RAWRRRR!

Born in Hiroshima, Kashiwa Daisuke (柏大輔) started off as the composer and guitarist of post-rock band yodaka in 2001. Being inspired by the band’s psychedelic sound due to a post-rock approach, and by Maurizio Bianchi, he started a solo project in 2004.

As a solo artist his idea is to create not only acoustic, but also electronic filmy soundscapes and atmospheres, by melting together a variety of classic instruments, spoken word snippets, and crisp beats. With a proper amount of ambient music, all of these form an exquisite sound experience.

Tokyo’s post-rock band 2nd mini-album. guitar × 2 + bass + drums + keyboard from it’s previous work in organizing this guitar is like a rose. As the title sounds like a texture of the metal.

Taishi Kamiya is a sound artist and a developer of sounding devices born in Sapporo.
He plays the soprano saxophone and processes saxophone sound and field recording sound in real time to create his music.
Also, he is interested in the site-specific characteristics of sounds. He pursues a moment in which sounds become music through his performances at various locations, such as temple and snow field, and composition of his installation works in which he creates unknown acoustic space by coordinating these site-specific sounds.

Boroboro ni Natta Hito e is the newest release from nanomachine in 4 years.
This mini-album is a conceptual album where the band tried to envision what the
book by Lily Frank, «Boroboro ni Natta Hito e» would sound like if it was made
into music. It’s a literary musical masterpiece. This collaboration contains
five songs with Japanese lyrics and a collage of sounds. This is a fantastic
release with a wide variety and strikes the perfect chord of a mix between rock
and minimal techno.

Yawning is a solo project of the guitarist of Gargle.
I try to describe my own feelings such as sadness, relations, despair and a little hope through music such as called ambient, minimal, down-tempo and post-classical with piano, guitar and some string sounds.

update: 2010 — Noah

Since the sensational debut as the pianist of straight-ahead jazz band Black/Note, Ark Sano continuously maintains the reputation of one of the top pianists on the jazz scene. Beside four albums, including “Jungle Music” on Columbia and “Nothin’ But Swing” on Impulse with Black/Note, he has appeared numerous recordings in variety of genre. His latest release and second leader/trio album “In Storm, In Breeze” is receiving rage reviews worldwide. While he has appeared on live TV and radio shows nationally, Ark’s abundant performing experience also extends to major European Jazz festivals such as; North Sea, JVC, Montreal, Monterey, Victoria, and the Umbria Jazz festival.

Formed in 2002, Miimi doesn’t have a bassist and uses an interesting combination of 3 guitarists. Miimi offers vivid, pronounced riffs and a sound that couples this bands innocent yet sorrowful outlook on life and a feeling that has been described as «suspension in midair like a pale light floating in a quivering womb.» Their live performances boast a specialty for intense performances and heavy acoustic pressure. The band also has an intense DIY (Do it Yourself) mentality that pervades into the recording of the album all the way to the artist photo’s and album artwork. Masa, baritone guitar, is also the bassist for te’ , which has received rave reviews even outside of Japan.

PHAT is a japanese jazz-electronic band. Their style is like a mix of jazz and smooth electronics in the direction of ambient/dub — but not only instrumental, most sounding slower and kind of dark.

Takahiro Kido — guitar / piano / programming / glockenspiel / organ
Takahiro Matsue — bass / poket saxophone
Tadashi Yoshikawa — drums / theremin / harmonium / tenori-on
Kenichi Kai — piano / synthesizer