Keiji Haino and Fushitsusha

Japanese guitarist Keiji Haino, inspired by the great and misunderstood Takayanagi Masayuki of the 1970s, delivered outstanding wroks in the field of avant-garde rock music. Some of his albums were inspired by the great psychedelic tradition, others by the jazz improvisers, others by German cosmic music, and still others by the minimalism of LaMonte Young. Unfortunately, Haino had the vice of recording whatever was on his mind, and without thinking it through. The result was an avalanche of largely unlistenable or simply poorly recorded music. Had he condensed his insights into a double disc, the result would have been one of the masterpieces of twentieth-century music. As it is, however, his discography is almost all disposable.

Haino had been active since the early 1970s in the world of psychedelic rock with the group Lost Aaraaff. The album Lost Aaraaff (PSF, 1971) contains three improvised tracks totaling over an hour of music. A 1971 concert, Concert From The Genyasai Festival (Purple Trap, 1995), two tracks for an hour of music, would not see the light of day until a quarter century later.

Haino penned the 48-minute noise-jam Ama No Gawa - Milky Way (Mom'n'Dad Productions, 1993), recorded live in 1973 using electronics and home-made instruments, somewhere between Musica Elettronica Viva, Throbbing Gristle and Taj Mahal Travellers; almost a preview of Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music (which came out two years later). The piece begins with an eruption of shrieking drones that implode in a tornado of faceless distortion that descends into an ambience of hissing horror pierced by industrial honking and sirens that flares up into a hellish maelstrom of scorching distortions like the screaming of a multitude being burned alive. This recording, hidden for 20 years, would remain one of Haino's artistic peaks.

Haino's solo career officially started with Watashi Dake/ Only Me (Pinakotheca, 1981) (PSF, 1983), a simple work for vocals and guitar, but already revelatory of his passion for Jimi Hendrix-ian guitar noise (Even if I break through) and for psychotic litanies (Though I want to laugh).

Blueprint For The Shimmering Quivers Of The Deep Purple Ultraviolet Tuning Fork, off Free Rock (PSF, 2002), is a 1982 live improvisation with Los Angeles' noise trio Doo-Dooettes and guitarist Rick Potts.

Fushitsusha is Haino's "psychedelic" project. It's Haino's way to transpose his noise experiments into the rock format. The band consists of Yasushi Ozawa (bass), Maki Miura (guitar), and Jun "Akui" Kosugi (drums). Their first album was a monumental double album, Live I (PSF, 1989), eight tracks for one hundred minutes of music, which ranks among the masterpieces of psychedelic jamming, a work that alternatively sounds like Blue Cheer, MC5, Iron Butterfly, free jazz and Jimi Hendrix (in particular Fuwafuwa and the lengthy Koko/ Lost Child a` la Dark Star of the Grateful Dead or Jimi Hendrix's 1983). Haino's monster guitar towers over the Wagnerian intensity of these pieces

The live double album Fushitsusha (PSF 15/16, 1991) is no less gargantuan: 13 tracks for 150 minutes of music. The line-up has been pared down to a trio (Haino, Ozawa and drummer Jun Kosugi). However, they became famous with an album which was relatively minor, Allegorical Misunderstanding (Avant, 1993), produced by John Zorn and contaminated by jazz. Pathetique (PSF, 1994), aka Hisou, contains four live improvised jams. The pieces of the all-instrumental The Caution Appears (Les Disques du Soleil, 1995) are unusually brief. Another live double album, Purple Trap (Blast First, 1995), aka The Wound (Blast First, 1996), contains eight pieces for almost one hundred minutes. The saga continued fearlessly on A Death Never To Be Complete (Tokuma, 1997), six tracks for 70 minutes, and The Time Is Nigh (Tokuma, 1997), four tracks for 75 minutes.

Two more albums document their spectacular live performances: Haino sounds like a more violent and cacophonous Helios Creed on Gold Blood (Charnel Music, 1998), four tracks for 72 minutes, recorded in San Francisco. Haino extracts from The Halation a gloomy hyper-distorted guitar theme from frenzied drumming chaos. His guitar dilates and smashes colossal riffs in the 24-minute Cipher until only a feeble hissing is left. The 16-minute Hazama is a concentrate of suspense and anxiety. There is order in this extreme disorder.

