Em Records

Artist: Flower Travellin' Band, 50 motorcycles and others
Album title: Beam Penetration and Mad Computer, plus the Minimal Sound of Motorcycles

=Regular Edition=
Format: 10-inch LP & CD
Catalog #: EMC-023/OP-0018

Expo 70, held in Osaka, was a pivotal event for the Japanese people and their relationship with the rest of the world, demonstrating both the nation’s ongoing economic recovery from World War Two and the creative spirit of Japanese society and its artists. The event gained international acclaim for its adventurous architectural design, visual art and electronic music. Some of Japan’s most renowned composers were involved, but also present were the now-legendary rockers, the Flower Travellin' Band. A series of performances, billed as “Night Events” were held at the Expo; the most radical of these was "Beam Penetration and Mad Computer, plus the Minimal Sound of Motorcycles”, but its anti-establishment feel and general madness took the Expo organizers by surprise and it was cancelled after only one night, despite being scheduled for a longer run. An air of myth developed around the event, but a recording of the event has been discovered and this release is the result. And what an event it was: a night-time sound-bomb with a fabled band, electronic sound and 50 motorcycles with horns blaring, spotlights, electronic billboards and a robot ― all flashing, roaring and howling at the night sky. This release comprises a CD, a 10-inch record with fold-out sleeve and large obi, plus fascinating notes in Japanese and English by Kenichi Yasuda, an expert on Japanese rock music, and Koji Kawasaki, a renowned researcher of Japanese electronic music, as well as rare photos. No download code/ticket available.

TRACKS:
CD “Beam Penetration” (full-length) [45:49]

10-inch (excerpts)
Side A “Beam Penetration” [14:52]
Side B “Beam Penetration” [15:15] 

Artist: Flower Travellin' Band, 50 motorcycles and others
Album title: Beam Penetration and Mad Computer, plus the Minimal Sound of Motorcycles

=Special Edition=
Format: 10-inch LP & CD + CD-R
Catalog #: EMC-023SP/OP-0018SP

Expo 70, held in Osaka, was a pivotal event for the Japanese people and their relationship with the rest of the world, demonstrating both the nation’s ongoing economic recovery from World War Two and the creative spirit of Japanese society and its artists. The event gained international acclaim for its adventurous architectural design, visual art and electronic music. Some of Japan’s most renowned composers were involved, but also present were the now-legendary rockers, the Flower Travellin' Band. A series of performances, billed as “Night Events” were held at the Expo; the most radical of these was "Beam Penetration and Mad Computer, plus the Minimal Sound of Motorcycles”, but its anti-establishment feel and general madness took the Expo organizers by surprise and it was cancelled after only one night, despite being scheduled for a longer run. An air of myth developed around the event, but a recording of the event has been discovered and this release is the result. And what an event it was: a night-time sound-bomb with a fabled band, electronic sound and 50 motorcycles with horns blaring, spotlights, electronic billboards and a robot ― all flashing, roaring and howling at the night sky. This release comprises a CD, a 10-inch record with fold-out sleeve and large obi, plus fascinating notes in Japanese and English by Kenichi Yasuda, an expert on Japanese rock music, and Koji Kawasaki, a renowned researcher of Japanese electronic music, as well as rare photos. No download code/ticket available.

Special Edition includes a CD-R of a interview program with the producers of "Beam Penetration" in 1970. At the end of the program, the Flower Travellin' Band appeared with motorcycles and performed in the studio. Also includes insert with English translation of the interview.

TRACKS:
CD “Beam Penetration” (full-length) [45:49]

10-inch (excerpts)
Side A “Beam Penetration” [14:52]
Side B “Beam Penetration” [15:15]

CD-R (Special Editon only extra disc)
"Beam Penetration" Interview & Performance on TV shop on July 13, 1970 

Here is a portal to a vast and relatively unknown world, the Japanese cyber-occult underground media scene of the early 1990s; our guide is the late Henry Kawahara, a media artist and electronic music producer whose expansive and visionary conception of digital technology merged with a desire to break free of the constraints of mere rationality. This collection, the first-ever archival release of his work, is drawn from recordings released during the period 1991-1996, an exceptionally fertile time for Kawahara. Originally released on CD by a few Japanese independent labels including Hachiman Publishing, a cyber-occult/new-age book specialist, the releases were available mainly in book stores, so this sumptuous and prescient music has remained relatively unknown. The original titles and tag lines of the CDs give clues about Kawahara’s interests and the music itself: Digital Mushroom, Subtropical Illusion, Never-ending Asia, and so on. This 15-track gateway compilation is available on double 12” vinyl and DL; the CD version has two extra discs featuring sound from two art installations entitled "Dysteleology - α" and "Dysteleolog - β" from the 1990s. All formats feature extensive English liner notes. 

