MERZBOW – Boiler Room Tokyo | Fvll Set | Noise mvsic

“This is our experience in music: we must first learn in general to hear fully, and to distinguish a theme or melody, we have to isolate and limit it as a life by itself; then we need to exercise effort and good will in order to endure it in spite of its strangeness we need patience towards its aspect and expression and indulgence towards what is odd in it in the end there comes a moment when we are accustomed to it, when we expect it, when it dawns upon us that we should miss it if it were lacking; and then it goes on to exercise its spell and charm more and more, and does not cease until we have become its humble and enraptured lovers, who want it and want it again, and ask for nothing better from the world.”

Nietzsche

Merzbow (メルツバウ, Merutsubau) is a Japanese noise project started in 1979 by Masami Akita (秋田 昌美, Akita Masami), best known for a style of harsh, confrontational noise. Since 1980, Akita has released over 500 recordings and has collaborated with numerous artists.

The name Merzbow comes from the German dada artist Kurt Schwitters’ artwork Merzbau, in which Schwitters transformed the interior of his house using found objects. The name was chosen to reflect Akita’s dada influence and junk art aesthetic. In addition to this, Akita has cited a wide range of musical influences from progressive rock, heavy metal, free jazz, and early electronic music to non-musical influences like dadaism, surrealism and fetish culture. Since the early 2000s, he has been inspired by animal rights and environmentalism, and began to follow a vegan, straight edge lifestyle.

One of the most prolific artists of his kind. Armed with homemade instruments, some contact mics and a desk-load of effects pedals, Merzbow went about destroying the Dommune studio.