(music related,2006)
you’ve been up all night. your ready to crash. but it’s not time yet. the best part of the day is coming up. time to sit by the window, or outside on the closest hillside. the sun breaks over the horizon, and your ready for another day. “sonorapid” by tokyo’s “aus” is the soundtrack to this moment. shimmering electronics, soft vocals, and the sunrise. intricate drum programming, subsonic frequencies, and female vocals are the plan. the sound of urban bedroom pop.

(teto,2012)
Some of miaou's favourite artists come together to put their take on last year's album, "The Day Will Come Before Long". Opening a with a miaou rework, the record features contributions from some fantastic electronic musicians from Japan and around the world. Sun Glitters beautiful remix starts things off, before Glasgow's Errors, London's Brassica & Belfast's Not Squares put their spin on maiou's tracks. Tokyo is well represented with tremendous remixes by mergrim, aus & Raster Noton's Kyoka. All mastered by Aloha's TJ Lipple in Washington DC.

(teto,2012)
here is morr music's singer Masha Qrella - Crooked Dreams tour EP! A limited edition cassette e.p., available only during the Japan tour and in select shops thereafter. Side A features the title track plus two exclusives, 'Fin' a cover of the Leonard Cohen classic 'Here It Is'. Backed on side B with two fantastic remixes by aus & miaou! Includes free mp3 download code.

(night crusing,2012)
Night Crusing is kyoto based events for good showcase of electronic musi. they always supporting our label and did the event for Cuushe, Radiosonde, aus, The Boats etc...this compilation is first compilation of them, including exclusive tracks by related artists: Marihiko Hara + Sylvain Chauveau, Midori Hirano,polarM, Intext, SJQ, Sheeprint and stunning remixes from Ametsub and Moshimoss.

(mu-nest,2012)
"for your home or office” has a great balance of dense electronic sound and gentle, spacious melody. Park Avenue Music create a beautiful atmosphere on their original tracks, and they really begin to bloom after repeated listens. The second half is taken in as smoothly as the first— The remixes are just as solid, and fit into the context of the record so well." - Baths (anticon.)
including remix from Geskia!, aus , Ametsub and more!
RIYL: Psapp, Caroline, Zegunder, Taken By Trees

(parade,2012)
n 1994, Mina, aka Minakumari, debuted as a guitarist who was responsible for most of the lyrics and songs of the girls' band Catch-up, which released three historic albums. She graduated from the Indian Languages department of the Asia-Africa Linguistic Institute of Tokyo. She started to learn the sitar in 2003 under the distinctive sitar player Moniral Nag in Calcutta, India, while studying psychology at christ college in Bangalore, India. Then in 2005, she graduated from the Calcutta Tea School, India. Since returning to her hometown, Tokyo, she has played active roles in Cold Sugar, to which Japanese pop icons Chara and Akino Arai belong, in addition to Chara's solo live performances and Arai's studio recordings.On April 16, 2008, she successfully released her first solo album “Rasa” and then gave consecutive performances in France, playing at four Paris venues in April 2009. Then in June of the same year, she played sitar in a recording of a new album by Rip Slym, a commercially successful Japanese pop quintet.
RIYL: Caroline, Cokiyu, Piana, Mum, Lullatone, Juana Molina

(parade,2010)
Rimacona consists of two members: Natsuko Yanagimoto (vocalist and photographer) and Marihiko Hara (pianist and composer). They are based in Kyoto where Marihiko, in particular, produces music for theatre performances and people involved in the field, such as visual artists and traditional Japanese instrumentalists. "Tasogare to Piano" (Piano in the Dusk) is Rimacona's first full debut album. Their music is dynamic yet sensitive, with a strong emphasis on progressive song development and the sounds of piano. Furthermore, their arrangements offer a unique atmosphere, and blend vocals with natural sounds, as well as electronics captured via the use of a tape recorder. Rimacona's music goes beyond the boundaries of electronica, pop, jazz and so on.
RIYL: Matryoshka, Tujiko Noriko, Ryuichi Sakamoto

(pokhara,2012)
it's a debut ep from Rayons, female artist from japan. her music is influenced by sweety Ryuichi Sakamoto, 70s french film-scores, modern classical music. it is in a word a good job of contrasting modern musical tools with traditional instruments. especially the guest singer Predawn's voice is really pretty and charming. if you like as follows you like Rayons: Bill Wells & Isobel Campbell, Yann Tiersen, Rachel Grimmes, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Gentle Waves and Billie Holiday.