-------------------------------- 

Henry Kawahara has been called “the Jon Hassell of Japan”, but upon closer inspection one finds that his work operates on very different terms. Like Hosono's forays into computerized Ryukyu folk “sightseeing music” or Tsutomu Ōhashi's Ecophony trilogy, Kawahara's world projected ancient musical traditions and notions of cultural identity onto the modern digital plane through a fusion of cybernetic thinking and pan-asian cultural introspection that makes Western attempts to do the same seem quaint in comparison. Kawahara's omnidirectional sound “illusions” were constructed not as albums but psychological experiences, billowing with a then-nascent notion of early 90s cybernetic spirituality that was proliferating on both sides of the Pacific as the hyperlinked state of global connectivity we know today was just beginning to crystalize. Through digital representations of folk instruments, shifting MIDI sequencing and custom binaural recording technology he aimed for psychoacoustic effect as much as artistic, all via a countercultural form of distribution untethered from the commercial expectations of post-bubble modes of artistic production. This EM collection draws out the best of his fruitful early-mid 90s period into a revelatory sequence, generously opening Kawahara's world to all. —Spencer Doran (Visible Cloaks) 

-------------------------------- 

Henry Kawahara's deal is Intimate, Intuitive, Adventurous, and Acidy! Spice is added to all, whether its ethereal guitar, nature effects, gamelan club trance, or LSD experimentations. In the vibe of Coil's “Love Secret Domain” and out there clubgamelan. The creative force of the jungle is mutated and interchanged with further sound palettes, and his effex palette has the schwing of a 90s grunge guitarist. His musical tendencies are natural and his scope and variety are dangerous. —Spencer Clark (The Star Searchers / Pacific City Discs)

Here is a portal to a vast and relatively unknown world, the Japanese cyber-occult underground media scene of the early 1990s; our guide is the late Henry Kawahara, a media artist and electronic music producer whose expansive and visionary conception of digital technology merged with a desire to break free of the constraints of mere rationality. This collection, the first-ever archival release of his work, is drawn from recordings released during the period 1991-1996, an exceptionally fertile time for Kawahara. Originally released on CD by a few Japanese independent labels including Hachiman Publishing, a cyber-occult/new-age book specialist, the releases were available mainly in book stores, so this sumptuous and prescient music has remained relatively unknown. The original titles and tag lines of the CDs give clues about Kawahara’s interests and the music itself: Digital Mushroom, Subtropical Illusion, Never-ending Asia, and so on. This 15-track gateway compilation is available on double 12” vinyl and DL; the CD version has two extra discs featuring sound from two art installations entitled "Dysteleology - α" and "Dysteleolog - β" from the 1990s. All formats feature extensive English liner notes. 

-------------------------------- 

Henry Kawahara has been called “the Jon Hassell of Japan”, but upon closer inspection one finds that his work operates on very different terms. Like Hosono's forays into computerized Ryukyu folk “sightseeing music” or Tsutomu Ōhashi's Ecophony trilogy, Kawahara's world projected ancient musical traditions and notions of cultural identity onto the modern digital plane through a fusion of cybernetic thinking and pan-asian cultural introspection that makes Western attempts to do the same seem quaint in comparison. Kawahara's omnidirectional sound “illusions” were constructed not as albums but psychological experiences, billowing with a then-nascent notion of early 90s cybernetic spirituality that was proliferating on both sides of the Pacific as the hyperlinked state of global connectivity we know today was just beginning to crystalize. Through digital representations of folk instruments, shifting MIDI sequencing and custom binaural recording technology he aimed for psychoacoustic effect as much as artistic, all via a countercultural form of distribution untethered from the commercial expectations of post-bubble modes of artistic production. This EM collection draws out the best of his fruitful early-mid 90s period into a revelatory sequence, generously opening Kawahara's world to all. —Spencer Doran (Visible Cloaks) 

