Tetuzi Akiyama - Relator (2001)

One more while I'm at it, and before I go dormant again for God knows how long. Not Taku Sugimoto this time, but not straying too far either, here's another sought-after classic from a Japanese pioneer: Tetuzi Akiyama (秋山徹次; Tetuzi is his idiosyncratic way of spelling Tetsuji, as I may have mentioned before). This is his solo guitar album 'Relator', released in 2001 on Sugimoto's Slubmusic label.

I'm going to make it easy on myself and just quote the ever-reliable Brian Olewnick on this one:
"Akiyama, a guitarist, electronicist, and sometime violist, is most closely associated with the Japanese free improvisation scene centered around Taku Sugimoto. On Relator, a series of improvisations on acoustic guitar, he nestles into a space midway between Sugimoto's ultra-quiet serenity and the more agitated state of players like Derek Bailey. The pieces tend to be sparse and, in a sense, simple with highly abstracted blues motifs recurring irregularly. The guitar often sounds as though strung with extreme looseness, ensuring that a rattling sound will rough things up if they threaten to get too pristine. Akiyama's volume level ranges from nonexistent up to about medium range, never getting very loud. Some of the tracks (such as "Preparation") have a lovely, almost bucolic mood while others fall into random scrape 'n' clunk forays. At his best, he shows a keen sense of aural space and a very calm and relaxed approach to playing, though the listener may have to decide where to draw the line between relaxedness and lassitude. Generally, Relator will appeal to fans of quiet improv and post-Bailey guitar playing. Newcomers to this genre may prefer to begin with the more accessible Sugimoto." (All Music Guide)
Get it now at a fingerlicking 320kbps.
Here.

Taku Sugimoto - Opposite (1998)

By popular request, I give you... even more Taku Sugimoto (杉本拓)! (For the other ones, check links in the previous post, and let me know if anything needs to be reuploaded.)
Considered by many to be his masterpiece, released on that ephemeral HatHut offshoot Hat Noir, this was a one-time edition of 2000 copies, which you'd think is quite a lot for this artist, but this album has become surprisingly rare over the years. Oh, I just noticed I tagged this as 1997, but it was actually released in 1998; please correct that when you download it, and before you start spreading it on, lest the Schwebeablaut good name of properly tagged files be forever sullied.
Sugimoto's most listenable album, consisting of 25 tracks of meditative solo guitar (some electric, some acoustic), is yours for the taking - don't dawdle!
320kbps.
New link.

Taku Sugimoto - Myshkin Musicu for Electric Guitar (1996)

Hello, and welcome back to the most erratically updated music blog out there!
Did you notice? I just re-upped the first album ever posted here, and probably also the best one! So go there first if you missed out the first time around.
Now, I have awoken from my slumber to bring you yet another old and rare (very rare this time) album by the one and only Taku Sugimoto (杉本拓).

This one is highly sought after in certain circles, but has proved very elusive. It's taken me years to stumble on a physical copy myself! We have brought you Flagments of Paradise (1997), we have brought you Italia (2001), hell we even brought you Mon.goose (1999) – but today we travel back even further in time for Myshkin Musicu, an enigmatic disc released on Sugimoto's own Slub Music, consisting mostly of solo guitar, but also featuring a 10 minute improvisation starring Kevin Drumm, Tetuzi Akiyama, Brent Gutzeit and some other fine folks.

Excerpt from Sámuel Gyarmathi's perennial classic
Grammatical Proof of the Affinity of the Hungarian Language With Languages of Fennic Origin.

What's the relation to the town of Мышкин in Russia? Does Sugimoto-san speak Hungarian? Can anyone really claim to be able to decipher the track titles on the insert? Many questions to which you won't find any answers here.
New link!
320kbps.

Mon.goose - At Penguin House (1999)

There was a request for more Sugimoto, so here is Mon.goose;. If that punctuation is part of the band name is a matter of debate - considering that they don't use it on the inside of the wrapper thingy around the piece of paper that serves as packaging here, nor on this here website, I'm starting to think it's just an annoying one-off piece of tomfoolery on the cover. I'm also starting to regret that I tagged the files with the period between the syllables (but without the semicolon!), but there's nothing I can do about that now is there? I mean: there's nothing I am willing to do about it. Anyway........... What is this Mongoose?
Why, Wikipedia teaches us it's a weasel-like carnivore that lives in Africa and Asia, and whose name, from the Marāṭhī mangus (मंगूस), is a prime example of folk etymology (the plural mongeese is attested, even).

I have non-retractile claws and a large anal scent gland.

We are primarily concerned here with the 'band' (group? ensemble? crew?) though, at least for the time being. So, Mon(.)goose(;) (on the other hand, you wouldn't want to have them confused with some Hungarian glitch-hop producer, would you?) was the short-lived trio of Tetuzi Akiyama (秋山徹次, guitar, electronics), Utah Kawasaki (ユタカワサキ, synthesizer) and Taku Sugimoto (杉本拓, guitar), active around the turn of the millennium when the scene in Tokyo was pretty exciting (ok, sure, it still is, but I'm getting pretty fed up with that whole concept-over-actual-sound and why-make-any-sound-at-all?-craze).

