Japanese guitar improvisor Toshimaru Nakamura first came to the forefront of
the avantgarde with
A Paragon of Beauty (Art Union, 1995).
He soon realized that he was meant for a different kind of instrument and
proceeded to play the mixing board: he plugged the output into the input of
the mixing board and used the knob to shape the resulting waves of feedback.
Repeat, a duo with USA-born percussionist
Jason Kahn, concocted a sophisticated blend of
acid-rock, musique concrete, glitch music, free jazz and industrial music on
Repeat (december 1997 - Cut, 1998),
Temporary Contemporary (october 1998 - For 4 Ears, 1999), perhaps the best of the bunch,
Select Dialect (Cut, 2000), the most tribal and ethnic of the bunch,
Pool (july 2001 - Cut, 2002).
John Butcher's Cavern with Nightlife contains the 19-minute Practical Luxury (november 2002), a duet with Toshimaru Nakamura on "no-input mixing board"
Turning to the construction of electronic sound sculptures,
Nakamura realized two
collaborations with sampler/vocalist Sachiko M,
Un (Meme, 1999) and
Do (august 2000 - Erstwhile, 2001), that basically defined the aesthetic
of the "onkyo" movement: abstract and minimal textural studies that
toy with both the acoustic and psychological level.
Another important collaboration was
The Improvisation Meeting at Bar Aoyama (july 1999 - Reset, 1999) with Tetuzi Akiyama and
Taku Sugimoto
This led to a number of duo recordings with Tetuzi Akiyama:
Meeting at Off Site Vol 1 (Reset, 2002),
Meeting at Off Site Vol 2 (may 2002 - IMJ, 2003),
Meeting at Off Site Vol 3 (october 2002 - IMJ, 2003),
International Domestic (august 2002 - Corpus Hermeticum, 2003),
and to
Foldings (january 2002 - Confront, 2003) with Akiyama, Taku Sugimoto and Mark Wastell.
Nakamura's first solo album, No-input Mixing Board (Zero Gravity, 2000),
was the first part of a trilogy, continued on
No-input Mixing Board 2 (january 2001 - A Bruit Secret, 2001),
Vehicle (may 2002 - Cubic Music, 2002),
No-input Mixing Board 3 (march 2002 - Alcohol, 2003).
They all construct soundscapes without any external source, just by
mixing the internal feedback of the mixing board.
Other collaborations included
Siphono (november 2000 - SMI, 2001) with Bruno Meillier,
Weather Sky (june 2001 - Erstwhile, 2001) with Keith Rowe,
Aton (june 2000 - Rossbin, 2001) with Andrea Neumann,
Unplugboy and Toshimaru Nakamura (june 2001 - Alectroecoustic, 2002) with Daniel Weaver,
etc.
Side Guitar (june 2003) was a solo guitar album in the tradition of
the creative improvisers.
Between (july 2005 - Erstwhile Records) was a collaboration between Keith Rowe on guitar and electronics and Toshimaru Nakamura on no-input mixing board.
4G is the supergroup of Keith Rowe, Oren Ambarchi, Christian Fennesz and Toshimaru Nakamura, i.e. four former guitarists who mutated into digital composers. They debuted with the double-disc Cloud (Erstwhile, 2005) for guitars, electronics and laptop.
Tetuzi Akiyama and Toshimaru Nakamura released three improvised jams on
Semi-Impressionism (Spekk, 2009).
Egrets (recorded between 2004 and 2009)
features Tetuzi Akiyama on acoustic guitar and trumpetist Arve Henriksen.
Crepuscular Rays (november 2008) documents a duet between guitarist Håvard Volden and Toshimaru Nakamura (on no-input mixing board).
The double-disc
Good Morning Good Night (2011)
a collaboration between Sachiko M (on sine wave sampler), Toshimaru Nakamura (on no-input mixing board), and Otomo Yoshihide (on sampler).
Nakamura and Sachiko M also play together on Do (Erstwhile, 2011).
The triple-disc Rowe M Nakamura Yoshihide (recorded in may 2004) documents a live performance by Keith Rowe, Sachiko M (on sinewaves & contact microphone), Toshimaru Nakamura (on no-input mixing board), and Otomo Yoshihide (on electric guitar & turntables).
The solo Maruto (Erstwhile, 2011) contains a 46-minute improvisation on
no-input mixing board.
Dusted Machinery (march 2009) was another collaboration between John Butcher and Toshimaru Nakamura.
The trio of Tetuzi Akiyama (guitar), Jason Kahn (drums) and Toshimaru Nakamura (no-input mixing board) is documented by the live Between Two (may 2014).