-------------------------------- 

Henry Kawahara's deal is Intimate, Intuitive, Adventurous, and Acidy! Spice is added to all, whether its ethereal guitar, nature effects, gamelan club trance, or LSD experimentations. In the vibe of Coil's “Love Secret Domain” and out there clubgamelan. The creative force of the jungle is mutated and interchanged with further sound palettes, and his effex palette has the schwing of a 90s grunge guitarist. His musical tendencies are natural and his scope and variety are dangerous. —Spencer Clark (The Star Searchers / Pacific City Discs)

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.

Have you ever been to Miyazaki? It’s a prefecture on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu, facing the Pacific. Palm trees. Humid subtropical climate. This is the home of Maple Fyshh, a musical artist whose late-80s/early-90s recordings have been collected and reissued here. Liberated by the advent of 4-track cassette home recording technology, inspired by a love of 60s pop oddball production mavens like Phil Spector and Joe Meek, as well as American hot rod and surf music, these Maple Fyssh songs glow with an outsider’s love of the transformative power of newly-available sound technology, allowing him to pull his inspirations across decades and oceans to his 1990s Miyazaki home studio. The tracks here are a d.i.y. dream-pop wonderland, compiling songs from his first LP “Mariko” and second LP “Dokitto Station!!”, both self-produced, both released in 1995. The A-side of this release features tracks from the concept album “Mariko”, a masterpiece of daydream pop introspection, recorded in 1994-95, inspired by a poem submitted to a manga magazine. The B-side features tracks from “Dokitto Station!!”, slightly earlier recordings that draw inspiration from a range of 60s pop including girl groups, surf music and acid folk. All the music here demonstrates Maple Fyshh’s deep understanding and appreciation 60s pop moves, and also his mastery of the limited technology at his disposal. Remastered in 2024, the sound of Miyazaki has been reborn for a new audience. Available on Vinyl LP and download, with English/Japanese lyrics and entertaining and informative English/Japanese liner notes by the artist.

The folk arts of Japan, including music, are an ever-evolving wonderland. Riyo Mountains, a Tokyo-based folk song research/DJ duo, is actively documenting the folk music of various regions in Japan; here they present the fifth in their series of musical documents on EM Records. This particular release focuses on the thunderous drums and powerful vocal phrases of the singular Nanyatoyara dance and song, featured at summer festivals in the northern prefectures of Iwate and Aomori, places with long winters that engender joyous summer celebrations. Nanyatoyara has been a part of local summer festivals in this region for hundreds of years, always evolving. The recordings here, with versions from 2002, 2015 and 2023, featuring impassioned and enthusiastic residents young and old, illustrate the gradual changes which occur over time, all the while adhering to the core and soul of the dance. The pounding, insistent drums and the call-and-response vocals generate a propulsive, irresistible momentum, a jubilant celebration of life and the bounty of summer. Available on CD and DL; the CD version includes a 20-page booklet featuring English liner notes with translations of the lyrics. Here comes the summer!

Riyo Mountains:
Japanese folk song DJ duo formed by Takehiko Satō and Takumi Saitō. They are resident DJs at the renowned party "Soi48". They produce the Japanese folk song mix-CD series entitled "Riyo Mountains Mix" and also direct and supervise the reissue series of Japanese folk music on EM Records, including the releases "Yumi-kagura", "Sakai Ishinage Odori", "Kizaki Ondo" and "Osharaku".They have appeared as DJs at many events/radio programs including NHK, NTS (London) and Japanese traditional festivals.

EM Records is proud to present a new tune from Chisako and Junta. Osaka-based Chisako and Junta is a vocal unit of MTG (Chisako), a member of Casio Toruko Onsen, and BIOMAN (Junta), a musician/DJ/designer and member of Neco-nemuru. In this duo, Chisako is in charge of vocals, while Junta is in charge of song production, visuals, etc. The song 'Yume no Umi' released in 2016 received a strong response and was followed by the first album “Chisako, Junta and You”. Their tunes are highly acclaimed for its works, which have the appearance of just ‘J-Pop’ but are embedded with strange musical details, including a sense of acoustics.