(nothings66,2012)
nothings66 long-awaited new release is, from Tokyo Japan, Ametsub .
Under activity across such borders, this album for the first time in three years is packed focusing
on the musical piece played in his live, and an overpoweringly attractive stretch of his land exists compared with past work. A succession of feeling of floating drifting melodies that seems to remind an endless trip is finished in the strong sound-scape like a drawn spectacular nature, the solemn horizon, the silence of the evening, fluttering reminiscence in the old tape, magnificence red landscape like an album artwork. We can feel a gloom warmth in sense of isolation.
He passes various music-style creatively, this album has a many melancholy melodies that are changed faintly by old tape-recorder. All 12 tracks that an infinite view of the world of Ametsub which evolved steadily was expressed in to the next field without being stopped on one place.
RIYL: Boards Of Canada, Tycho, Geskia!, The Sight Below

(ao to ao,2012)
Rima Kato started ‘Strrows’ in 1996. Strrows was lo-fi girls folk duo like a The Softies, Melody Dog, Marine Girls, Chamellows, Dear Nora, DQE, etc. They released some CDs from Midi-Creative Records in Japan. But, Strrows broke up 2001. They soon disappeared from the music scene.
But, she had continued to compose in secret and loneliness the past ten years. Recently, Asuna got to know her. and discovered her solo music. Then Asuna released her music by Cassette Tape from his label called WFTTapes.  This “Harmless” is her first formal release by 3 inch CD album from aotoao label. She compiled some stories songs her own. Rima Kato music stands out by such a simple arrangement with sense of melancholy and transparency.
RIYL: the softies, marine girls, rose melberg, the pastels, melody dog, young marble giants

(tlo,2012)
Tape Loop Orchestra (Andrew Hargreaves aka The Boats) return with a new album. Following on from last years limited ‘Maybe I Told A Small Lie’. The new double album features a collection of tape loop experiments (“The Word On My Lips Is Your Name”) and an extended composition (“The Burnley Brass Band Plays On In My Heart”).

RIYL: william basinski, tim hecker, fennesz, the caretaker

(ao to ao, 2012)
all songs made by Casiotone, compiled by ASUNA. featuring artists: Alejandra & Aeron, Jim Schoenecker (aka; Pele, I Am Robot And Ploud, Antti Tolvi, .Tape., Sun Foot, Dragging An Ox Through Water, Noun, OPQ, Fumu Fumu, SJQ, The Medium Necks, Colorlist, Dan Sasaki, Sheeprint, Plasma TV, Gofish, Inukai II, Advance Base, Teasi, Shibata & Asuna

(home normal, 2012)
"The Curio Collection’ comprises the tag team effort of the up-and-coming super-trio ‘Kinder Scout’(Ian Hawgood, Danny Norbury, and Jason Corder) along with the compositional magic of ambient maven ‘offthesky’(Jason Corder).  Curious to note is that Mr. Corder is connected to both groups.  Therefore one must query: is this a hidden bite at humor or did the producer perhaps stumble upon an oddity locked away in an ancient curio that grants the art of cloning?

