Early Japanese Electronic Music

Earlabs: "Concert 20-21 century vol.7: early tape music"

A concert series of Japanese contemporary music after WWII given at Kioi Hall in Tokyo. This issue includes unreleased and rare tape music.

Toshiro Mayuzumi "Works for musique concrete X. Y. Z (1953, earliest musique concrete in Japan)" Makoto Moroi / Toshiro Mayuzumi "Variations on numerical principle of 7 (1956)" - same source of Hiroshi Shiotani's CD "Oto no Hajimari wo Motomete" - Toru Takemitsu "Vocalism A.I", "Ki. Sora. Tori (Tree. Sky. Bird)", "Clap Vocalism" (1956) Yoshio Hasegawa "A musical tale for radio "The World in the Jar (1956)"

I found these recordings through my favourite p2p Soulseek. Soundquality is not very good (direct from an old vinyl) but it fills a gap in the history of electronic music. Mayuzumi shows his interest in films here already, presenting many acoustic scenes. He later scored a lot of movies before dying in 1997. The Moroi - Mayuzumi collaboration is purely electronic. Takemitsu's Vocalism AI is a haunting tape piece which really catches your attention. The others are a bit less expressive. Hashegawa's piece is actually a sort of radioplay which really MUST have been a big inspiration for John Zorn's 'Spillane'." (thanks to Kjell)
http://www.earlabs.org/label/LC/LC010.htm

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