This collaboration by Tokyo producers/musicians Shintaro Sakamoto and VIDEOTAPEMUSIC is the first of two EM Records 12-inch vinyl-only “tribute releases” in support of the film “Bangkok Nites”, produced by Kuzoku. Based on samples from Dao Bandon, Hongthong Dao-udon, Phairin Phonphibun, Thailand and Tokyo dreamworlds meet in these songs.

One of the deepest and ideal forms of "Bon Odori", which is innumerable all over Japan, is considered by Minyo Mountains x M Records. The non-bouncing drums and hammer beats of krautrock reminiscent of German rock, the whistle that is blown all at once at an overwhelming volume, and the pole of minimal dance music that repeats thoroughly! Its too stoic and sharp sound image makes me want to call it "rural industrial music" or "richie hawtin in the field" that is played without using electricity. This is the "Boundary Stone Throwing Dance" that still remains in northern Saitama Prefecture. Here, the songs and dances that retain this old form have not been turned into tourism, and have continued to this day as the activities of the Bon festival.

This time, we remastered the song contained in the record "Saitama Bon Odori" produced by the Saitama Folk Culture Center in 1983, and recorded / mixed the latest version by the preservation society as of 2017. Recorded in. Please listen to the Japanese dance classics, where the stone Buddha begins to dance. The binding is Shinsuke Takagi (Soi48) following "Yumi Kagura".

One of the deepest and ideal forms of "Bon Odori", which is innumerable all over Japan, is considered by Minyo Mountains x M Records. The non-bouncing drums and hammer beats of krautrock reminiscent of German rock, the whistle that is blown all at once at an overwhelming volume, and the pole of minimal dance music that repeats thoroughly! Its too stoic and sharp sound image makes me want to call it "rural industrial music" or "richie hawtin in the field" that is played without using electricity. This is the "Boundary Stone Throwing Dance" that still remains in northern Saitama Prefecture. Here, the songs and dances that retain this old form have not been turned into tourism, and have continued to this day as the activities of the Bon festival.

This time, we remastered the song contained in the record "Saitama Bon Odori" produced by the Saitama Folk Culture Center in 1983, and recorded / mixed the latest version by the preservation society as of 2017. Recorded in. Please listen to the Japanese dance classics, where the stone Buddha begins to dance. The binding is Shinsuke Takagi (Soi48) following "Yumi Kagura".

The originally minimalist song, combined with the rhythm box that keeps ringing lightly and the lyrics that have been scraped to the limit, repeats in the brain, and finally hums "Love my misfortune". Dangerously addictive music. Handle with care. -Moppy (Soi48)

Love generously robs us, and love tears us apart ... all the crystals of loss that were once launched beyond post-punk are now regaining glare! A collection of phantom sound sources by the late Kiyoaki Iwamoto, finally lifted after about 40 years !!!-Tamotsu Mochida (factory worker and real industrial writer)

There used to be a musician who buried his past and disappeared. Its name is Kiyoaki Iwamoto. I don't know the reason. What we know is that we have left behind a "super-translation" cover of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart," which surprised even the minimum original songs and ECD.

Iwamoto appeared in the post-Tokyo rockers era scene and participated in that "Urban News" as a post-punk band . After the dissolution of Birei, he formed Guys Doll with Fuyusato Kudo and released "Hard Rock Album" (1984) under the joint name with Kudo. After that, the news disappears.

This work is the only solo work "SOUGI" (1983) that Iwamoto independently produced by Kojima recording, a rework of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Chisako and Junta, and NOISE "Emperor" by Tori Kudo and Reiko somewhere. It is the addition of an unreleased song by Rei Mi, which is reminiscent of. Iwamoto's four original songs, including the song "In the Sad Town" from the beautiful era, have a rhythm box, several chords played on guitar and bass, and short poems that look like they have been cut down. It is a characteristic of Japanese punk / new wave that frustrating emotions hit the inside of oneself, but Iwamoto's humorous vocals seem to amplify the frustration even more, and Joy Division's "super translation" has a nihilistic climax of loss.