Upon further investigation of this hauntingly reverent and rhythmic record, quickly revealed are the trappings of offthesky’s signature spells: vibraphone, rolling guitar, soft bells, lilting voicals, and the ever evolving landscape.  According to the accounts of Mr. Corder, much of the color, inspiration and foundation for the songs therein stemmed from afar out of ian hawgood’s personal closet of field recordings, live takes, and processed experiments.  Danny Norbury’s timeless cello paints several pieces to add a majestic and modern-classic effect.   Last but not least Sarah Chung(of Pillow Garden) and Sara Martin’s soft singing cameo about, which adds an anti-ephemeral hue sprinkled atop the ever present time-stained aesthetic.  Each delicate track has the ability to leave the listener with a sense that they’ve just steeped in the light of an occultish cabinet glowing full of arcane mysteries.
RIYL: Danny Norbury, Jason Corder, Ian Hawgood, Dakota Suite, Greg Haines, Nils Frahm

(preco,2011)
Preco Records’s 10th anniversary compilation CD. Incl. exlcusive traks by aus, cokiyu, miaou, ent etc.

(wood/water music,2011)
here are 5 wonderful remixes for Japanese soft post rock band Autumnleaf's masterpiece "The Foot". the remixes from Cokiyu, Miyauchi Yuri, I Am Robot And Proud, Lem and Sheeprint.
RIYL: owen, death cab for cutie, the sea and cake

(self,2011)
Tsumugine is a music performance group from Japan which is active since 2008, initiated by Yasuno Miyauchi. Instead of reproducing a timeline which was created in advance, every member becomes a particle of the sound. The particles follow a simple rule, and everyone creates a sound while moving, colliding, changing, and fusing. The performance evolves spinning these spatial sounds together. Tsumugine aims for a music performance which is not only producing sounds, but extends to physical and visual expression.
This is their first recording, recorded at a tunnel in a forest. The improvisations is performed within really unique acoustic effect. each performer freely creates sounds by pianica and her voice. they also move ceaselessly about in the field. There is so many layers of beautiful voices like Meredith Monk, Russudan Meipariani with unique echo by the tunnel and the screaming cicadas. We also can listen to curious moiré between pianica in the simple method.
RIYL: meredith monk, julianna barwick, andrew chalk, maja ratkje, john hudak

(new wired australia,2011)
Canberra based duo Spartak return with their third album Nippon on the New Weird Australia. This new release sees the duo expand on the loose improvisations of their previous work by taking in a more brittle electronic edge, alongside a reclaimed punk attitude, with recordings edited from performances in Kyoto, Tokyo and Osaka on their recent japan tour presented by flau. These shows revisited the original mode of Spartak music – pre-composed key phrases forming the core basis of the performance each night. This common thread lends itself nicely to the various pieces, tieing them together as a suite, while varying in nature
.RIYL: triosk, radian, the necks, supersiient, tarentel

(whereabouts,2011)
This Ambient/Drone is an overly beautiful production of Yui Onodera, the Portuguese Drone artist who leads the Beautiful Schizophonic and Japanese Ambient scene. Its sensitive Drone that is like an aggregate of particles floating in the air and the soundscape that is scaled up with its processed natural sound and the full-of-sights piano sound are well described in the work. elfog's magnificent Vibraphone (M-4) which conveys the image of a boundless swamp.
RIYL: david tagg, emanuele errante, celer, 12K

(record,2011)
"Mizu no Kioku" (the memory of water) is the soundtrack for atelier drop around, made by hofli (solo project of Takashi Tsuda aka; Radiosonde). hofli used and edited several types of water-sounds in the kitchen, drain, bottle of water, and also rain, dew and the sea. there are minimal melodies from his guitar and electronic loops inspired by water samples.packaged in a beautiful box conteining a accordion paper sleeve.
RIYL: sawako, jodi cave, chihei hatakeyama, miki yui, 12K

