Improvised Music from Japan 2009 takes a look at improvised/experimental music festivals and concert series in Japan. Covered in the book are 33 of the many festival/series events taking place around the country. The articles (some written by the organizers themselves, others based on interviews of the organizers conducted in person or by e-mail) reveal the ideas, aims and feelings of the people on the small improvised/experimental music scene who work tirelessly to hold these events on an ongoing basis. There's also an appendix with photos taken at the 2008 Ftarri Festival Tokyo. In addition to the 128-page book (all bilingual English-Japanese), there are 3 CDs with a total of 31 tracks by 31 artists/groups, for an amazing range of music. Disc 1 Katsura Mouri - Chess Piece (2:41) Recorded at KM2 Studio, Kyoto, February 2009 Mixed and edited by Katsura Mouri Jyurin - Untitled (6:57) Matt Richelson: guitar Shayne Bowden: electronics Recorded live at art space tetra, Fukuoka, June 14, 2009 Takahiro Hirama - ratiug (4:33) Takahiro Hirama: iBook G4; GarageBand; MIDI piano; 4'33" aif file; e, a, d, g, b, e (each second) Riuichi Daijo - Dead Pan Smiles #59-04 (4:20) Riuichi Daijo: guitar Recorded live at PlanB, Tokyo, June 26, 2009 Taichi Furudate - from contact mic to contact mic (6:59) Taichi Furudate: compact mixer, 4 contact microphones Recorded by Taichi Furudate at his home, August 12, 2009 Suzueri/Jyoji Sawada/Takuji Kawai - aLiCe (5:22) Suzueri: vocal Jyoji Sawada: contrabass Takuji Kawai: piano Composition by Jyoji Sawada; words from a poem in Through the Looking-Glass, by Lewis Carroll Recorded by Isamu Iguchi at IAMAS in 2005 Mixed by Hidenobu Ito in 2009 Originally released on the album Licentia Poetica (Elegant Disc, ELECD-10) on November 4, 2009 hum [masaya sasaki + yuki kaneko] - Isolate Tiny Oscillation (7:00) Recorded by hum at Hiyodori Studio, July 2009 Mixed by hum Mimiz - edit 090111 (7:00) Satoshi Fukushima: processing Kensuke Tobitani: instruments Yoshihisa Suzuki: instruments Recorded live by Mimiz at Enban Jamboree, Shibuya O-nest, Tokyo, January 11, 2009 Edited by Mimiz Hiroyuki Ura - Attitude (2:08) Recorded by Hiroyuki Ura at his home, May 26, 2009 Segments String Quartet - sky (15:10) Kazushige Kinoshita: violin Hiroki Chiba: violin Nanko Kumon: cello Yoko Ikeda: violin Composition by Kazushige Kinoshita Recorded live at Segment Project Vol. 6, Loop-Line, Tokyo, September 25, 2009 Disc 2 BOBO (Ken Ando) - Black Chino (6:16) Recorded by Ken Ando at Otsuka Orange Studio, August 26, 2009 Kanta Horio - Recording 090814 (3:46) Kanta Horio: 2 solenoids, 2 piezoelectric elements, ATmega168P Recorded by Kanta Horio at 4nchor5 la6, Tokyo, August 14, 2009 SEED MOUTH - Repeated Gray (7:00) SEED MOUTH (Hirohito Taneguchi): Roland SH-09, 2 CD players, BOSS ME-50 Recorded by SEED MOUTH at SEED Bedroom Studio, August 6, 2009 Mitsuteru Takeuchi - cd music (7:00) Recorded in August 2009 *Please keep the CD player's fast forward button pressed down as you listen to this track. (Do not use headphones.) Madoka Kouno - recorded recording (7:00) Recorded in Tokyo, January 2009 Bon-no-Kubo (4:39) Masahiko Ota: guitar Shintarou Takasugi: contrabass Naoto Yamagishi: drums, percussion Recorded by Takuya Abe at AMIGO Studio, Irima, May 21, 2009 Mixed and mastered by Takuya Abe, May 31, 2009 sisforsound - Track 1 (5:39) Yuko Mohri: vocal, foot keyboard Wataru Kitamura: guitar Keiichi Nakano: drums Recorded by sisforsound at Rinky Dink Studio, Tokyo, April 28, 2004 Hayato Kurosawa/Hiroshi Kato - INAFUJI ver. 1 (6:57) Hayato Kurosawa: acoustic guitar Hiroshi Kato: electronics Recorded at Inafuji, Tokyo, June 17, 2009 Takuma Makino/Manabu Suzuki/Junichi Hamaji - layered music op. 1-1 (8:54) Takuma Makino: electric guitar Manabu Suzuki: self-made electronics Junichi Hamaji: soprano saxophone, live electronics Composition by Junichi Hamaji Recorded live at grid605, March 15, 2009 Mixed by Junichi Hamaji, April 4, 2009 Koji Saito - 33 (5:30) Recorded by Koji Saito at his home in 2008 Disc 3 chihei hatakeyama - Last Night (6:56) Composition by chihei hatakeyama Recorded and mixed by chihei hatakeyama Satoshi Kanda - Milk Bottle on Bass Guitar (6:37) Recorded in Satoshi Kanda's bedroom in Febrary 2009 Shinichi Isohata - Simple Drawing (3:31) Shinichi Isohata: guitar Recorded by Shinichi Isohata at his home, September 11, 2009 Shinjiro Yamaguchi - Hanarete (7:00) Recorded by Shinjiro Yamaguchi at his home in May 2009 Satoshi Yashiro - Rolling up a 25-meter strip of hook-and-loop tape in a room (6:53) Recorded in August 2009 A recorded work reenacting, at the artist's home, an installation produced in 2007. A recording was made of the sound of a 25-meter-long strip of Velcro-type tape being rolled up by a computer-controlled motor. Takehiro Nishide/Bunsho Nishikawa - Nish "Din" (3:01) Takehiro Nishide: guitar Bunsho Nishikawa: guitar Recorded by Bunsho Nishikawa at Bridge, Osaka, April 2006 Edited by Bunsho Nishikawa in August 2009 Kanichiro Oda - Pouring into Water (two liters of water poured from a PET bottle into a river) (0:31) Makoto Oshiro - Piped Unellion, Wind and a Doze (7:00) During my performance at an outdoor concert that was curated by a friend at a park located in Kofu, Yamanashi, the wind started to blow when I was playing around with feedbacks created between a piezo mike attached to a very thin metal panel and a speaker attached to a resonating tube. The unexpected interference caused by the wind flapping the metal panel was quite interesting, so I ended up playing along with that throughout the whole performance. This was an impressive incident, so I tried to reproduce the effect at home using the wind of a fan heater blowing towards the same setup. Contrary to what happened outdoors, the response was rather delicate in a way particular to closed spaces. The wind of the fan heater ended up making most of the sounds after I attached a spring and weight to the metal panel and hung a small piece of corallite right beside the metal panel. The only work I did during this recording was the obstructing of wind and the triggering of feedbacks. Actually, I sometimes fell asleep during the recording, which went on for a few hours, but that added an amusing spice to it so I decided to leave that portion in as the title. (Makoto Oshiro) Tetragrammaton - Aim of Attention (6:53) TOMO: violin, hurdy gurdy Cal Lyall: tabletop guitar Ken Nobunaga: drums shotahirama - Music for Narita Airport (6:47) shotahirama: Reaktor 5, Elektron Machinedrum, Elektron Monomachine, Waldorf Blofeld, AT2020 Sound material recorded by shotahirama at Narita Airport in September 2009 Saya (7:00) Saya: piano Recorded by Saya at her home, October 14, 2009