Was "SOUGI" a "funeral"? ?? Michio Kakutani would have responded. The untouchables of the 80s indie film continue to shake us and bite those who want to be loved!

The originally minimalist song, combined with the rhythm box that keeps ringing lightly and the lyrics that have been scraped to the limit, repeats in the brain, and finally hums "Love my misfortune". Dangerously addictive music. Handle with care. -Moppy (Soi48)

Love generously robs us, and love tears us apart ... all the crystals of loss that were once launched beyond post-punk are now regaining glare! A collection of phantom sound sources by the late Kiyoaki Iwamoto, finally lifted after about 40 years !!!-Tamotsu Mochida (factory worker and real industrial writer)

There used to be a musician who buried his past and disappeared. Its name is Kiyoaki Iwamoto. I don't know the reason. What we know is that we have left behind a "super-translation" cover of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart," which surprised even the minimum original songs and ECD.

Iwamoto appeared in the post-Tokyo rockers era scene and participated in that "Urban News" as a post-punk band . After the dissolution of Birei, he formed Guys Doll with Fuyusato Kudo and released "Hard Rock Album" (1984) under the joint name with Kudo. After that, the news disappears.

This work is the only solo work "SOUGI" (1983) that Iwamoto independently produced by Kojima recording, a rework of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Chisako and Junta, and NOISE "Emperor" by Tori Kudo and Reiko somewhere. It is the addition of an unreleased song by Rei Mi, which is reminiscent of. Iwamoto's four original songs, including the song "In the Sad Town" from the beautiful era, have a rhythm box, several chords played on guitar and bass, and short poems that look like they have been cut down. It is a characteristic of Japanese punk / new wave that frustrating emotions hit the inside of oneself, but Iwamoto's humorous vocals seem to amplify the frustration even more, and Joy Division's "super translation" has a nihilistic climax of loss.

Was "SOUGI" a "funeral"? ?? Michio Kakutani would have responded. The untouchables of the 80s indie film continue to shake us and bite those who want to be loved!

A charming set of double transformations on this 7 inch. “Kajyadhi Fu Bushi” is a traditional Ryukyu minyo (Okinawa folk song), a joyous celebratory classic which is usually sung at weddings, with lyrics describing how “beautiful buds unfold”, using the distinctive Ryukyu/Okinawan pentatonic scale. Typically performed by a small ensemble of a singer accompanied by sanshin, the Okinawan precursor to the shamisen, the A-side is has been transformed by jazz musician and conductor Jun Arasaki and his group Nine Sheep, with five sanshin, four winds, piano, guitar, bass, percussion and drums. Played only once, unrehearsed but perfect in execution, for a 1977 TV broadcast, this release has been taken from the only recording in existence. The B-side is yet another transformation, a remix by the Portland “fourth world” duo Visible Cloaks.

The third folk song series supervised by the Tayo Mountains, this time in Gunma! The definitive version of the heavyweight Bon Odori "Kizaki Ondo", in which abnormal boost bass and distorted Kodama swirl, is released in the original version of the local preservation society and the old and new doubles of the current TRAP version. This will overturn your view of folk songs! ??

"Yagibushi" is the first folk song to be recorded in Japan and is popular as one of the largest dunks in the folk song world. .. This song is just crazy. The killer of killer that makes any folk music dance tune hazy in front of the dangerous force! Did you make a mistake in adjusting the EQ in the studio? A massive low beat with distorted bass and strange reverberation that makes you doubt your ears. And the lyrics in the form of a persuasion (Note 2) that tells the story of Meshimori onna (Note 1) who lives at night in Hanamachi. It's neither a Chicago-born ghetto base nor an Atlanta-born trap. It is a Japanese folk song that was brought up in the life of Kita-Kantou.

This time, with the cooperation of the Kizaki Ondo Preservation Society, we remastered and recorded the locally recorded versions of 1980 and 1965 that trapped the hustle and bustle of the night of Bon Odori. As a new attempt, Clark Naito's new recording Kizaki Ondo was also recorded there. MC / track maker Clark Naito, who raps garage punk on sampled tracks and is also active in the Gorge area, has a sense of connecting Bo Diddley and bass music with the term "3 minutes R & R". The collaboration between Minyo Mountains and Clark Naito created a modern version of Kizaki Ondo with contemporary trap beats and sweet synths. This is an extension of the act of "putting folk songs on a turntable and making a roaring sound" at the Soi48 party, and is a proposal for "a new way to enjoy folk songs." Please enjoy it simply as cool music.