Mongoose, the group (Akiyama, Sugimoto, Kawasaki)

On their website they speak of 'minimal noise music', but honestly that's not at all what I hear in it. There's some electric guitar feedbacking and some bloopy synth here, but only your granny would label it noise. It's just to slow and deliberate and spacious and balanced and... dare I say it, relaxing. Sugimoto is to blame for that, I guess; it's just impossible to think of 'noise' when you hear his delicate guitar notes (remember, this is only a short while after his zen - but don't call it that! - masterpiece, 'Opposite'). On the second of two untitled live tracks his notes are initially gathered into dense flurries, but soft, soft... while delicate crackles and hums fill out the palette. Gradually they gain presence, but there's always a stately grace about the entire sound. Whitehouse this isn't. I guess it's an early form of what we call eai nowadays (for lack of a better word... Onkyo seemed promising for a moment, but then that turned out to be a brand of surround sound speakers). A very interesting release if you are familiar with the later work of the artists involved, especially as far as Sugimoto's concerned. Recorded in February and released in September 1999 on Sugimoto's own Slub Music, this hardly ever shows up these days, so...
New link!
320kbps.

Otomo Yoshihide / Keith Rowe / Taku Sugimoto - Ajar (2002)

What a fantastic line-up! What an overlooked gem!
Seriously, what do you hear when you think "guitar trio"? I'm willing to bet it's not this subdued, highly detailed soundscape from three great artists with radically different approaches to their instrument. All three musicians have been mentioned on this blog before. Not nearly enough Keith Rowe though - there must be some other out-of-print gems out there, fit for posting. I'll have to give this issue some thought. I'm not going to do the whole bio thing, suffice to say he is the grandaddy of contemporary electro-acoustic improvisation, and one of my favourite artists of all time, in any field. Need more intel? Have a wiki.
A decade-old release on the defunct Alcohol label (they also did Ground-Zero's 'Last Concert', in conjunction with Amoebic, and Toshimaru Nakamura's 'No-Input Mixing Board [3]', all on their own). All of their releases are pretty hard to get these days. This one came in a little cardboard thingy that could singe your retinas if you're not careful.
Bliss.
320kbps.

Michael Pisaro - Black, White, Red, Green, Blue (Voyelles) (2010)

Michael Pisaro is one of the most fascinating composers active today, but I feel like I've told you that already.

Winds Measure is one of the most fascinating labels active today, and I'm sorry I haven't mentioned that before. Run by Ben Owen (whose own field-recordings-based works, like the stunning '05012009 FP', you should really check out rather sooner than later) from New York, it specializes in minimal sound art, austere acoustic and electronic improvisation, field recordings, all kinds of gorgeous sounds and silences. Their releases always look beautiful too. Too bad many of them are in formats I have little patience (or not even the equipment) for, like tapes and 7"s - even an 8" lathe cut for God's sake.

Barry Chabala is one of the most fascinating guitarists active today, so I figured I'd point that out to you. He seems to have a special relationship with Michael Pisaro, and has played many of his compositions that require guitar (much like Greg Stuart when it comes to percussion), going as far as to set some of them for guitar himself. Several of these have been released in one form or another. He also does his own thing though, like on the 2 great new duo releases he put out himself just now on his Roeba label (one with Anne Guthrie, the other with Gosia Winter); both are highly recommended - get them here.

'Black, White, Red, Green, Blue (Voyelles)' was released on tape last year. It features 2 hours of music: an hour of gentle guitar notes, careful drones, and the spaces between, and an hour of the same with some added layers of tape hiss. Not for those in a hurry or those requiring stadium rock theatrics, this is still an unassumingly fine collection. 100 copies were printed, they are all gone now. Having finally come across an mp3 rip some good (anonymous) soul has put out there, I have decided to share it with you.

Taku Sugimoto - Italia (2001)

For some years now, I've had a lot of trouble relating to the work of Japanese guitarist, improviser and composer Taku Sugimoto (杉本拓). He seems to be disappearing into a black hole of theoretical concerns, and the resulting music is more often than not too dry, too absent to connect with. There was a time though when his playing was a lot less hesitant, a lot more spirited and soulful. To hear that Sugimoto, you need only return to such masterpieces as his solo album 'Opposite' (1998 HatNoir), or 'The World Turned Upside Down' (2000 Erstwhile, an improv trio with Keith Rowe and Günter Müller), or some of his duos with Kevin Drumm or Annette Krebs.
'Italia' marks something of a transitional phase. Released in 2001 (and for years now impossible to find), it was also the first release on French label A Bruit Secret, they of the design even more minimal than the music. Four years later they would release 'Principia Sugimatica', which is unlistenable (well, almost completely inaudible) to me; apparently they'll stick with him however far he's willing to go. I gave up on 'Principia' immediately, but the concert recordings from Bologna and Milan that make up 'Italia' can captivate me. In the words of Dan Warburton: 'The music is, for the most part, exceedingly quiet, nearly empty (the word is more appropriate than "minimal," and Sugimoto's recent work has become even emptier), but once the ear becomes attuned, it's delicate, fleet (surprisingly active in places), melodic, and extremely beautiful.'
Try.
320kbps.