Merzbow | |
|---|---|
 Masami Akita performing live atISSUE Project Room in 2010 | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Tokyo,Japan |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1979 (1979)–present |
| Labels |
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| Members | Masami Akita |
| Past members |
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| Website | www.merzbow.net |
Merzbow (Japanese:メルツバウ,Hepburn:Merutsubau) is a Japanesenoise project started in 1979 by Masami Akita,[1][2] best known for a style of harsh noise music. Since 1980, Akita has released over 500 recordings and collaborated with numerous artists.
The name Merzbow comes from the Germandada artistKurt Schwitters' artworkMerzbau, in which Schwitters transformed the interior of his house usingfound objects. The name was chosen to reflect Akita's dada influence and junk art aesthetic. In addition to this, Akita has cited a wide range of musical influences fromprogressive rock,heavy metal,free jazz, and earlyelectronic music[3] to non-musical influences like dadaism,surrealism and fetish culture.[4]. Since the early 2000s, he has been inspired byanimal rights andenvironmentalism, and began to follow avegan,straight edge lifestyle.[5][6]
In addition to being a prolific musician, he has been a writer and editor for several books and magazines in Japan, and has written several books of his own. He has written about a variety of subjects, mostly about music,modern art, andunderground culture. His more renowned works were on the topics ofBDSM andJapanese bondage. Other art forms Akita has been interested in include painting, photography, filmmaking, andButoh dance.[1]
In 2000,Extreme Records released the 50 CD box setMerzbox. Akita's work has been the subject of severalremix albums and at least onetribute album. This, among other achievements, has helped Merzbow to be regarded by some as the "most important artist in noise".[7]
Masami Akita (秋田 昌美,Akita Masami) was born inTokyo, Japan on December 19, 1956. He listened topsychedelic music,progressive rock and laterfree jazz in his youth, all of which have influenced his noise.[7] In 1972, he became the drummer of various high school bands,[8] which he left due to the other members being "grass-smokingZappa freaks".[9] By this time, he and school friend Kiyoshi Mizutani had started playing improvised studio sessions that he described as "longjam sessions along the lines ofAsh Ra Tempel orCan but we didn't have any psychedelic taste".[9]
He later attendedTamagawa University to studyfine art, at which he majored in painting andart theory.[1] While at university, he became interested in the ideas ofdada andsurrealism and also studiedButoh dance.[9] At Tamagawa, he learned ofKurt Schwitters'Merz, or art made from rubbish, including Schwitters'Merzbau (meaningMerz building,German pronunciation:[ˈmɛʁtsˌbaʊ̯]), which is the source of the name Merzbow.[10]
He is known as a vegan who avoids meat, eggs (except those from chickens he raises himself), dairy[11] and leather products.[12]He is a strict straight edge, abstaining from alcohol and tobacco.[13] An avid bird lover who keeps many birds at home, he includes "Bariken" in his work titles and inserts anti-KFC flyers in his works. He actively supports animal rights organizations like PETA and opposes whaling and dolphin hunting.[14]
After completing his degree, Akita became a freelance writer and editor for various magazines in Japan. He frequently wrote on a variety of topics involving sexuality (includingpornography,S&M, andJapanese bondage), underground and extreme culture (including music and art), architecture, and animal rights. None have been published in English.
Merzbow began as the duo of Masami Akita and Kiyoshi Mizutani, who met Akita in junior high school.[16] Akita started releasing noise recordings oncassettes through his ownrecord label, Lowest Music & Arts, which was founded in order to trade cassette tapes with other underground artists. The earliest recording he made wasMetal Acoustic Music. Various other early releases includedRemblandt Assemblage andSolonoise 1.[17] TheCollection series consisted of ten cassettes, the first five were recorded in a studio for an independent label called Ylem, which went defunct before they could be released. So, Akita released them himself, and recorded five more at home.[18][19]
I threw all my past music career in the garbage. There was no longer any need for concepts like 'career' and 'skill'. I stopped playing music and went in search of an alternative.
— Masami Akita[20]
Early methods included what Akita referred to as "material action", made by making quiet sounds with household objects which were recorded withclose miking or rubbing the microphone directly on things and overloading the recording levels.[9][16] This method was used onMaterial Action for 2 Microphones andMaterial Action 2 N.A.M.. This led to a technique he termed "environmental percussion", where instrumental sounds were made with non-instruments such as banging on the floor, gas stove, spring of a table lamp for percussion sounds. As well as using a violin bow on objects like plastic cassette cases or cards, rubber bands as a guitar sound, blowing in a toilet paper tube as horns, scratching metal as electrical sounds, etc. At this time, Akita also made a homemade instrument consisting of a metal case strung with piano wires, guitar strings, and springs. It was played by bowing or placing objects inside and shaking it. This can be heard on albums likeCrocidura Dsi Nezumi,Ecobondage andStorage.[9][21]
Among early releases like the box setPornoise/1kg, Merzbow created artwork usingphotocopies ofcollages made out ofmanga and porn magazines he found in trash cans in the Tokyo subway. Akita explained this as trying to "create the same feeling as the secret porn customer for the people buying my cassettes in the early 80s".[22]
ZSF Produkt (pronouncedzusufu, from an ancient Japanese word meaning "magnetic")[20] was founded in 1984 to release music by similar artists within theindustrial movement but eventually became the successor to Lowest Music & Arts.[23] Numerous Merzbow releases were recorded at ZSF Produkt Studio, Masami Akita's home studio.[24]
During this era, Merzbow found much wider recognition and began making recordings for various international labels.[25]Batztoutai with Memorial Gadgets was his first LP released outside of Japan.