The third folk song series supervised by the Tayo Mountains, this time in Gunma! The definitive version of the heavyweight Bon Odori "Kizaki Ondo", in which abnormal boost bass and distorted Kodama swirl, is released in the original version of the local preservation society and the old and new doubles of the current TRAP version. This will overturn your view of folk songs! ??

"Yagibushi" is the first folk song to be recorded in Japan and is popular as one of the largest dunks in the folk song world. .. This song is just crazy. The killer of killer that makes any folk music dance tune hazy in front of the dangerous force! Did you make a mistake in adjusting the EQ in the studio? A massive low beat with distorted bass and strange reverberation that makes you doubt your ears. And the lyrics in the form of a persuasion (Note 2) that tells the story of Meshimori onna (Note 1) who lives at night in Hanamachi. It's neither a Chicago-born ghetto base nor an Atlanta-born trap. It is a Japanese folk song that was brought up in the life of Kita-Kantou.

This time, with the cooperation of the Kizaki Ondo Preservation Society, we remastered and recorded the locally recorded versions of 1980 and 1965 that trapped the hustle and bustle of the night of Bon Odori. As a new attempt, Clark Naito's new recording Kizaki Ondo was also recorded there. MC / track maker Clark Naito, who raps garage punk on sampled tracks and is also active in the Gorge area, has a sense of connecting Bo Diddley and bass music with the term "3 minutes R & R". The collaboration between Minyo Mountains and Clark Naito created a modern version of Kizaki Ondo with contemporary trap beats and sweet synths. This is an extension of the act of "putting folk songs on a turntable and making a roaring sound" at the Soi48 party, and is a proposal for "a new way to enjoy folk songs." Please enjoy it simply as cool music.

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.

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.

Performance as if John Fay and Buckwards Sam Fark possessed, all 6 songs by cyber cowboy wandering in the digital jungle + Tomoki Kanda (CRUE-L Records)'s best remix recording! 2010s present tense TOKYO music cutting edge that looked like prewar country blues 100 years ago. The splendor that I haven't lost sight of myself for many years.

A hotline to the gods! Kagura is a thousand-year-old form of Japanese Shinto sacred music and dance, accompanying the chanting of myths; the word "kagura" can be translated as "god-entertainment". Passed down over countless generations, the music is rare and recordings even rarer. Shigeo Tanaka was a master of the yumi (bow), an uncommon single-string percussion instrument, which is a true bow: arrows are fired off at the end of each ceremony to fend off evil sprits. The instrument is difficult to play; it's hard to draw out the proper sound and maintain the rhythm.
Yumi kagura is the oldest of all the various forms of kagura. The Tanaka family, based in rural Jōge-cho, Hiroshima prefecture, has passed down this yumi kagura tradition for hundreds of years; this lineage continues to this day in the person of his daughter Ritsuko Tanaka. The Jōge-cho yumi kagura, which prays for family well-being, bountiful crops and good fortune, was designated an Important Intangible Cultural Property in 1971. The piece featured here, "Takusa saimon", based on the myth "Ama no iwato" (The Rocky Celestial Cave), is mesmeric, reaching back across ages to the time before time, with Tanaka's voice and yumi, accompanied by flute and metal percussion, drawing us closer to the primal activities of the gods. Listeners may find affinities with aspects of musics as diverse as German electronic minimalism like E2-E4, certain Ethiopian music, "spiritual jazz" and more, all tapping into the deep root of forever. Previously available only on a ridiculously obscure 1990 cassette release, Yumi kagura is the first collaborative release by EM Records and Riyo Mountains, a Japanese folk song research team. Available on LP and CD, with the CD featuring a bonus track: "Inagahachiman jinja yumi kagura hōnō" recorded in 2016 by Tanaka's daughter and successor Ritsuko Tanaka.

