Improvised Music from Japan
Encyclopedia
Improvised Music from Japan is a website
and record label
.
The website was originally known as Japanese Free Improvisers. As its name suggests, it concentrates on Japan
ese and Japan-based improvisers
, particularly free improvisers
.
In December 2001, a compilation box-set, also called Improvised Music from Japan, was released to mark the fifth anniversary of the website. It was a 10 CD collection of previously unissued material from a variety of Japanese musicians (some of them collaborating with Europeans and Americans). The artists featured on the release are:
The label has since released a number of other records featuring similar artists:
Other Japanese artists which could be considered free improvisers include:
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
and record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
.
The website was originally known as Japanese Free Improvisers. As its name suggests, it concentrates on Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese and Japan-based improvisers
Improvisation
Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
, particularly free improvisers
Free improvisation
Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the musician involved. The term can refer to both a technique and as a recognizable genre in its own right....
.
In December 2001, a compilation box-set, also called Improvised Music from Japan, was released to mark the fifth anniversary of the website. It was a 10 CD collection of previously unissued material from a variety of Japanese musicians (some of them collaborating with Europeans and Americans). The artists featured on the release are:
- Tetuzi AkiyamaTetuzi AkiyamaTetuzi Akiyama is a Japanese guitarist, violinist, and instrument-maker.Akiyama formed the improvisation group Madhar in 1987, and the classical ensemble Hikyo String Quintet in 1994 . In 1995, Akiyama and Sugimoto formed a guitar duo, and played at venues in New York City, Chicago, and Detroit...
- Big Picture (band)
- HacoHacoHaco is a Japanese singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist and sound artist, known for her work with After Dinner and Hoahio, among others.Following formal studies in acoustics, electronic music and recording technology Haco came to international attention fronting the group After Dinner , helped...
- Shoji Hano
- Junji Hirose
- Ryoji Hojito
- Yoshimitsu Ichiraku
- Kazuo ImaiKazuo Imaiis a Tokyo-based guitarist who plays in a rigorous and original free improvisation idiom. His music joins the rigour and texture of contemporary classical with the passion of free jazz. He has played with many Western and Japanese improvisers, including Lee Konitz, Barre Phillips, Arthur Doyle, Han...
- IncapacitantsIncapacitantsare a Japanese noise music group formed in 1981. It consists of Toshiji Mikawa and Fumio Kosakai, whose stated aim is to produce "pure" noise, uninfluenced by musical ideas or even human intention, using primarily feedback, vocals, and various electronics...
- Atsuhiro Ito
- Utah Kawasaki
- Kyoko Kuroda
- Brett Larner
- Sachiko MSachiko MSachiko Matsubara, who usually records as Sachiko M, is a Japanese musician, but she considers herself to be a "non-musician".She was a member of Otomo Yoshihide's Ground Zero from 1994 to 1997, where she used a sampler. More recently, she has concentrated on music made from sine waves...
- Toshimaru NakamuraToshimaru NakamuraToshimaru Nakamura is a Japanese musician, active in free improvisation and Japanese onkyo.He began his career playing rock and roll guitar, but gradually explored other types of music, even abandoning guitar and started working on circuit bending...
- Takehito Nakazato
- Mitsuru Nasuno
- Masahiko Okura
- Aki Onda
- Yasuhiro Otani
- Yoshihide OtomoYoshihide Otomois a Japanese composer and multi-instrumentalist.He first came to international prominence in the 1990s as the leader of the noise rock group Ground Zero, and has since worked in a variety of contexts, ranging from free improvisation to noise, jazz, avant-garde and contemporary classical...
- Tetsu Saitoh
- Michihiro SatoMichihiro SatoMichihiro Sato Michihiro Sato Michihiro Sato (佐藤通弘, Satō Michihiro; surname Sato; name sometimes listed as Sato Michihiro; (born 1957), is a prominent Japanese player of the Tsugaru-jamisen.Born in Machida, Tokyo, Japan, his mother was a traditional dancer and musician...
