I and Ikue Mori invited Fred Frith to co-found this trio in 1995. Ikue and I shared an idea to make music using just textures. We released a couple of CDs, Death Ambient and Syneasthesia, on Tzadik in 1995 and 2000. For our third CD Drunken Forest, the idea behind it was to use themes related to enviromental collapse and make soundtrack for them. However, my goal was to make the music speak for itself. The initial session was recorded as a trio by Myles Boisen in Oakland, California, then I composed melodies, over-dubbed numerous parts with various instruments and I mixed with textures the trio recorded previously. Fred Frith on electric guitar, Ikue Mori on laptop, myself on various musical instruments: acoustic & electric bass, violin, banjo, mandolin, acoustic, electric & lapsteel guitar, ukelele, acordion, analog synth, soprano & alto recorder and water & ice. As a special guest, Jim Pugliese played percussion and trumpet. The CD Drunken Forest has been released on Tzadik and we performed at the Stone in NYC in 2007.

This is another trio with marvarlous Japanese musicians, Nakamura Toshimaru on fedback electric guitar and Akiyama Tetuzi on prepared electric guitar and myself on prepared electric bass and bass synthesizer. We all have versatality for playing both electronics and musical instruments. For this trio, each musician designs the basic strategies and structures within individual time tables. Although we perfrom together, we don't necessarily interact with each other or share a common structure. Instead, we perform within individual time & space. We performed and recorded in Tokyo in 2006 and 2008. Prequile Records will be releasing our first CD.

 

SOLO

My interest in abstract music led me to develope Prime Number Tuning System. Prime numbers are considered as natural numbers and discovered by Euclid in about 300 B.C. The advantage of using systematic approach is that I do have some kind of "bed" for music, even before I play. I recorded my first solo bass CD, Turbulent Zone in 1997 and released on my own label Music for Expanded Ears in 1998. For this piece, I used prime numbers to tune the intervals between strings: 6:7, 10:11, 13:12, plus 9:8 (although 9 is not a prime number, i like the way this interval sounded.) These were the most practical results for bass strings. Each tuning has different "beat". These tuning worked well with bass, though, there were some limitation: not being able to switch different tunings during performance; and variations were limited by the physical condition of the bass and strings. Recently, I decided to work on these loose ends and started designing a new piece, Su-Re ("rubbing" in Japanese) for prime number tone-genarator (designed by James Fei), speakers and microphones. This piece will be an environmental composition, rather than performance piece. Su-Re was premiered at Diapason Gallery in 2007.