Withdrawe (Les Disques Victo, 1998), eight tracks for 65 minutes, was recorded in Canada.

With new drummer Ikuro Takahashi they recorded A Little Longer Thus (Tokuma, 1998), nine tracks for "only" 61 minutes. The trio gave its best on The Wisdom Prepared (Tokuma, 1998), which contains only one 75-minute jam.

Meanwhile, several collaborations saw the light: two volumes of Live In The First Year Of Heisei (PSF, 1990), which constitutes one of his most romantic works, Gerry Miles With Alan Licht And Haino Keiji (Atavistic, 1997) with Alan Licht, etc. Haino also recorded with Derek Bailey, Barre Phillips, Loren Maccacane Connors and Peter Brotzman.

Nijiumu is Haino's gothic project (technically his second solo album after Watashi Dake). Nijiumu (PSF, 1990) contains a 54-minute composition. It opens with eight minutes of madhouse screaming with ghostly strumming in the background. It then opens up to a soundscape of musique concrete, mainly amplified metallic noises. After sixteen minutes Haino intones an operatic lied for cello and vocals that ends with a sitar-like drone. After a few minutes of conventional singing almost a cappella, it becomes a solo sonata for amplified metallic objects, and it ends with a shrieking saxophone solo and a mournful vocal drone.

Era Of Sad Wings (PSF, 1993) is another atmospheric work credited to Nijiumu, this time structured in ten untitled pieces. The first half is a slow-moving nebula of lugubrious cosmic drones, whereas the second half vocals has otherworldly vocals floating and screaming over a miasma of viscuous sounds.

Vajra is another side-project. The trio this time consists of Haino, Toshiaki Ishizuka (drums) and veteran folksinger Kan Mikami (chitarra e canto), and the music is a noise/folk/punk-rock. Tusgaru (PSF, 1995) and Ring (PSF, 1996) contain each only one lengthy composition. Sichisiki (PSF, 1997) instead is a set of nine untitled tracks for a total of just 35 minutes. Sravaka (PSF, 1998) contains seven songs (including an eight-minute To Elvin Jones) and again for a total of just 35 minutes. Mandala Cat Last (PSF, 2002) features some of their most cohesive and accessible improvisations (The Sky Looks Green To Me, Monkeys Don't Pray).

Vajra's dummer Toshiaki Ishizuka released solo ambient albums for an "orchestra" of tonal percussion instruments such as In The Night (1999) and Drum Drama (2006), besides collaborations with Kan Mikami such as Shinshi No Yuutsu (2001) and Daikanjyo (2002).

Meanwhile, Haino released works that were increasingly more provocative. Itsukushimi/ Affection (PSF, 1992), recorded live in december 1991, is another solo, a 58-minute spiritual journey for voice and guitar. The first 14 minutes are just one anguished lament over spectral notes. After five minutes of relatively conventional singing, Haino unleashes a hyper-distorted Hendrix-ian solo and then howls his desperation in a sinister quasi-silence. A colossal riff erupts at the 29-minute mark and breaks the piece in two. Haino seems to have exhausted his energies and resigns to languid and sparse notes. The distortion, however, acquires a life of its own and the piece ends with the noise of a galactic take-off.

Execration That Accept To Acknowledge (Forced Exposure, 1993) is another suite, this time in four movements for a total of 42 minutes. It opens immediately with stuttering harsh distortion and vomiting vocals, and then it gets worse: a torrent of dense and black guitar noise that goes on for half an hour with only brief pauses.

There was also a tiny experiment: the Derek Bailey-esque five-minute EP Guitar Works I-VIII (Table of the Elements, 1994).

Beginning An End Interwoven (Streamline, 1994) is less extreme. Beginning and End, Interwoven is a spectral threnody that further degrades Suicide's threnodies. The corrosive blues agony Surrounded by You and the atonal guitar jam My Friend are what Haino thinks of the song format. and several grandiloquent screamed recitations over Hendrix-ian workouts culminating with the 14-minute In Between He is at his most "romantic", in As It Is Now, whose violent and relentless vibrato materializes an odd religious-psychedelic hybrid.