Merzbow's first performances outside of Japan were at the Jazz-on-Amur festival in March 1988 inKhabarovsk, USSR. Merzbow were invited along with computer composer Kazuo Uehara. Apparently Merzbow was mistaken for a group using hi-tech equipment.[8][26] The first set was typical Merzbow style, but was stopped for being too noisy.[27][8][26] For the show the following day, the duo were asked to play "more musically".[27] and featured Akita on drums and Mizutani on piano and guitar.[8][26] Following this, touring would become an important activity for Merzbow, especially for the connections made with artists and labels.[8] Merzbow would tour Europe in 1989 and the United States in 1990.[28] Kiyoshi Mizutani left Merzbow after the 1989 European tour and continues to pursue a solo career.
During a European tour in September–October 1989, Merzbow could only bring simple and portable gear; this led to the harsh noise style Merzbow became known for in the 1990s.Cloud Cock OO Grand (1990) was the first example of this new style, Merzbow's firstdigital recording (onDAT), and the first recording made for theCD format. It also includes live material recorded during the tour.[29]
But when I started live in late 1980s I didn't like to use tape on stage. I like only live electronics. So, my studio works changed to more live composition style. I'm still using many tapes in studio works, but difference is I treat tapes and instruments. Before, I used tapes as overdubbing concept. But now tapes are crashing together, no static overdub. I found that style onCloud Cock OO Grand.
— Masami Akita[29]
Beginning in the mid-1990s, Merzbow began to be influenced bydeath metal andgrindcore.[30] Recordings from this time are mostly recorded at extreme volume, some mastered at levels far beyond standard (Noisembryo,Pulse Demon).[31] In 1994, Akita acquired a vintageEMS synthesizer. From 1996, plans were made to release a "10 (or maybe 12)" CD box set onExtreme Records.[32] In 2000,Extreme Records released theMerzbox, a fifty CD set of Merzbow records, twenty of them not previously released.
Throughout most of the 1990s, Merzbow live was a trio with Reiko A. on electronics and Tetsuo Sakaibara (aka Bara) on voice and dance. Masami Akita occasionally played drums forHijokaidan during the early–mid 1990s.
In the early 1990s, Masami Akita composed the soundtracks to numerouskinbaku videos by Fuji Planning (不二企画,Fuji Kikaku) andseppuku-themed videos by their sub-label Right Brain.[30] Akita also directedLost Paradise (失楽園 乗馬服女腹切り,Shitsurakuen: Jōbafuku onna harakiri) for Right Brain.[33] Some of this music was included onMusic for Bondage Performance andMusic for Bondage Performance 2, co-credited to Right Brain Audile. DirectorIan Kerkhof would use a Merzbow track for his 1992 filmLa séquence des barres parallèles, and Akita composed original music for Kerhof's 1994 filmThe Dead Man 2: Return of the Dead Man.[30] Kerkhof made the documentaryBeyond Ultra Violence: Uneasy Listening by Merzbow in 1998.[34] Akita also created music forIlppo Pohjola'sAsphalto (1998)[35] andRoutemaster (2000).[36][37]
Since 1999, Akita has used computers in his recordings, having first acquired aMacintosh to work on art for theMerzbox. Also at this time he began referring to his home studio as "Bedroom, Tokyo". At live performances, Akita has produced noise music from either two laptop computers or combination of a laptop and analog synthesizers/guitar pedals.[citation needed] Reiko A. and Bara left Merzbow during this time; Reiko Azuma now has a solo career. Since 2001, Jenny Akita (née Kawabata) started being credited for artwork on various releases.
Since 2001, Akita started utilising samples of animal sounds in various releases starting withFrog. Around 2002, Akita became avegan. He later stated:
I started raising fourbantams, the little ornamental chickens. With this experience as a start, I gradually started to be concerned and care about chickens and all the barn animals I used to eat without giving it a second thought before. So I started reading books and researching on the internet aboutAnimal Rights and that triggered an awareness of "evil" that human society has done.
— Masami Akita[38]
During this period, Akita also became a supporter ofPETA, which is reflected in his animal-themed releases.[39] An example of this isMinazo Vol. 1 andVol. 2, dedicated to anelephant seal he visited often at thezoo andBloody Sea, a protest againstJapanese whaling.[40][41] He has also produced several works centered around recordings of his pet chickens (notablyAnimal Magnetism andTurmeric).[42]
Also in 2002, Akita releasedMerzbeat, which was seen as a significant departure from his trademark abstract style in that it contains beat-oriented pieces. This has sparked some controversy among fans,[43] though some reviewers pointed out that it sounded very similar toAqua Necromancer (1998), which features samples ofprogressive rock drumming.[44][45]Merzbird (2004) andMerzbuddha (2005) followed in a similar vein with sampled beats combined with Merzbow's signature harsh noise.
