Masami Akita

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Masami Akita, Moers Festival 2007

Masami Akita ( jap.秋田昌美Akita Masami * 19th December 1956 in Tokyo ) is a Japanese Japanoise - musician and author . He became internationally known for his noise project Merzbow, founded in Tokyo in 1979 .

biography

To his high school -time early 1970s the "aggressive blues-rock guitar sounds" of goods Jimi Hendrix , Lou Reed , Robert Fripp and the distorted organ sounds such. B. Mike Ratledge (Soft Machine) a first important influence for Akita.

At this time he began playing guitar in progressive rock band bands, playing drums in the late 1970s. While studying art at Tamagawa University (where he graduated), he dealt intensively with Dadaism and Surrealism and discovered free jazz for himself, a concert by the Cecil Taylor Unit made a special impression in 1973 . He also increasingly developed an interest in electroacoustic music by Pierre Henry , Karlheinz Stockhausen , François Bayle , Gordon Mumma and Iannis Xenakis . These encounters prompted him to gradually withdraw from rock music in the late 1970s and to experiment with "extreme forms of free music". The first attempts to walk were made with tape devices and feedback.

On the side he started to write for various magazines as a freelance writer. He wrote not only about art, but also about avant-garde music, sexuality and post-modern culture.

In 1979 he founded the Merzbow noise project, whose name he derived from Kurt Schwitters Merzbau . He let himself be influenced by blues , free jazz and young electronic music , but managed to create a completely different form of music. He produced numerous recordings under the name Merzbow, which he distributed via mail order. The layout partly consisted of pornographic images that he cut into collages. Therefore, he calls the music on these albums Pornoise .

Merzbow is (next to the bands Hijokaidan and Hanatarash ) generally regarded as the last active veteran of the Japanese noise scene and also founded the local trend to turn away from conventional contemporary standards of electronic music production ( Yoshihide Otomo , Sachiko M ). In contrast to earlier times when he worked with analog synthesizers , feedback and distortion effects, he now uses a notebook or two when performing live. These performances take place in the border areas of free jazz , new music and performance art . The music itself is often only one aspect of an overall performance.

In 2001 he published what is probably the most extensive individual publication by an artist to date, the Merzbox with 50 CDs.

He also collaborated with various other artists and bands such as Mike Patton , Asmus Tietchens , Masonna , Russell Haswell , Heiko Daxl , Aryan Kaganof , Hijokaidan , Sunn O))) , Boris and Consumer Electronics . He performed at Moldejazz with Jazzkammer and Maja Ratkje . Also designed Trevor Brown , who among other things for White House and Brighter Death Now create the layout, some of his albums.

In 2007 he formed the Kikuri project with Keiji Haino and performed at the Moers Festival with it.

Akita also worked with other media and shot Lost Paradise, a film that recreates the seppuku of a Japanese school girl. Akita also designed various performances , some of which are based on various Japanese dances.

Akita is also active for the animal rights organization PETA . He is married to Reiko Akita , who is partly involved in his projects.

Max Dax , former editor-in-chief of spex , wrote about Merzbow:

“Merzbow, a militant non-smoker. It was not even allowed to crumble in the box. The secret of his success can be revealed at this point: Akita Masami chases jet-like sound waves into the audience from an Apple laptop and a self-made guitar, while drummer Balazs beats Pandi like a madman on his drums. What the audience does not notice in the intoxication: All the overtones that you might think come from a wild processing of the cymbals come from the laptop. Pandi limits himself to hitting the toms - but with great, fast virtuosity. "

- Max Dax (May 19, 2010)

Selected discography

Merzbow's very extensive discography includes 709 publications. Therefore only a few studio albums from the main project "Merzbow" are listed here. Merzbow's entire EPs, live albums, remixes, collaborations and compilations are not mentioned here. The entire discography of his other pseudonyms is also not recorded here.

Some selected studio albums by Merzbow:

  • 1980: Metal Acoustic Music
  • 1981: E-Study
  • 1982: Normal Music
  • 1983: Material Action 2 NAM
  • 1984: Age of 369
  • 1985: The Lapinak
  • 1989: Flesh Metal Orgasm
  • 1989: Every rumble fall the root block
  • 1991: Music for Bondage Performance
  • 1994: Flare Gun
  • 1994: Hole
  • 1996: Music for Bondage Performance 2
  • 1996: Pulse Demon
  • 1998: 1930
  • 1998: machine style
  • 2001: Merzbox
  • 2002: Merzbeat
  • 2005: Merzbuddha
  • 2006: Bloody Sea
  • 2007: Peace for Animals
  • 2008: Hodosan
  • 2009: 13 Japanese Birds - 13 publications under the name by 2010
  • 2010: Ouroborus

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Chad Hensley: The Beauty of Noise - An interview with Masami Akita of Merzbow In: EsoTerra # 8, 1999, online
  2. ^ A b c François Couture: Merzbow Biography In: All Music , Online
  3. ^ Carlos M. Pozo: Expanded Noisehands - The Noise Music Of Merzbow , Online ( Memento of the original from November 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / noiseweb.com
  4. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated November 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / dissonanz.spex.de
personal data
SURNAME Akita, Masami
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 秋田 昌 美 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese musician, artist
DATE OF BIRTH December 19, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH Tokyo