The 59-minute piece of I Said This Is The Son Of Nihilism (Table of the Elements, 1995) pushed the concept of Affection and Execration to both its noisy and theatrical extremes. It begins with what sounds like a remix of Cramps-ian cascading riffs and Helios Creed's visionary fire, but ground into the most vicious black hole, and then the singer's howls and the shrieking instrumental noise evoke Diamanda Galas' psycho-electronic nightmares. What is left after 12 minutes is a flow of mind-bending guitar glissandoes. At the 19-minute mark the music stops. Haino begins singing, slowly, painfully, in expressionist kammerspiel mode, interrupted a few times by occasional bursts of distortions. Nothing in his career matches the first 19 minutes of this piece.

Tenshi No Gijinka/ Imitator Of Angels (Tzadik, 1995) instead feels largely like an unfinished work.

The four-disc box-set Soul's True Love (1995) contains rare recordings by Lost Aaraaff (1971), Haino solo (1969-73) and Fushitsusha.

21st Century Hard-y Guide-y Man (PSF, 1995), four tracks for 73 minutes, collects his first LaMonte Young-esque experiments with the hurdy-gurdy organ.

The Third Heart (Purple Trap, 1995) torna al formato della composizione breve.

Suite Reverberation (Purple Trap, 1995) contiene quattro lunghe suite-collage che sembrano datare dai primordi della carriera di Haino. So Black Is Myself (Alien8 Recordings, 1997) e` un lungo drone di 67 minuti.

Haino released many albums in 1995: Forest Of Spirits (Purple Trap, 1995), containing archival material of the 1970s, Saying I Love You (Blast First, 1995), The Book Of Eternity Set Aflame (Forced Exposure, 1995), which contains a piece for solo guitar and a LaMonte Young-esque piece for drones and vocals, and A Challenge To Fate (Disques Du Soleil, 1995), which includes three a-cappella songs and a closing psalm in Popol Vuh style (Affection).

Keeping On Breathing (Tokuma, 1997) is a collection of depressed psychedelic songs, as Tim Buckley fronted the Red Crayola (My Shadow, Waiting, Here). Then came Sruthi Box (Tokuma, 1997), Even Now Still I Think (Tokuma, 1998), a 72-minute composition for hurdy-gurdy, An Unclear Trial (Avant, 1998), formally his first jazz album, containing the 30-minute Did I Imagine That. and Purple Trap (Tzadik, 1999), a supergroup formed with Bill Laswell and Rashid Ali.

Fushitsusha's drummer Hiroyuki Usui released a pioneering work of acid folk and blues, Holy Letters (Holy Castle, 1992 - VHF, 2004), credited to L, replete with Tibetan monks.

Fushitsusha's I Saw It (Paratactile, 2000) is a double-CD, their last as a trio, containing the monumental I Saw It and Staring At a Point in Time.

Aihiyo's is Haino's cover project, although the tracks on Aihiyo (1998) and Live (PSF, 2000) are wildly improvised.

With drummer Shoji Hano, Haino has recorded Taihei Nippon (1991) and The Strange Face (Ultra Hard Gel, 2000).

Reduced to a duo of Haino and bassist Ozawa, Fushitsusha released Origin's Hesitation (PSF, 2001). Haino drums and screams rather than playing guitar, and this is not good news.

Keiji Haino's two-disc Abandon All Words At A Stroke So That Prayer Can Come Spilling Out (Alien 8, 2001) is one of Haino's masterpieces, at least in the more ambient and less psychedelic mode of his art. The first disc contains a 47-minute soothing piece for hurdy-gurdy and treated voice titled Whereto Can I Cast Away This Fragrant Echo Called The End (reminiscent of Tony Conrad's pieces for violin). On the other hand, the 44-minute I Have Decided To Tear You To Pieces for wave drum is an industrial collage of metallic noises, distortions and ghostly voices

Haino is a little wasted on Black Implication Flooding (Inoxia, 2001), a 1998 collaboration with the ensemble Boris (Haino on wave drum, electronic sruthibox, ethnic oboe, guitar, vocals) The album meanders without finding the strength of either participant.