(whereabouts,2011)
This is the first collaborative work of naph, who plays delicate and gentle stream of time in acoustic sound, and Chihei Hatakeyama, who keeps releasing Ambient/Drone with repeatedly processed sound images that could be heard far off beyond the horizon. It is full of graceful sounds that are thoughtfully created to be more natural, deeper, and tenderer. Drone which expresses the time and space by continuous or discontinuous changes, naturfull ambient by the use of field recording, and the pile-up of pellucid guitar sounds travel to bring serenity to the listeners through the air.
RIYL: taylor deupree, lawrence english, celer, sawako,ioscil, 12K

(whereabouts,2011)
Material or formless? Concepts or changes?
The concept of time and how we grasp what "time" means varies by person while it controls our behaviors. The favorite time, the relaxed time, the anxious time, the change by time, and the memories and the forgetfulness.
what if it's put in sounds? All 10 tunes written by 10 japanese musicians, who had kept thinking over the “time”, create a current of lenient time, piling up afterimages.
feat. el fog, tatsuhiko asano(geist), mujika easel aka eishi, naph, tadahiko yokokawa and more

(grainfield,2008)
Morning October is the live recording of Aoki, Hayato (Radiosonde). He played chroma-harp and melodion for morning at Haco (hayama/japan) from 6am .Reconstructed and Pseudo-Stereo created by TSUDA,takashi (radiosonde) at PNdB atelier and mastered by SHOJI,hiromits. one of the most beautiful record for early morning.
RIYL: mountains, tape, richard skelton,

(grainfield,2008)
Morning July is also the live recording of Aoki, Hayato (Radiosonde) on same time of "Morning October". this records is recorded mainly guitar. Aoki played the guitar with slow stroke, the melody is quiet calm and beautiful. the jacket made by Aoki, Hayato. Metal Works by Yuki Sakano.
RIYL: pullman, jim o'rourke, f.s.blumm, preston reed,

(home assembly,2010)
"This is a beauty. When Richard (Adams) told us, at the beginning of this year, that he had written a song for the forthcoming World Cup we were a little sceptical to say the least. Now the months have passed by and the World Cup is almost upon us and we had forgotten all about this song, when just last week Richard sent us the finished version. We couldn't believe our ears, it's fantastic!
All the ingredients are there; great lyrics, a stirring string section, punchy drums, trademark Adams bassline, emotional commentary and a rousing, singalong chorus. It's a rollicking great tune!
Bringing to mind New Order's classic 'World in Motion' married with the melancholic pop of mid-period Go-Betweens. It's the perfect soundtrack for drowning your sorrows after that quarterfinal exit on penalties." - home assembly
RIYL: Hood, Go-Betweens, New Order

(starnet muzik,2009)
This is debut album of Radiosonde (Aoki, Hayato & Tsuda, Takashi) and also new masterpiece of 'picturesque music' from an observation balloon, with guitar (pastoral melody, pointillism, atmospheric drone), chroma harp and some electronicsincluding the song of birds (Varied Tit, Brown-eared Bulbul), crickets, cicadas in Mashiko, Japan.

(dear air,2010)
2nd full album from Mujika Easel (aka Eisi) with Kanazu Tomoyuki (sax).
RIYL: Orla Wren, Eisi, Kanazu Tomoyuki

(dear air,2010)
"dear Air" is a creative label hosted by Mujika Easel in Japan. In 2010 traumerei and Haruka Nakamura are received as producers, and sincere creation activities are done to the essence of “composition” with musicians and photographers, and artists, etc. This work “pneuma” is the first compilation album of dear Air, which is an anthology woven to 12 songs from concern with the scenery, temperature, shape, moment, touch, existence, and the aspect, etc. While each of the elements is glowing individually, the autonomous folklore is transmitted as a certain story. Although the form of the album is compiled from various artists’ work, songs draw close, intertwine each other and take listeners to another world, as if the production of a single artist does.
feat.El Fog, Kanazu Tomoyuki, Mujika Easel, Haruka Nakamura, Yamori Kota and more.

12 songs, most of them were newly composed, recorded about 60 minutes long in total. Special package, 12 artworks each artist contributed in.

