Article
Playing around with sounds
Nobukazu Takemura’s interest in music began with punk and the new wave at the ripe old age of ten, as can be read in one of his biographies. Even later he kept on, by recording for instance music with an electronic piano and two recorders. He worked in a record shop and listened to free jazz, experimental music and hip-hop, which then became basic to his way of composing and his theory of remixing. While still at school he was already appearing as a DJ, and he took his inspiration as a composer from concept artists like John Cage and Brian Eno as well as from musicians like John Coltrane and Robert Wyatt.
Nobukazu Takemura is among the pioneers of a new sound-art, as the music critic Michael Frost has said: ‘He is not content with just working at a computer. He has also integrated acoustic instruments and song into his works, though not in their traditional and familiar forms. Indeed, owing to sharp contrasts with computer-sounds and alienated song, their sources are often hard to make out.’
Though Takemura’s music is often called ‘electronic’, this does not in the least imply that he is limited to a laptop. His music might rather be said to consist of ‘electronically manipulated acoustic sounds’. For instance on working on his album ‘10th’ he used a gadget meant to help folk with speech impediments. As press-releases put it: ‘Takemura makes this technology sing.’ In fact he plays all kinds of instruments onstage or in a studio and shreds the sounds before putting them back together as long drones.
His music sometimes recalls that of the minimalists Terry Riley and Steve Reich, owing to themes which merge or overlap, to recapitulations seemingly endless and hardly varied and to hovering childlike melodies. But his music can also be quite different. It can be harsh and full of scratchy disruptive pulses, sounding - as one critic put it - as if he had kept his finger on the fast forward button of a CD-player.
In 1987 he founded the DJ team Cool Jazz Productions then in 1988 joined the now legendary hip-hop formation Audio Sports led by Eye Yamatsuka of the Boredoms.
In 1993, under the pseudonym Child’s View, he first appeared as a solo artist. The name points to a key feature of his music and appears even today in his label Childisc. According to one critic he tries to make music with a lingering sense of wonder, a childlike innocence and curiosity.
Takemura has worked with many established artists all over the world. For the Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake he wrote music to go with his shows for two seasons, and he was also responsible for the sound-design of Sony’s robot-dog Aibo. In working with musicians ranging from Steve Reich to DJ Spooky, and from Yo La Tengo to Tortoise, he has shown a surprising range of talent.
Though Takemura’s music is often called ‘electronic’, this does not in the least imply that he is limited to a laptop. His music might rather be said to consist of ‘electronically manipulated acoustic sounds’. For instance on working on his album ‘10th’ he used a gadget meant to help folk with speech impediments. As press-releases put it: ‘Takemura makes this technology sing.’ In fact he plays all kinds of instruments onstage or in a studio and shreds the sounds before putting them back together as long drones.
His music sometimes recalls that of the minimalists Terry Riley and Steve Reich, owing to themes which merge or overlap, to recapitulations seemingly endless and hardly varied and to hovering childlike melodies. But his music can also be quite different. It can be harsh and full of scratchy disruptive pulses, sounding - as one critic put it - as if he had kept his finger on the fast forward button of a CD-player.
In 1987 he founded the DJ team Cool Jazz Productions then in 1988 joined the now legendary hip-hop formation Audio Sports led by Eye Yamatsuka of the Boredoms.
In 1993, under the pseudonym Child’s View, he first appeared as a solo artist. The name points to a key feature of his music and appears even today in his label Childisc. According to one critic he tries to make music with a lingering sense of wonder, a childlike innocence and curiosity.
Takemura has worked with many established artists all over the world. For the Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake he wrote music to go with his shows for two seasons, and he was also responsible for the sound-design of Sony’s robot-dog Aibo. In working with musicians ranging from Steve Reich to DJ Spooky, and from Yo La Tengo to Tortoise, he has shown a surprising range of talent.
Author: Harald Olkus
Works
Sign
Published Audio,
2004
Thrill Joc (rough trade)
Assembler
Published Audio,
2003
Thrill Jockey
10th
Published Audio,
2003
Thrill Jockey
Songbook
Published Audio,
2003
Bubblecore Records
Animate
Published Audio,
2002
Childisc
Water´s Suite
Published Audio,
2002
Extreme
Hoshi no Koe
Published Audio,
2001
Thrill Jockey
Finale
Published Audio,
2000
Warner Music Japan
Milano
Published Audio,
1999
Warner Music Japan
Scope
Published Audio,
1999
Thrill Jockey
Child & Magic
Published Audio,
1997
Warner Music Japan
Child´s View
Published Audio,
1994
Bellissima! Records/Toys Factory Records
Projects
This artist took part in the following project(s) organized/funded by the culturebase.net partner institutions.