Ruins' drummer Tatsuya Yoshida and Fushitsusha's guitarist Keiji Haino have recorded together Knead (PSF, 2002), eight (untitled) psychedelic jams that also feature Ruins' bassist Hisashi Sasaki, and Until Water Grasps Flame (Noise Asia, 2002). This Melting Happiness (Fractal, 2003) documents a Knead live performance of 2001. Another live Knead performance, this time with bassist Mitsuru Natsuno and Japanese turntablist duo Bus Ratch, is documented on Live at Cafe Independants (2004). Manjoicchi Wa Muko (PSF, 2005) Sanhedolin was a collaboration between the Ruins and Keiji Haino.

Mazu Wa Iro O Nakuso Ka - First Let's Remove the Color (PSF, 2003) is a humble, bluesy home recording by Haino solo, mainly taken up by the 30-minute How Did You Know.

C'est Parfait (Turtles' Dream, 2003) contains only one 45-minute live track for rhythm box and vocals Needless to say, the drum machine is not really used for "rhythmic" purposes. Nor are the vocals used for singing. Sometimes the machine punctuates the delirios stream of vocals, sometimes it is the vocals that punctuate the machine's stream of consciousness. The final crescendo of deafening noise is one of Haino's most imposing moments, truly Wagnerian in intensity and vigor.

Hikari Yami Uchitokeaishi Kono Hibiki/ Light And Darkness Melting Created This Sound (PSF, 2003) offers all-instrumental live improvisations for acoustic guitar.

Fushitsusha's Eien No Ho Ga, Saki Ni Te O Dashita No Sa/ It was Eternity that Reached out First (2003) was originally recorded in 1978.

Next Let's Try Changing The Shape (Swordfish, 2004) returns Haino's solo project to the fury of Fushitsusha, but the overall inspiration is lacking, and the lengthy Look Darkness sounds overstretched.

Tayutayuto Tadayoitamae Kono Furue (PSF, 2004) is an acoustic collaboration with Michihiro Sato on "tsugaru jamisen", possibly the most "Japanese" album of Haino's career. (Haino had already collaborated in 1996 to an album by a master of that instrument, Chisato Yamada, but the album, Fushigi Na Sekai was credited only to Yamada).

The double-disc Black Blues (Disques du Soleil, 2004) was Haino's tribute to the blues. It comes in two versions of Japanese-interpreted Afro-American desperation. One disc is acoustic, subdued, introverted The other disc is electric, loud, extroverted. Both are played and sung by Haino alone. Both contain the same six covers. The one that stands out is the 15-minute acoustic version of Blind Lemon Jefferson's See That My Grave Is Kept Clean.

Uchu Ni Karamitsuiteru (PSF, 2005) is Haino's first all-electronic album.

Appropriately, it was followed by Global Ancient Atmosphere (PSF, 2005), an album of solo drumming.

Reveal'd To None As Yet - An Expedience To Utterly Vanish Consciousness While Still Alive (Important, 2006) is a double-CD that documents live performances with Haino on keyboards, turntables and voice and (disc 2) hurdy gurdy producing all sorts of pagan droning.

New Rap (Tzadik, 2006) was a set of improvised duets with Ruins drummer's Tatsuya Yoshida, and its title refers to the fact that Haino was not only playing the guitar but also screaming.

The double-CD Animamima (Archive, 2006) is a collaboration with the twenty-piece sitar orchestra Sitaar Tah that delivers 100 minutes of uber-drones.

Yaranai Ga Dekinai Ni Natte Yuku (PSF, 2006) is finally a tour de force of solo (overdubbed) guitar (and vocals) that goes overboard in all directions, weaving textures that are manic nightmares.

Mamono (Blossoming Noise, 2006) is a collaboration with Zeni Geva's KK Null that yielded demented industrial soundscapes.

Hauenfiomiume (Magaibutsu, 2008) and Uhrfasudhasdd (Tzadik, 2009) collect more improvised duets with Ruins drummer's Tatsuya Yoshida.

Kikuri's Pulverized Purple (Victo, 2008) documented a collaboration between Merzbow's Masami Akita and Keiji Haino.