(not on label,2010)
Recommended is this fresh enterprize from the French group Ödland. "Ödland is interweaving highly alluring chamber music with the spirit of British bonbon artpop babes Lollipop Train, amalgamating ragtime splinters, animals’ voices and innocent whispers into something half chaste, half supersexy, playful and beguiling all the way." -Filles sourires-

(mobeer,2010)
Happenstance is new project from Karl Eden and Chris Stewart (Need More Sources). 3inch CD,6tracks!

(lost tribe sound,2010)
Lost Tribe Sound isn't a sound as much as a shared emotional connection to music. Maybe it's something in the ether, a moment in time that unites this gorgeous selection of organic, gentle and at times exploratory music that transcends genre, technique, or even location. Melding well-established artists with precocious newcomers from as far afield as Australia, Turkey and even the Philippines, Lost Tribe Sound: One showcases the incredible cello of Aaron Martin, the nocturnal devotions of Part Timer, and the raw acoustics of Benoit Pioulard amongst its 70 odd minutes of musical imagination that demonstrates the limitless possibilities of music. Brimming with rarities and tasters of forthcoming releases, Lost Tribe Sound: One isn't merely a selection of some of the most vital, idiosyncratic and heartfelt music around, but also a statement of intent. Brimming with earthy, woody music that creaks and rumbles, these sounds conjure up those inexplicably elusive yet intensely powerful emotions and will envelop you like a forest floor coming to life.
feat.Helios, The Remote Viewer, Benoit Pioulard, Gavouna, Aaron Martin, Tokyo Bloodworm, Brael

(tomlab,1998)
Novisad early masterpiece from tomlab available now. last stock!
Kristian Peters was born in 1980 and lives in Rostock, Germany. He has been producing electronic music since the winter of 1993/94, also releasing the splendid Adlib album for Kraak . The first Novisad CD from January 1999 was a wonderful early Tomlab, and a big favourite in Manchester.
Novisad was produced with his good old 386 computer that only had a soundblaster 1.0 card built in and CD tracks the WinDAT program, a simple cut & paste program together with CoolEdit 1.5. This may sound simple. Packaged to a cardboard sleeve, is a difficult to found item.
RIYL: Marsen Jules, Colleen, Dale Berning

(under the spire,2010)
A soundtrack by Jørgensen for a documentary film titled Kim, about a Danish World War II resistance fighter. String contributions come courtesy of fellow soundtracker, Peter Broderick, who also lines up on the bonus remix disc with other big names like Greg Davis, Jasper TX, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Seasons (Pre-Din), Rameses III and Machinefabriek. Jørgensen's hour long score for the film is an impressive feat, pooling together a wide selection of compositions that takes in neo-classical styled piano and string pieces as well as more abstract concrète and drone works. On the one hand, 'Hanne & Kim', 'Til Canada' and 'Palimpsest (For Strings)' rub shoulders with the lyrical, Max Richter school of film scoring, but then Jørgensen goes and upsets all expectations by unleashing an incredible electronic soundscape like 'Isvinter'. The likes of 'Love (Radiomontage)' and 'Astoria' prove to be especially outstanding as ambient drone-style entries, and the frozen-over 'Luxembourg' would be worthy of Stephan Mathieu. As a single-disc album, this would be a mightily strong release, but the remix disc makes it all the more essential. Kranky's Chris Herbert puts in an outstanding entry with his panoramically detailed twelve-minuter, 'Fissures', while Peter Broderick extends and develops 'Palimpsest (For Strings)' adding wordless vocals to the equation. Combining elements of two different pieces, Jasper TX fashions an epic electroacoustic monolith with 'Modstand/Til Canada', while the customarily brilliant Greg Davis extends piano keyings off toward the horizon with the infinitesimally modulating drone opus 'Light Breath'. An excellent double-album that's certainly among the very best Under The Spire releases to date.
RIYL: Peter Broderick, Max Richter, Type Records

