesis, and a contemporary cinematic vernacular that’s both nuanced and moving. In 2022, against the backdrop of global warfare, a pandemic, and ecological collapse, Nozomu’s work grasps the nettle with a sober lucidity to make time and space for his, and your, wellbeing. ‘Immunotherapy’ carefully evokes its own temporality and atmospheric conditions via a grandiose but intimate palette of strings, keys, blissed chorales, and electronic webbing which provide the bed for narration by Amazon’s vocaloid, Polly. The results create an unusual duality - a human/inhuman intimacy rooted in some uncertain semi-robotic near-future that references the original ‘80s era of classic Japanese ambient music, which itself emerged as a soothing response to the headlong rush of a technologically enhanced/enchanted society. Across six parts in 22 minutes, ‘Immunotherapy’ resolves from the initial inset of a panic attack in public, via passages reflecting on “diseases of affluence” thru to spine freezing synth pads and an extraordinary denouement of emotive Koto and shearing synthesis on ‘Vertigo’ before entering a final state of blissed stasis on that closing 13 minute ‘Filippo Pacini’ section - a haunting ode to the c.19th Italian anatomist that uncannily reminds us of Kara-Lis Coverdale’s collaboration with Yasuaki Shimizu - a sound that feels all-too-human despite it’s synthetic contours. A whirlwind of emotion, right on the cusp of bliss and melancholia.

Les Rallizes Dénudés' original album "'67-'69 STUDIO et LIVE", released in August 1991, has been reissued with vinyl LP! This is a valuable collection of sound sources from the early days of the band's activities, filled with the electric guitar feedback that would determine the direction of the band's later activities.

FACE A 
1. Smokin’ Cigarette Blues (Live Version) 
2. La Mal Rouge 
3. 眩 暈 otherwise My Conviction 
    Vertigo otherwise My Conviction 

FACE B 
1. Les Bulles de Savon 
    Soap Bubbles 
2. 記憶は遠い 
    Memory is far away 
3. 鳥の声 
    Bird calls in the dusk 
4. My Conviction (2nd. Version) 
5. The Last One _1969 (Live Version)

*The two bonus tracks "Résonance" and "Tobacco Road" on the CD reissue of the same title will not be included on the LP.

MIZUTANI / Les Rallizes Dénudés", has been remastered and reissued by Makoto Kubota, a participating member at the time!
Acoustic and introspective, this important work offers a glimpse into the personal side of Mizutani, the core of Naked Rallies.

Due to recording time constraints, "Black Sorrow Romance Otherwise Fallin' Love With," which is included at the end of the CD, was cut from the analog LP.
As a result, this record is composed of only the unique sound sources in the history of the Raleys, which were created by a chance encounter between Takashi Mizutani and Makoto Kubota in Kyoto, Japan in 1970.

Yokobue (transverse flute) player Michiko Akao's 1983 release "Yokobue: The World of Michiko Akao" is being reissued for the first time! Produced with Shigeaki Saegusa as composer and arranger, this is a new age work that goes far beyond the realm of pure Japanese music. This is a definite recommendation for listeners who are following the current new age/ambient music.

Kita --------! It's like presenting a new style and outlook on music through a "book-off" music dig that is unique to Japan. also got a score of "8.4" and BEST NEW MUSIC, but 10 points are necessary for historical significance ... The last sanctuary released on CD in Japan in the 90's Heisei. It's no exaggeration to say that the overwhelming piece "Heisei No Oto", which is a compilation of unknown left-field pop music, has ignited various revival since the 10's and is a prestigious name in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Appeared from the label ! Including Jun Sato and Love, Peace & Trance, which were also published in "New Age Music Disc Guide", Haruomi Hosono produced Yosui Inoue's Japanese realic "Pi Po Pa", and Toshifumi Hinata produced Xácara, Sakurai. Keisuke's statement Deep House "Harai", Yoshihiko Yokokawa (P-Model, 4-D, etc.) and Kazuko Hashimoto's new-age, ambient, and experimental sounds, as well as An ambitious compilation album that includes the abstract texture peculiar to 90's J-POP, which has not been revival yet like POiSON GiRL FRiEND and Tomoko Kino, which were mentioned before. It seems to be the freshest lineup among the editing boards released from the neighborhood that has promoted the obscure analog recurrence boom since the 10s. The music was selected by Norio Sato of and Eiji Taniguchi of , both the managers of a well-known niche store in Osaka. Supporting is a heart-warming gem called ! And the perfect liner notes by Chee Shimizu. It's a monument! MUST !!!!!!!!!!!