Sanhedolin (PSF, 2005) was the title of both an album and a supergroup formed by guitarist Keiji Haino of Fushitsusha, drummer Tatsuya Yoshida of Ruins and bassist Mitsuru Nasuno of Altered States. Its follow-up was titled and credited to a new entity, Sanhedrin (Breathing Bass, 2009).

Electronics (3) (Zeitkratzer, 2009) was a live collaboration with Zeitkratzer.

Seijaku, a trio with bassist Nasuno Mitsuru and drummer Ichiraku Yoshimitsu, released You Should Prepare To Survive Through Even Anything Happens (2010) and Mail From Fushitsusha (2011)

Haino's Un Autre Chemin Vers L'Ultime (2011) consists of a cappella vocals recorded in a church and a cave.

Tima Formosa (2010), Imikuzushi (2012), Now While It's Still Warm Let Us Pour In All The Mystery (Black Truffle, 2013) and Only Wanting To Melt Beautifully Away Is It A Lack Of Contentment That Stirs Affection For Those Things Said To Be As Of Yet Unseen (Black Truffle, 2014) and Tea Time For Those Determined To Completely Exhaust Every Bit of This Body They've Been Given (Black Truffle, 2014) document jams by Keiji Haino, Jim O'Rourke, and Oren Ambarchi.

Pan Sonic and Keiji Haino collaborated on Synergy Between Mercy & Self-Annhiliation Overturned (Blast First Petite, 2010).

Haino formed the improvisational power-trio Seijaku with bassist Nasuno Mitsuru (Altered States, Korekoyjin) and drummer Ichiraku Yoshimitsu (Acid Mothers Temple). Their Mail From Fushitsusha (Doubtmusic, 2010) and You Should Prepare To Survive Through Even Anything Happens (Doubtmusic, 2010) were deconstructing tributes to blues music.

Haino, Stephen O'Malley (bass) and Oren Ambarchi (drums) formed Nazoranai documented on the live Nazoranai (Ideologic, 2012) and on The Most Painful Time Happens Only Once Has it Arrived Already...? (Ideologic Organ Soma, 2014)

Fushitsusha returned with Hikari To Nazukeyo (Heartfast, 2012) and Mabushii Itazura Na Inori (Heartfast, 2012), featuring Mitsura Nasuno on bass and Ikuro Takahashi on drums, the first an unusually restrained set of seven pieces that by their standards are very brief, the latter a more virulent (and much better) set that includes two lengthy and noisy jams.

A Document Film Of Keiji Haino (2012) contains three lengthy pieces, including a solo.

Fushitsusha's live triple-disc Nothing Changes No One Can Change Anything, I Am Ever-Changing Only You Can Change Yourself (april 1996) featured saxophonist Peter Brotzmann.

Two City Blues (november 2010 - Trost, 2015) documents sessions by Keigi Haino (guitar, shamisen and vocals), Peter Broetzmann (tenor and alto saxes, clarinet and tarogato), and Jim O'Rourke (guitar).

Seijaku, the trio of guitarist Keiji Haino, bassist Mitsuru Nasuno and drummer Yoshimitsu Ichiraku, released the double-discs Last Live and After Seijaku (2015).

An Untroublesome Defencelessness (april 2015 - Rare Noise, 2016) documents Merzbow (electronics), Keiji Haino (guitar, electronics) and Balazs Pandi (drums) in two lengthy improvisations

Light Never Bright Enough (july 2016 - Otoroku, 2017) documents a live collaboration between guitarist Keiji Haino and saxophonist John Butcher

Other collaborations include: The Miracles of Only One Thing (2017) with Jozef Dumoulin and Teun Verbruggen, A Philosophy Warping, Little by Little That Way Lies a Quagmire (2017) with Konstrukt, American Dollar Bill - Keep Looking Sideways, You're Too Hideous to Look at Face On (2018) with Sumac, Become the Discovered, Not the Discoverer (2019) with •Merzbowand Balazs Pandi, Drums & Octobass (2023) with Guro Moe, etc.

Keiji Haino & The Hardy Rocks (2021) and You're Either Standing Facing Me or Next to Me (2022) are albums of covers made with the band Hardy Rocks. The first one contains covers of Satisfaction and My Generation.