(under the spire,2010)
This release on under the spire is an album from John McCaffrey (Part Timer) under the new guise of Upward Arrows. Here are a few words from John.
“The tracks on Upward Arrows were made especially for Under The Spire – the name Upward Arrows is an allusion to the thousands of church spires that pepper the world, all pointing upwards like arrows aimed at the sky.
Instead of giving Chris an album of ‘Part Timer’ material, I wanted to do something different; something that fit with my understanding of the UTS sound and which was still linked to my music as Part Timer. Looking through the files on my hard drive, I found lots of sounds from collaborative pieces I had done recently and many partially completed tunes. I started to combine snatches of these sounds with field recordings, recorded some new parts and assembled 10 tracks that felt right together."
RIYL: Elvium, Fennesz, Greg Davis

(nothings66,2010)
Sketches for Albinos is Matthew Collings's solo project from Iceland Reykjavik.
A sworn friend, Ben Frost's tour support. An additional production for the Amusement Parks on Fire. C.J.Boyd(Sounds are Active), Federico Durand(Spekk), Fieldhead(Home Assembly), Reykjavik!(Kimi Records)... he makes a lot of the remixes and he plans to release new stuff as Matthew Collings name from Bedroom Community this year. He performs many shows in UK tour with Multiple Electric Guitars and local Reykjavik positively and plays with Nico Muhly, Ben Frost, Tim Hecker, Kangding Ray(raster-noton) in Iceland Airwaves2009.
Camped out somewhere in deepest, iciest Iceland Sketches for Albinos makes music from the ends of the earth. He who was swallowed in nihility scratched at tape as if he totally filled his mind, and all began from what record it. Making the tape, the music of Sketches for Albinos born from the process that he records an indistinct thing of this world moves your feelings as a sort of photograph album and a sketchbook by what you listen to. Fleeting moments... Leftover breeze at the end of a storm...
With a cold tone, there are overwhelmingly warmth and beauty will give a wavering to anyone's emotion. The quiet and calm, and strongly even echoed coldest sound !
RIYL: Sigur Ros, Kyte

(home normal,2010)
Northern Songs is the blissful sound of Chris Weisman leaving his body and dissolving into the universe; he sounds very free. Greg Davis (electronic music composer, fractal maker) helps the usually obsessive Chris (psychedelic four-tracker, music artist) surrender to the void. The falling away of self is quite literal: Chris recorded a batch of songs, then turned the tapes over to Greg without instructions for completion (there’s a special luxurious bath you get to take when you stop deciding). Rather than perfecting the material, Greg’s treatments make it radically and beautifully incomplete; the pop song is unmastered, its closed forms opened to nature (this music has no inside and no outside (this guitar solo sounds friendly and tall (these computer sounds are showing me the thing in the tree that makes it alive
RIYL: Beach Boys, Beatles, Tape

(home normal,2010)
Tobias Hellkvist is a multi-instrumentalist from Sweden. To date he has released two full-length albums, Evolutions being his third.
Whilst much of Tobias work has previously revolved around acoustic guitar elements, Evolutions takes us into denser minimalist textures. That isn’t to say the acoustic elements are absent from Tobias’s latest work, as the subtle use of guitar, zither, accordian and glockenspiel processing throughout the whole album shows. It’s simply that the acoustic elements in Evolutions are more subtly woven into the fabric of the beautiful dirge-like textures.
RIYL: Ethan Rose, Hammock, 12K

(home normal,2010)
Michael Santos is a London-based artist who has previously released on U-Cover, Benbecula an Baskaru.
One of the first things to strike you about Memory maker is the unusually physical presence it has: it's a great way of announcing yourself. From here onwards you might notice a counterpoint between the album's all-round mellifluousness and the recurrence of a kind of intensive, buzzing belligerence that recalls the aesthetics of certainRaster Noton records, or the more stringent moments in Steinbruchel's catalogue.
RIYL: U-Cover, Machinefabriek, 12K