Morio Agata cuts "Submarine" and "Airplane" as singles from his 1980 incidental masterpiece and world-important work "Norimono Zukan"! 7" Analog Limited Edition!

Wewantsounds continues their Ryuichi Sakamoto reissue series with the release of the 1985 album Esperanto, composed for a performance by New York avant-garde choreographer Molissa Fenley. Produced and performed by Sakamoto with contribution by Arto Lindsay and Japanese percussionist Yas-Kaz, Esperanto is a fascinating instrumental work mixing electronica, ambient and synth pop. Released in Japan in 1985 on Midi Inc.s' School label, the album has never been released outside of Japan until now. Esperanto originally came out in 1985 and was Ryuichi Sakamoto's sixth solo album. Coming after his stint with the influential Yellow Magic Orchestra, and also the worldwide success of Sakamoto's 1984 soundtrack for the film Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (in which he starred alongside David Bowie), Esperanto was a return to Sakamoto's leftfield roots. Composed as the soundtrack to a performance by New York choreographer Molissa Fenley (a show commissioned by Japanese producer Shozo Tsurumoto), the album was masterminded by Sakamoto with the help of the cutting-edge electronic technology of the time (the only external contributions are by Arto Lindsay on guitar and Japanese composer Yas-Kaz on percussion). Indeed, the album is a fascinating soundscape experimenting with the new sampler technology -- which, according to Ryuichi Sakamoto from a conversation with journalist Andy Beta mentioned in the liner notes, needed a computer that was huge at the time. Esperanto is composed of eight tracks displaying a varied mix of influences. "A Wongga Dance Song" is pulsating with rhythms while "A Rain Song" adopts a minimalist mode with its distinctive repetitive pattern. "Dolphins" and "A Carved Stone" are captivating ambient pieces showcasing Sakamoto's talent for setting beautiful abstract melodic ornaments over atmospheric tones. One of the highlights of the album is "Adelic Penguins", a fascinating proto techno piece with a funky twist stretching over six minutes which echoes the electro funk of 1981's album Hidari Ude No Yume (WWSCD 033CD/WWSLP 033LP/WWSLP 034LP). "Ulu Watu", a collage-like piece featuring bird motives and a tropical soundscape closes the album with an experimental note. It's interesting to note that, a year later, the tracks from Esperanto would be turned into an experimental video project by New York visual artists Kit Fitzgerald and Nam June Paik collaborator Paul Garrin. A unique album in Ryuichi Sakamoto's rich discography, Esperanto is a groundbreaking work worth rediscovering in its full glory. Original artwork; includes two-page insert with a new introduction by journalist Andy Beta. Audio remastered in Tokyo by Seigen Ono.

Also known as the leader of the jazz trio Inga, Sam Gendel is an L.A. saxophonist who has developed a free and unique sound that has been described as psychedelic, outsider, and meditative, and Shin Sasakubo is a Chichibu-based guitarist. A new album by the duo of Sam Gendel, an up-and-coming saxophonist from LA, and Shin Sasakubo, an uncanny guitarist based in Chichibu, who is also active as a photographer and contemporary artist. The two showed great chemistry in Shin Sasakubo's previous work "CHICHIBU", which has become a hot topic in many places. On this album, Sam Gendel plays on the A-side and Shin Sasakubo plays solo on the B-side, and they feature each other on the final track of each side. The music was recorded in LA and Chichibu during the Corona disaster, and the result is a quiet work with an intimate atmosphere. The release is from Cafe Carne, a cafe in Chichibu where Shin Sasakubo also frequents. The impressive artwork is by Eri Masuko, a popular illustrator who also worked on the Cafe Carne logo.

