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Great White Light LP Omega Point 1

Great White Light organized by Seiji Onishi, Kazuo Kawasumi, Mitsuyoshi Shioya, Goji Hamada performed at the Kishi Memorial Hall in Shibuya, Tokyo, on February 13, 1971. Ten years after the performance, Onishi released a recording of it in LP format as an appendix to his collection “The Works of Seiji Onishi 1966 → 1981”, hereinafter referred to as “Works”). Given that “Works” was published in a small edition, and Onishi moved to Belgium soon after, it was difficult to get our hands around this documentation of the use of sound in the Japanese art of the 1970s. A reissue of this recording is Japanese Art Sound Archive’s 1st LP release.

Great White Light was full of noises created by the wind from the air blowers hitting the microphones. The artists stood in the center of the venue surrounded by the devices: six loudspeakers and air blowers, all facing outward, with a fixed microphone in front of the air outlet of each blower•3. Seats for the audience surrounded the circle, and a beam projector was set next to the wall. During the performance, Onishi operated the transformers of the blowers, and Shioya the lighting. Hamada performed his “action voice” with four microphones•4. In addition to this setup, Taj Mahal Travellers joined as a guest performer. Initially, they had planned to perform only with the blowers and voice, but just before the concert, they got suddenly overtaken by pre-performance anxiety and decided to invite the guests.
(note: this reissue was made from original LP, and some sound problems – slight surface noise and vibration – are on recording.) Ltd to 300, just incredible, noisy and libertaire !

SOLD OUT

Yasumune Morishige /  Reizen CD “Music For Piano” Omega Point

This new recording is collaboration by Yasumune Morishige and Rezen.
Yasumune Morishige is one of Japan’s most unique voices of the cello, improvising musician. His sound is not only hard edge and deep but also sensitive, however, he has played with other artists almost than solo.
Reizen has acted as ambient unit Nerae until several years ago. He plays guitar drone now, and the sound was released on PSF and Fylkingen.

In this recording, they played inside (and prepared) piano only. Especially Morishige’s solo piano play is extremely rare. Reizen’s sound is made from wires of piano vibrated by handy fan. All tracks consists of their solo playing.

1st edition: metallic blue cover (ltd.90)

SOLD OUT

Yasumune Morishige /  Reizen CD “Live in Hong Kong” Omega Point

$16

Somei Satoh CD “Echoes” Omega Point

Back in stock ! Great Classic

$18

Kuniharu Akiyama CD  “Environmental Music for Dining Room of Athletes’ Village in Tokyo Olympics 1964” Omega Point

From participation in the early FLUXUS to giving an introduction of FUTURISM, Kuniharu Akiyama (1929-1996), a renowned music critic, was involved in a vast range of activities. Particularly in the 1960s, he recorded a lot of music on tape for himself. To our surprise, the music compiled on this CD was actually discovered from a series of ambient music pieces played in the Athletes’ Village at the Tokyo Olympics! During this period, Akiyama was fascinated by the sound of Sanukite stone from Sanuki, Shikoku island and he composed several ambient music pieces including this one. Despite the detail of the work have been unknown as the composer was already passed away, a guru of electronic musicologist, Koji Kawasaki, managed to reveal everything behind the piece.

sold out

Takashi Matsudaira “Extended Voices” Omega Point

Extended Voices, a compilation LP album released from Odyssey, a former section of Columbia Records, the U.S., contains works of “extended voices” offered by important authors of the experimental music circle including Pauline Oliveros, Morton Feldman, John Cage and Alvin Lucier [1]. As we had obtained the tape recording of Extended Voices composed by Toshi Ichiyanagi, a number consisting of electronic sounds and modulated voices which is contained in the album, we sought help from Takashi Matsudaira, a baritone singer, and worked on the realization of the piece in a different manner from the original version. By featuring this realization but also adding experimental pieces selected by Matsudaira as well as his own original work, we constructed “an anthology of extended voices” partially as homage to the original LP.

$18

Toshi Ichiyanagi + Kenji Kobayashi 2CD “Duo Recital” Omega Point

In 1961, soon after Toshi Ichiyanagi returned from the USA, two concerts were performed at the Sogetsu Art Center ; “Toshi Ichiyanagi Concert”, at which some member of ‘Group Ongaku’ joined, as well as “Toshi Ichiyanagi and Kenji Kobayashi Duo Recital”, which recording is used for this album. It was a major opportunity for its audience to experience the works of Toshi Ichiyanagi and the avant-garde philosophy directly in front of their eyes. Six months later, John Cage made his first visit to Japan for a concert tour. Of course, then the Japanese music scene would be struck by a huge “shock”. So we can consider the recital by Ichiyanagi as a “quiet shock” before the “storm”.

DISC 1
track 1: Sylvano Bussotti Music for violin / 9’18”
track 2: Morton Feldman Duet for violin and piano / 9’55”
track 3: Toshi Ichiyanagi The Pile / For String #2 (simultaneous performance) / 19’06”
track 4: Anton Webern 4 Pieces for violin and piano, Op.7 / 5’18”
track 5: La Monte Young 561 to Henry Flynt / 11’24”

DISC 2
track 1: John Cage 34’46.776″ / 31’33”

$29

Toshi ichiyanagi CD “Music For Tinguely” Omega Point

music composition: Toshi Ichiyanagi / technical assistance: Shigenosuke Okuyama
track 1_Music for Tinguely (1963) 10’01” (from OPA-005)
track 2-4_Sound Materials of ‘Music for Tinguely’ (1963) 15’46”

This simple CD version was made as related item of the magazine gq No.9. Special cardboard package, limited of 300 copies.

$18

Veltz CD ” Homage to Home Electronics” Omega Point

“I’m interested in junk materials and have made sound works since several years ago. Before then, I listened experimental music as a fan, but my border of music and non music became meaningless by encounter with Fluxus, sound-art, media-art and others. Since then, I love texture of ‘sound’ itself.
I remarked abandoned analog televisions when transmitting system of broadcast signal was changed to digital format in 2011. They are one of my favorite instrument at present, and I hold live performance and installation used them.
In this CD, I used analog TV, cassette tape recorder and video player. However, their sounds are not manipulated, and I recorded their spontaneous machine noise only. Are These one of ‘experimental music’? I think it may be ‘discovered music’. Obviously, I cannot leave from the fascination of ordinary equipments in my life.”

$15