- Skist
- Taku SugimotoTaku SugimotoTaku Sugimoto is a Japanese guitarist.He initially gained attention in the late 1990s for his restrained, melodic playing, unusual in the world of free improvisation. Critic Bruce Russell describes this era of Sugimoto's music by writing: "Sugimoto is perhaps the pre-eminent stylist on the guitar .....
- Tamaru
- Yumiko Tanaka
- Tsuguto Tsunoda
- Kazuhisa UchihashiKazuhisa UchihashiKazuhisa Uchihashi is a Japanese guitarist involved in free improvisation music. Born in 1959 in Osaka, Uchihashi began to play the guitar at age 12, playing in various rock bands, though he later studied jazz music. In 1988 he joined the band the First Edition, and in 1990 formed the band...
- Michiyo YagiMichiyo Yagi, a Japanese musician, studied koto under the late Tadao Sawai, Kazue Sawai and Satomi Kurauchi, and graduated from the NHK Professional Training School for Traditional Musicians. Between 1989 and 1990 she was a visiting professor of Music at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, U.S.A...
- Seiichi YamamotoSeiichi Yamamotois a Japanese musician. While perhaps most famous for his role as guitarist for the noise rock band Boredoms, he has released multitudes of records both as a solo artist and with several other musicians and bands, in addition to composing the soundtracks to several films.- Solo projects :* Suido...
- Tetsuro Yasunaga
- Ami YoshidaAmi YoshidaAmi Yoshida is a Japanese musician.Yoshida does not play instruments, instead making her music with her own voice. Rather than conventional singing she makes a variety of vocalisations of such a nature that it is often hard to tell that the sounds are being produced by a voice at all. These sounds...
- Yasuhiro Yoshigaki
The label has since released a number of other records featuring similar artists:
- Toshimaru NakamuraToshimaru NakamuraToshimaru Nakamura is a Japanese musician, active in free improvisation and Japanese onkyo.He began his career playing rock and roll guitar, but gradually explored other types of music, even abandoning guitar and started working on circuit bending...
, Tetuzi AkiyamaTetuzi AkiyamaTetuzi Akiyama is a Japanese guitarist, violinist, and instrument-maker.Akiyama formed the improvisation group Madhar in 1987, and the classical ensemble Hikyo String Quintet in 1994 . In 1995, Akiyama and Sugimoto formed a guitar duo, and played at venues in New York City, Chicago, and Detroit...
and guests, Meeting at Off Site Vol. 1 (IMJ-501, April 2002) - Otomo Yoshihide, Ensemble Cathode (IMJ-502, July 2002)
- Kaffe Matthews, Andrea Neumann and Sachiko MSachiko MSachiko Matsubara, who usually records as Sachiko M, is a Japanese musician, but she considers herself to be a "non-musician".She was a member of Otomo Yoshihide's Ground Zero from 1994 to 1997, where she used a sampler. More recently, she has concentrated on music made from sine waves...
, In Case of Fire Take the Stairs (IMJ-503, December 2002) - Ami YoshidaAmi YoshidaAmi Yoshida is a Japanese musician.Yoshida does not play instruments, instead making her music with her own voice. Rather than conventional singing she makes a variety of vocalisations of such a nature that it is often hard to tell that the sounds are being produced by a voice at all. These sounds...
, Tiger Thrush (IMJ-504, July 2003) - Shoji Hano, 48 (IMJ-505, May 2003)
- Toshimaru NakamuraToshimaru NakamuraToshimaru Nakamura is a Japanese musician, active in free improvisation and Japanese onkyo.He began his career playing rock and roll guitar, but gradually explored other types of music, even abandoning guitar and started working on circuit bending...
