henrik schwarz imprint. tip!

ltd repress! the second collaboration of henrik schwarz & kuniyuki.

third reissue of fumio itabashi on mule

till today fumio itabashi is a vital part of the japanese jazz culture as a live performer and film score composer. those who want to see how he makes love with his piano should check the world wide web for the french documentary jazzed out, that captured his unique way of playing in one episode. but as music is always firstly for the ears, and not for the eyes, this little letter in-front of you would rather like to recommend to play the “watarase” recordings loud to get hooked by the highly infectious piano gems that have been recorded at nippon columbia 1st studio in tokyo on 12th and 13th of octo-ber 1981. they will haunt you. they will come for good. and they will force you to be a good friend with the repeat button – whatever medium you chose to surrender to the piano jazz music of fumio itabashi.

the first collaboration of kuniyuki and japanese legendary jazz pianist fumio itabashi, it’s originally released in 2009,recorded for kuniyuki’s third album “walking in the naked city”. kuniyuki and itabashi invited henrik schwarz as vocalist,maybe you remember henrik&kuniyuki’s house version. itabashi said river is one of the best song which i have produced.
finally available on vinyl!

more talking all that jazz, more high aiming music by fumio itabashi: mule musiq is ready to release another record by the legendary japanese jazz pianist, born in ashikaga, tochigi in the year 1949. this time his first solo record ever: the heavy jazzing “nature”, which has never been reissued on vinyl since its birth in 1979. it has been recorded at nippon columbia 1st studio, tokyo from march 13 to 15 in the year of its release.

remastered reissue of the 1982 japanese jazz cult classic from itabashi fumio.

new album by kuniyuki takahashi. ambient masterpiece!

light in the attic’s japan archival series continues with kankyo ongaku: japanese ambient, environmental & new age music 1980-1990, an unprecedented overview of the country’s vital minimal, ambient, avant-garde, and new age music – what can collectively be described as kanky&#333,,,,, ongaku, or environmental music.

since so many european labels have been reissuing lost and obscure 1980s japanese ambient albums of late, it was probably inevitable that at least one label would put together a compilation paying tribute to the sound. it turns out that jazzy couscous has won the race with kumo no moko, a superb double album that does a terrific job in putting japan s 80s ambient scene in context. as you d expect, the majority of the tracks feature either dreamy electronic sounds or a mixture of acoustic and electronic instrumentation, with nods to jazz coming thick and fast. there are naturally a couple of fairly well-known names on show, but for the most part the compilers have done a terrific job in highlight lesser-known tracks from unsung heroes.

in the years following the world war two, japan developed one of the most insatiable, dynamic and diverse markets for jazz. for a crucial period of little over a decade - from the late 1960s to the early 1980s - japanese jazz culture progressed at an astonishing rate, producing an extraordinary array of artists, recordings and record labels that created some of the most forward thinking and impressive jazz to be committed to tape. this amazing journey is explored on ‘j jazz’.

this is first single cut from the long awaited japanese deep house maestro kuniyuki takahashi s feather world (mule musiq cd 39, release on 21th jan!). kuniyuki invited many amazing gest musicians from bugge wesseltoft, henrik schwarz,fumio itabashi and name a few. this first single cut is club friendly version of the collaboration track with legendary 80 s poetry singer anne clark . her our darkness are our all time favorite. kuniyuki version is Êhomage to his all time favorite early 90 s house track. our very favorite new artist barnt version is his unique dark kraut rock oriented house.