(LP / 180g / Tip-on jacket / limited to 200 copies)

■ TRACK LIST

SIDE A (SAM GENDEL)
01 IN THE DUNES
02 REEDS
03 PENSIVE FROG
04 PIPE
05 COPYEXERCISE

SIDE B (SHIN SASAKUBO)
01 CARNET
02 OPUS
03 FONTAINEBLEAU
04 HUMAN LOOPER
05 NADJA

"The Japanese avant-garde pop band strove to create a “sacred ambiance” on their second album, fusing unconventional arrangements with bouncing volleyballs and an eyes-wide air of wonder." “It’s rare that art-pop matches its extravagance with such alluring modesty. In doing so, Paradise of Replica feels like encountering cinematic spectacles in miniature.” —Joshua Minsoo Kim (Pitchfork, September 30, 2022)

This world-famous acid folk classic features performances by Matsutoya, Katsuo Ohno (PYG), Hiroki Komazawa (Honey Pai), Hiromasa Fujita (Sunset Band), Tsugitoshi Goto, Hiroshi Segawa in the chorus and Shin Otowa, who is currently undergoing a reevaluation. 1973 release.

Following the release of his album trilogy (Kwaidan, Komachi and Kofū), Meitei has established himself as a defining voice in contemporary Japanese music. By sharing intricate sonic stories and impressions of his nation's rich culture, he has built an aural world around his notion of the ‘lost Japanese mood’. His latest project, under the new moniker Tenka, aims to work without the boundaries of theme, storytelling or audience expectations. Spending many hours in the mountain forests that he lives close to, his latest project Hydration explores the rich sensory pleasures of his natural surroundings, focusing on colour, sound, smell, humidity, touch, atmosphere and taste. “For me, making music is not a concept of enjoyment or pleasure, but something that becomes a part of my life, a record of my daily activities, like seeing something with my eyes or breathing in something with my lungs.” A lot of the music on Hydration was created back in 2019, but Tenka felt that there was something missing in the final delivery of the work. Eventually this led to a conversation with the Berlin based, Japanese born scent designer, Ryoko, in which the pair discussed collaborating on a scent to pair with the audio. Designed as a way to give the listener a deeper connection to their own senses and the experience of the music’s author, the combination of ollifactory and aural components connect a shared love of Japanese ecosystems and traditions. ‘I began to feel that in addition to music, there needed to be another essential element - and that it must be a "fragrance”.’ Hydration is available from September 14 on LP, CD and digital formats. The fragrance can be purchased directly from the Métron Records Bandcamp page and comes in a 10ml bottle of diffuser oil, great for home diffusers, as well as an empty 10ml spray bottle in order to create a body or room mist by mixing the oil with water (instructions included for best results). All customers who purchase the fragrance will receive a copy of the album on CD with a companion booklet with words from Tenka and Ryoko about the project.

Hereby a classic japanese acid folk tale, also credited by the wizard master Julian Cope in his ‘Japrocksampler’ top 50 list. Tokedashita Garasu Bako, or Melting Glass Box, was a studio-only project of Nishiokai Takashi (Itsutsu No Akai Fusen), “Singing Philosopher” Tetsuo Saito and Takasuke Kida (of influential psychedelic freaks Jacks). Guest musicians included Kazuhiko Kato (Folk Crusaders, Sadistic Mika Band), Kazuo Takeda (Blues Creation) and mastermind Haruomi Hosono (Apryl Fool, Happy End, YMO).

Their sole release licensed in 1970 on URC (Japanese independent record label specializing in folk, co-founded in February 1969 by Hayakawa Yoshio, guitarist for the psychedelic band Jacks) became soon after a cult record leading the way for the eastern psychedelic renaissance. An authentic lysergic trip filled with mind-blowing electric guitar leads and many studio tricks thrown in! Get lost, now or never !
 

Keita Sano marks his return to ROW Records with his second offering for the German imprint, delivering five cuts of experimental electronics, warbling bass and a remix from fellow Japanese producer Dayzero. With a discography spanning sought after imprints including 1080p, Discos Capablanca, Holic Trax, Let’s Play House, Mister Saturday Night and Spring Theory, Keita Sano relocated from Japan to Berlin circa 2019 to take his music further afield and perform in New York, Miami, Paris, Milan, Munich, Oslo, Montreal and London. Now back in Japan, Sano rekindles his time spent in London experimenting with music, specifically in Leyton, perhaps inspired by the future bass and grime scenes of the capital. Nonetheless, what’s on offer here is a resplendent array of rhythmic explorations spanning trilling techno and bass. ‘Blur Ceramics‘ is powered up with a gritty and granular synthetic texture, embellished with 909 claps and mutant bass, brought to life with a timbral drum pattern, sounding similar to the output from Shackleton.