+ Direction/liner notes by Riyo Mountains
+ English liner notes & lyrics

LP version: insert

Ecological Plantron" (1994) is a radical installation that uses sound to experience the ecological chain that surrounds our bodies from the perspective of plants.
This is a reprint of "Ecological Plantron" (1994), a radical installation that uses sound to let us experience the ecological chain that surrounds our bodies from the perspective of plants.

Bio-artist Yuji Dohkin researched and developed an epoch-making system in the early 1990s to create a device that speaks to plants and is spoken to by plants, which is "Plantron" (*I have a related doctoral thesis).
(*There is also a related doctoral dissertation.) This device, which extracts ecocurrents from plants (orchids) and converts them into physical phenomena that can be perceived by humans, is primarily intended to explore whether humans can perceive the intelligence of plants, and is not intended to entertain physical phenomena themselves. Ecological Plantron" is the "sound" record of the first installation of this "Plantron" in operation.

In this work, the copper-plated "Plantron" is constructed by composer Mamoru Fujieda into a sound system for installation, and the ecological current generated by the communication between plants and the human environment is programmed and converted into electronic sound, emitting irregularly shaped and irregular electronic sound particles.
(*Note) If I were to use a strong analogy, I might imagine an atmosphere somewhat similar to that of Xenakis or Penderecki's graphic notation music. Ecological currents remind us of the experimental music of Rosenboom and Lussier, who used human brain waves, but this work is not human-centered but plant-first, and it should be noted that it is not presented as a "musical work" in the first place.

For this reissue, we have remastered the independent recordings made at the gallery and included two works derived from Ecological Plantron, "Mangrove Plantron" and "Pianola Plantron," on a bonus disc. The first LP version is also available.
Since the experimental release of this device in 1991, pseudo-similar attempts have appeared, but it should be noted that the original was "Plantron". The commentary includes the latest contribution by Copper Gold, which reexamines the story of this experiment and its development, as well as the intentions of this work.

Note: Fujieda rediscovered the "melody" that modern music had left behind in the process of trying to extract some kind of regularity from this uncontrollable mass of sound, and this led him to compose and publish a series of works called "Plant Patterns.

Ecological Plantron" (1994) is a radical installation that uses sound to experience the ecological chain that surrounds our bodies from the perspective of plants.
This is a reprint of "Ecological Plantron" (1994), a radical installation that uses sound to let us experience the ecological chain that surrounds our bodies from the perspective of plants.

Bio-artist Yuji Dohkin researched and developed an epoch-making system in the early 1990s to create a device that speaks to plants and is spoken to by plants, which is "Plantron" (*I have a related doctoral thesis).
(*There is also a related doctoral dissertation.) This device, which extracts ecocurrents from plants (orchids) and converts them into physical phenomena that can be perceived by humans, is primarily intended to explore whether humans can perceive the intelligence of plants, and is not intended to entertain physical phenomena themselves. Ecological Plantron" is the "sound" record of the first installation of this "Plantron" in operation.

In this work, the copper-plated "Plantron" is constructed by composer Mamoru Fujieda into a sound system for installation, and the ecological current generated by the communication between plants and the human environment is programmed and converted into electronic sound, emitting irregularly shaped and irregular electronic sound particles.
(*Note) If I were to use a strong analogy, I might imagine an atmosphere somewhat similar to that of Xenakis or Penderecki's graphic notation music. Ecological currents remind us of the experimental music of Rosenboom and Lussier, who used human brain waves, but this work is not human-centered but plant-first, and it should be noted that it is not presented as a "musical work" in the first place.

For this reissue, we have remastered the independent recordings made at the gallery and included two works derived from Ecological Plantron, "Mangrove Plantron" and "Pianola Plantron," on a bonus disc. The first LP version is also available.
Since the experimental release of this device in 1991, pseudo-similar attempts have appeared, but it should be noted that the original was "Plantron". The commentary includes the latest contribution by Copper Gold, which reexamines the story of this experiment and its development, as well as the intentions of this work.

Note: Fujieda rediscovered the "melody" that modern music had left behind in the process of trying to extract some kind of regularity from this uncontrollable mass of sound, and this led him to compose and publish a series of works called "Plant Patterns.