, Tetuzi AkiyamaTetuzi AkiyamaTetuzi Akiyama is a Japanese guitarist, violinist, and instrument-maker.Akiyama formed the improvisation group Madhar in 1987, and the classical ensemble Hikyo String Quintet in 1994 . In 1995, Akiyama and Sugimoto formed a guitar duo, and played at venues in New York City, Chicago, and Detroit...
and guests, Meeting at Off Site Vol. 2 (IMJ-506, May 2003) - Yumiko Tanaka, Tayutauta (IMJ-507, due January 2004)
- Raku Sugifatti (Radu MalfattiRadu MalfattiRadu Malfatti is an Austrian trombone player and composer. He was born in Innsbruck, in the province of Tyrol, on December 16, 1943. He has been described as "among the leaders in redefining the avant-garde as truly on-the-edge art." His work "since the early nineties.....
and Taku SugimotoTaku SugimotoTaku Sugimoto is a Japanese guitarist.He initially gained attention in the late 1990s for his restrained, melodic playing, unusual in the world of free improvisation. Critic Bruce Russell describes this era of Sugimoto's music by writing: "Sugimoto is perhaps the pre-eminent stylist on the guitar .....
), Futatsu (IMJ-508/9, December 2003) - Aki Onda, Bon Voyage! (IMJ-510, October 2003)
- Otomo Yoshihide, Park Je Chun and Mi Yeon, Loose Community (IMJ-511, December 2003)
- Peter BrötzmannPeter BrötzmannPeter Brötzmann is a German artist and free jazz saxophonist and clarinetist.Brötzmann is among the most important European free jazz musicians. His rough, lyrical timbre is easily recognized on his many recordings.-Early life:...
and Shoji Hano, Funny Rat (IMJ-512, October 2003) - Toshimaru NakamuraToshimaru NakamuraToshimaru Nakamura is a Japanese musician, active in free improvisation and Japanese onkyo.He began his career playing rock and roll guitar, but gradually explored other types of music, even abandoning guitar and started working on circuit bending...
, Side Guitar (IMJ-513, December 2003) - Han BenninkHan BenninkHan Bennink is a Dutch jazz drummer and percussionist. On occasion his recordings have featured his playing on clarinet, violin, banjo and piano....
and Kazuo ImaiKazuo Imaiis a Tokyo-based guitarist who plays in a rigorous and original free improvisation idiom. His music joins the rigour and texture of contemporary classical with the passion of free jazz. He has played with many Western and Japanese improvisers, including Lee Konitz, Barre Phillips, Arthur Doyle, Han...
, Across the Desert (IMJ-514, December 2003) - Toshimaru NakamuraToshimaru NakamuraToshimaru Nakamura is a Japanese musician, active in free improvisation and Japanese onkyo.He began his career playing rock and roll guitar, but gradually explored other types of music, even abandoning guitar and started working on circuit bending...
, Tetuzi AkiyamaTetuzi AkiyamaTetuzi Akiyama is a Japanese guitarist, violinist, and instrument-maker.Akiyama formed the improvisation group Madhar in 1987, and the classical ensemble Hikyo String Quintet in 1994 . In 1995, Akiyama and Sugimoto formed a guitar duo, and played at venues in New York City, Chicago, and Detroit...
and guests, Meeting at Off Site Vol. 3 (IMJ-515, December 2003)
Other Japanese artists which could be considered free improvisers include:
- Kaoru AbeKaoru Abewas an influential Japanese avant-garde alto saxophonist, who is often regarded as having the greatest abrasive saxophone sound.He generally performed solo. He was married to the author Izumi Suzuki, and a cousin to singer Kyu Sakamoto. He died of a drug overdose at the age of 29.-References:* Yuko...
- Masayuki TakayanagiMasayuki TakayanagiMasayuki 'Jojo' Takayanagi was a Japanese jazz / free improvisation / noise musician. He was active in the Japanese jazz scene from the late 1950s. In the 1960s he formed New Directions , which recorded several albums throughout the 70s...