0on Zero-on, a label run by the percussion group "Kodo 鼓童" which has its roots on Sado Island, has released a cassette recording of a solo performance by percussionist Yuta Sumiyoshi, a member of the "Kodo" group. 

KENTATAKU YUTATAKU’s 3rd album “Zero On” is the eponymous first release on Kodo’s new label 0on.
Featuring four improvisational tracks, ranging from large ensemble works without musical instruments to vast sound collages, KENTATAKU YUTATAKU’s latest work is packed full of heart, soul, and fresh new sound.
Limited release of 200 cassettes + download code. 

0on Zero-on, a label run by the percussion group "Kodo 鼓童" which has its roots on Sado Island, has released a cassette recording of a solo performance by percussionist Yuta Sumiyoshi, a member of the "Kodo" group. 

“Mogari” is Yuta Sumiyoshi’s debut solo album. Features six tracks of 100% shinobue (bamboo flutes) music, recorded entirely at his home studio. This uncharted exploration of shinobue sound drifts and shapeshifts through drone, noise, minimalism and more, leading to untold possibilities. Limited release of 100 cassettes + download code.

Limited 200 copies, Black Vinyl. On behalf of re:discovery records, it is with great excitement that we announce the release of 'Ambient7 - Excepts from 1995-2000' compilation. Ambient7 was a threesome out of Japan that included Chica Asamoto, Masayuki Momo and Shuichi Ikebuchi. Chica Asamoto, an accomplished saxophone player while Masayuki Momo and Shuichi Ikebuchi both talented synthesizer players and producers in their own right. Together, they released 3 full albums during a 6 year span from 1995-2000. Ambient7's sound was a blend of chill out styles including ambient, techno, balearic house and everything in-between. A unique and heartfelt far east version of chill out techno music . 'Escape' is a soft ambient techno track with a touch of dub that is sure to sit along the greats of genre and the time. Surrounding 'Escape', are two short but worthy examples of the Ambient7 sound. First, is the unique tribal attention getter that is 'Prologue' then ending with the beautiful balearic saxophone serenade that is 'Epilogue'. Flip the record and you 'Deep Sea' that comes in just under 11 minutes. A very unique track that we will just encourage you to take the trip and describe it how you would like. Lastly, is the balaeric ambient house lullaby that is 'Orange Sunshine'. Some who have heard this track call it a reason to buy the record alone for not even hearing the other tracks on this EP. A standout and a perfect set opener or closer, this is sure to be the re:discovery track for the summer for 2022. Genre: Techno, ambient, balearic, chill out, dub

