AA.VV.
Improvised Music From Japan EXTRA 2003

"Improvised Music From Japan" is the name of a Japanese label very active in these 2000s, specializing in the release of "unwritten" music created by artists from the Land of the Rising Sun with an avant-garde approach. Since 2002, the label has annually published a namesake magazine in Japanese/English with interviews, reviews, and articles, attaching to each issue two CD compilations that offer an overview of the most significant new releases from this scene. The subject of discussion is the double compilation attached to the release titled "Improvised Music From Japan EXTRA 2003" as it supplements the annual release and focuses on the "new blood" of Japanese improvised music. Like any compilation, the level of the tracks is quite variable, ranging from genuine strokes of genius to useless and boring masturbatory fantasies. I will now try to schematically present the situation by pointing out the best and worst of the nineteen tracks present (seventeen from the "new-comers" plus two bonus tracks by already established artists).   

Takefumi Naoshima - "In a Car", Nentegaine - "Seven",  Yoichiro Shin - "Mekanik Destruktiw Batterie": these are valid tracks of improvised glitch electronic music, minimal and expansive but also disturbed by abrasive and disjointed sounds peeping out from frequency carpets. They vaguely remind something of Ikeda or less linear Autechre. Cerebral.

Asuna - "Vibration of Reeds Lid_05", Aen - "Processed", Kazumi Namba - untitled: these are still tracks of ambient glitch music but without harshness. The first track is practically a single note (but trembling and reverberated) held by a Yamaha organ for seven minutes, with the last few minutes at less than half the initial volume. Perhaps a piece too simple, almost rudimentary, yet it works, almost resembling a sound representation of a sunrise followed by a sunset. The other two pieces inspire tranquility and seem made with waves generated by an oscillator, especially the untitled track, which adds a background chirping of birds giving an idea of a morning awakening. Dreamlike.  

Masafumi Ezaki - untitled, Kazushige Kinoshita - "Rudiment": every few seconds of silence, an indefinable noise of very short duration is heard. Staticity and boredom prevail, however one jumps from the chair when reading in the notes that these strange sounds are derived respectively from a trumpet (!!!) and a violin (!!). These tracks become interesting only after knowing which instruments have created them; it is indeed incredible that such strange sounds come from traditional instruments, the performers must have really practiced for quite a while to obtain them, the problem is that they seem more related to circus virtuosity rather than music, and they seem suitable only for a hypothetical quiz titled "Guess What I'm Playing". This type of performance may only satisfy those listening to music with a scientist's ears, for everyone else it is just boring. Even if these improvisations have an uncommon originality, the artists who perform them are not so different from the tedious guitar heroes infesting some rock: pure onanism. 

Masahide Tokunaga - "Alto Saxophone Solo", Taku Unami - "Pleasant Valley": the same alternation of silence/sound/silence as the two tracks described previously, only here it is even worse; in the first track, we hear a saxophone that sounds like a mosquito (and the annoyance is the same), in the second a banjo touch every thirty seconds of silence, in seven and a half minutes of track there may be fifteen seconds of sound. Wasted time.  

Katsura Yamauchi - "Salmo": a bonus track by what should be a "big name" in Japanese improvisation. Long pauses of pure silence broken by a saxophone that sounds like a cross between a Christmas bagpipe and a New Year's Eve party blower, if nothing else here denotes a certain sense of humor. A joke.  

Ju Muraoka - "Seppi",  Taku Hannoda - "Solo Guitar": these are guitar improvisations, both rather harmonic; the first, very brief, is not bad to listen to but it is just a sketch, as artistic as a soundcheck before a concert; the second represents the most degraded and trivial version of improvised music, a simple, cheerful melody strummed as one would at a party among friends after a drink. Useless.

DJ Peaky - "Three Elements Solo": one of the most interesting and articulate tracks of the compilation, difficult to describe. A prolonged white noise is rhythmically stopped by small pauses creating a kind of increasingly mechanical pace. Other electronic sounds intervene gradually (but there is also a vacuum cleaner in the background). Brilliant.

DILL - "9 Breads": the only sung track, definitely the most accessible of the bunch although it doesn’t seem very improvised. A female voice accompanied by a double bass and very jazzy percussion, catchy but also slightly shadowy. Beautiful.  

Takumi Toki - "ch.or.tr on Sat": glitch version of the silence/noise/silence pattern explained previously, yet the result this time is positive; the "imperfect" electronic sound makes the piece appear "full" and not boring despite silence predominating here as well. Mysterious.  

Teruyuki Ohshima - "C": another difficult track to describe, another small masterpiece; after an opening of guitar played almost like a shamisen, starts a polyphonic interweaving of "meowing" siren-like sounds obtained who knows how, the effect is nothing short than bizarre and curious. Dadaist.  

BusRatch - "Sound Combing": an excellent example of iconoclastic art. Crackling pins, scarred and tortured vinyls with sadistic mastery. Noisy but fun.  

Shoji Hano and Masaharu Shoji - untitled: another bonus track that beautifully closes the compilation. Probably for those familiar with John Zorn, it is nothing particularly new, yet after so many overly cerebral tracks, these excellent ten minutes of Noise-Jazz for sax and percussion are a relief. Captivating.

Overall, the final verdict on the work is positive although listening to it in one go is penalized by some really boring passages that test the listener's patience. Cutting some pieces and perhaps concentrating everything on a single CD would surely have helped. In any case, there are at least four or five notable tracks, and many others are at least curious and interesting, making it a compilation recommended for those seeking something new and bizarre.