Nana Vasconcelos meets Midori Takada! ?? !! "Beginning" is a threatening work in which static and dynamic are delicately and boldly intermingled with ambient closed-door exotic fantasy dance music born from the exploration of the devilish world of a single overdubbing orchestra. The coupling is that Lena Willikens REMIX!

M Records will deliver the world debut of Mari Sekine, a percussionist who is active in the band! With over 10 minutes of masterpieces, you can easily control more than 15 types of percussion instruments such as kalimba, marimba, udu drum, goblet drum, djembe, talking drum, cajon, berimbau, etc. by multiple recording, and combine them with tape reverse rotation and voice. Unsurprisingly, this "Beginning" is Sekine's first "solo" recording. And it is clear from listening to this song that Sekine's musicianship was not cultivated yesterday and today. Midori Takada's fans, who seem to be the biggest hidden talents in recent years, will be surprised and welcomed. Overdubbing by multi-percussionists is also found in contemporary music, but has there ever been a work that has such overwhelming power and is compatible with everything from home listening to the floor? Expectations are high for the 1st album being produced!

The coupling is a angry funky uppercut that extracts the tribal component of "Beginning" with REMIX by the popular DJ Lena Villikens!

* "Beginning" is a rework of the song released as her 1st single "midori" (Tongs International), returning to the original title at the beginning of the recording, extending it almost three times, and reworking it into a reggae disco 12-inch composition.

Mari Sekine Profile:
Touched percussion instruments at university and started activities after graduation. After working as a JAZZ FUNK band, he joined the big band "Shibusashirazu" in 2000. Currently, he is active in sessions such as Goko Nishikawa (ex. Shang Shang Typhoon) "Hoshi no Hibuya", Michiro Endo (ex. THE STALIN) "THE END", percussion instrument group "Orquesta Nudge! Nudge!" There are many activities in theatrical works, such as Kazuyoshi Kushida's "Caucasus's White Ink Ring", "Sunshine Bo", "Sanjin Yoshizo", "Kiri no Yozo", Yang Jung Eun's "Peer Gynt", and the theater group "Kaze". Participated in "Matsurowanu Min" and "Mud Rear" of "Brick Dance".

Nana Vasconcelos meets Midori Takada! ?? !! "Beginning" is a threatening work in which static and dynamic are delicately and boldly intermingled with ambient closed-door exotic fantasy dance music born from the exploration of the devilish world of a single overdubbing orchestra. The coupling is that Lena Willikens REMIX!

M Records will deliver the world debut of Mari Sekine, a percussionist who is active in the band! With over 10 minutes of masterpieces, you can easily control more than 15 types of percussion instruments such as kalimba, marimba, udu drum, goblet drum, djembe, talking drum, cajon, berimbau, etc. by multiple recording, and combine them with tape reverse rotation and voice. Unsurprisingly, this "Beginning" is Sekine's first "solo" recording. And it is clear from listening to this song that Sekine's musicianship was not cultivated yesterday and today. Midori Takada's fans, who seem to be the biggest hidden talents in recent years, will be surprised and welcomed. Overdubbing by multi-percussionists is also found in contemporary music, but has there ever been a work that has such overwhelming power and is compatible with everything from home listening to the floor? Expectations are high for the 1st album being produced!

The coupling is a angry funky uppercut that extracts the tribal component of "Beginning" with REMIX by the popular DJ Lena Villikens!

* "Beginning" is a rework of the song released as her 1st single "midori" (Tongs International), returning to the original title at the beginning of the recording, extending it almost three times, and reworking it into a reggae disco 12-inch composition.

Mari Sekine Profile:
Touched percussion instruments at university and started activities after graduation. After working as a JAZZ FUNK band, he joined the big band "Shibusashirazu" in 2000. Currently, he is active in sessions such as Goko Nishikawa (ex. Shang Shang Typhoon) "Hoshi no Hibuya", Michiro Endo (ex. THE STALIN) "THE END", percussion instrument group "Orquesta Nudge! Nudge!" There are many activities in theatrical works, such as Kazuyoshi Kushida's "Caucasus's White Ink Ring", "Sunshine Bo", "Sanjin Yoshizo", "Kiri no Yozo", Yang Jung Eun's "Peer Gynt", and the theater group "Kaze". Participated in "Matsurowanu Min" and "Mud Rear" of "Brick Dance".