A Japanese synth curio? A lost techno-pop classic? So might run the standard view of the electronic album 'Boku・Neko・Platanus', recorded in 1984 by Shinichi Omata. The facts point that way. The futuristic 'Platonische Liebe' and Omata’s technodelic take on the traditional Greek folk track 'Omorfoula' (here titled 'Egyptische Knabe') are timeless electro tracks with a radically simple pop concept and robotic flavour that closely echo Japan’s most recognisable exports from the era - sounds and styles which rose to international prominence immediately following the economic boom that was taking shape in contemporary Japanese culture. But, focusing only on such fragments misses the greater charms of the album – an argument made more convincing by the inclusion in this expanded edition of an archive of unreleased material from the original recording period. The music spans an unusually broad and contrasting range of influences, exploring the possibilities of mood music, imaginary soundtracks and pop dissonance, while also borrowing widely from films and contemporary arts. How Omata transformed this vast range of influences into synth-pop is the real magic here. The original cassette edition was released by the Tokyo-based Indian grocery store, Ganso Nakaya Mugendo, located in the Koenji district of the city. During the early 1980s, interest in experimental music began to grow among a small group of committed local music fans and musicians. Small independent shops started playing a pivotal role in this nascent scene. First, they imported many of the obscure rarities that were gradually being reissued or bootlegged in the West. Later, as some of the regular customers and employees formed their own groups, many shop owners started establishing their own labels. Even then, 'Boku・Neko・Platanus' was issued in extremely limited numbers – so much so that it’s incredible it ever came to light at all. The album is perhaps best understood as an outsider one-off, adrift from place, style, market and audience. Omata was already garnering a reputation as a formidable musician before the days of 'Boku・Neko・Platanus'. An early follower of European classical, Latin and Western styles, he was an accomplished keyboardist and sitar player who formed close relationships with artists and musicians in the burgeoning Tokyo avant-garde scene of the early 1980s. He was fascinated by electronic music and used an array of synthesizers and rhythm machines early on in his career. He closely analysed the way rhythms emerged in a transitional period of music – such as the shift from four-beat to eight-beat used in much popular music of the 1960s – and that feeling of ambivalence and lag in both time and space is a recurring motif in his music. He uses these rhythmic techniques to magically fuse music from different backgrounds. In Japan, Omata is largely known only to electronic music enthusiasts and connoisseurs as a member of the cult synth-pop outfit DEA, whose 'Metaphysical Pop' was released in 1985 on LLE, a sub-label of Marquee Moon Records, itself an offshoot of the notable experimental music magazine of the same name. Yet he is the mastermind behind a daring techno-pop sound that has remained almost entirely hidden for nearly 40 years. What we can hear across the expanded edition of 'Boku・Neko・Platanus' is not only a highly skilful instrumentalist at the peak of his powers, but also a daring experimentalist, who employed emerging computer and synth technology in innovative ways, and revitalised old school music by adapting it into contemporary settings. Here, Omata’s excitement at playing with cutting-edge toys is palpable and what better use for the sparkling tech of the future than to cover 'Omorfoula', a 19th century folkloric song emanating from Florina, a small town in the West Macedonian district of Greece, written for dancing and typically performed in separate circles by men and women every Sunday after church? 'Idola Fora' is space-age pancultural pop that exudes charm, chutzpah and chops, while 'Natsu No Koibitotachi E' is a glittering fantasia on synths and rhythm machine. Whistle-along pop classic 'Modern Ballet II' is also here, but much of 'Boku・Neko・Platanus' is a beguiling experiment. “This was the kind of music I had always wanted to try”, he recalls in our sleevenote interview. Omata’s angle was that he was writing modern music, informed by contemporary developments elsewhere but without the stiffness of the formal academic scene. It’s all pop as far as he’s concerned. Available for the first time on vinyl, including over fifty minutes of unreleased music not featured on the original cassette release and produced in cooperation with Shinichi Omata for chOOn!!, a label specialising in obscure, archival and forgotten releases.

This anthology is the second compilation from EM Records of the works of the late Henry Kawahara, a media artist and electronic music producer who was particularly active in the Japanese cyber-occult underground of the 1990s, a scene linked with technologies such as 3D (binaural) recordings, brain machines, sound chairs, computer graphics and compact discs. These tracks, produced 1990-95, include a series of recordings described as “Parallel Data Sounds” and “Sound LSD”, a “new language system that speaks directly to the cerebrum” using “frequency components that are not perceived by the conscious mind”, reflecting Kawahara’s interest in concepts such as astrology, love mantras, and astral projection. Also here are two pieces featuring dolphin sounds and human brainwave feedback, as well as pieces from a recording unit called H Music De-perception (HMD) and a group called Xiaoyun. The majority of tracks here were not originally released under Kawahara’s name, but this compilation is an essential key to decoding the Henry Kawahara saga, and also an unveiling of the secret we planted in the previous release, "Cybernetic Defiance and Orgasm: Essential Henry Kawahara," which Kawahara himself was involved in selecting before his death. This 3-CD set, which includes a special bonus CD, is also available as an abridged digital download.

In 1991, Yuji Takahashi and Mamoru Fujieda collaborated in staging a sound installation at the Sezon Museum of Art in Tokyo, making extensive use of the new artistic possibilities provided by the advent of personal computers. In this installation, a culmination of their investigations into the aesthetic use of new technology, these two renowned leaders of Japanese experimental music used sensors and transducers on objects and in the space itself, via MIDI conversion, to trigger pianos, synthesizers and samplers. The four pieces here were recorded for a cassette-only release timed to coincide with the exhibition. This release continues the EM Records investigation of the “cyber-occult” movement in early-90s Japan, in which the new personal digital technologies allowed access to previously hidden worlds, opening new realms for exploration. In the words of Takahashi, quoted from the original leaflet for the “Ikebukuro Cyber Café” event: “In the flickering time of everyday life, the translucent coordinate axes of the dark cyber space appear and disappear like a shimmering shimmer.” This hints at the quirky yet evanescent beauty of a very intriguing historical document which also happens to sound great. It is available on CD and DL with Japanese and English notes written by Koji Kawasaki, a leading researcher of Japanese electronic music.