Starting in the mid-2000s, Masami Akita began to reintroduce junk metal and effects pedals back into his setup. In 2008, Akita reintroduced thedrum kit, his first instrument.[46] This can be heard on the13 Japanese Birds series. At this time he changed the name of his home studio to Munemihouse. By the early 2010s, he was using a large number of pedals, oscillators and tone generators, and reduced to a single laptop runninggranular synthesis software.[46] In 2014, he toured without a laptop.
Beginning in November 2009, Merzbow started releasing archival material from the 1980s and 1990s, both reissues and previously unreleased material, several of which were released oncassette. The Blossoming Noise label reissued the 1980s cassettesE-Study,Collection 004,Collection 005,Normal Music, andFlesh Metal Orgasm. TheKibbutz cassette was reissued on vinyl by Urashima. Other cassettes of unreleased material includeUntitled Nov 1989,9888A,April 1992, andVariations for Electric Fan. 2010–2013 saw the release several archival box sets;Merzbient,Merzphysics,Merzmorphosis,Lowest Music & Arts 1980–1983, andDuo.
Akita began collaborating with the Hungarian drummerBalázs Pándi in 2009, initially Pándi served as a live drummer for Merzbow. This resulted in the live albumsLive at Fluc Wanne, Vienna 2010/05/18,Ducks: Live in NYC, andKatowice. Akita and Pándi then began to record studio albums collaborating with additional musicians,Cuts (2013) with the Swedish saxophone playerMats Gustafsson,Cuts of Guilt, Cuts Deeper (2015) with Gustafsson andThurston Moore, andAn Untroublesome Defencelessness withKeiji Haino (2016), all released by RareNoiseRecords. Akita, Pándi, and Gustafsson also toured together and released the live LPLive in Tabačka 13/04/12.
Merzbow also released several collaborations withindustrial/noise musicians he had known since the 1980s:Spiral Right / Spiral Left withZ'EV,The Black Album withJohn Duncan, and a trio of releases withMaurizio Bianchi,Amniocentesi / Envoise 30 05 82 (asplit with two tracks from 1982),Merzbow Meets M.B., andAmalgamelody.[47]Gensho, the seventh collaborative releases withBoris, was released in 2016. It is a double album, one disc is by Boris and one by Merzbow, that are meant to be played at the same time.
Beginning in April 2018, the Japanese label Slowdown Records began releasing a series of archival recordings spanning Merzbow's career on a semimonthly basis, starting withHyper Music 1 Vol. 1 and23 November 1979 (B). Groups of six releases were later compiled in 6 CD box sets. These boxes were themselves later compiled in larger boxes:10×6=60 in 2021[48] and35 CD Box in 2022.[49] Slowdown has also released several new recordings in addition to the archival releases. By the end of 2022, Slowdown has released 96 archival CDs and 116 CDs total. From April 2024, Slowdown began a new series of digital release onBandcamp and other services. The series includes newly recorded albums (starting withGecko Raga andHatomosphere Variant) and archival releases (starting withSpirulina Green andBon Bullet).[50][51]
Merzbow's sounds employ the use of distortion, feedback, and noises fromsynthesizers, machinery, and home-made noisemakers. While much of Merzbow's output is intensely harsh in character, Akita does occasionally make forays intoambient music, as inMerzbient. Vocals are employed sometimes, but never in a lyrical sense. Contrary to most harshnoise music, Akita also occasionally uses elements of melody and rhythm.[52]
Akita's early work consisted of industrial noise music made fromtape loops and conventional instruments. Similar to his present albums, he produced lengthy, disorienting pieces. He also became famous for the sheer volume of his releases.[27]
During the 1990s Akita's work became much harsher and was generally mastered at a louder volume than usual. These were heavily influenced bydeath metal andgrindcore bands of the time (a prime example isVenereology).[30] The mid-1990s saw Akita being heavily influenced by psychedelic bands and this was reflected in various albums.
In addition to Merzbow, Masami Akita has been involved in a number ofside projects and groups.
Other groups include:3RENSA with Duenn andKoji Nakamura,Abe Sada with S.M.U.T.,Commando Bruno Sanmartino with Fumio Kosakai andMasaya Nakahara,[56][57]Kikuri withKeiji Haino,Maldoror withMike Patton,[58]MAZK withZbigniew Karkowski,Melting Lips withHanayo,[59]Muscats with Hanayo andMasaya Nakahara,Metalik Zeit withAube,[60]Merz-Banana withMelt-Banana,[61][62]Satanstornade withRussell Haswell (they later released an album entitledSatanstornade under their real names),Secrets with Tetsuya Mugishima (aka Seven),[63] andShalon Kelly King with Fumio Kosakai.[64]
| International | |
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| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |