Q031:
What is so amazing about the Japanese scene and your work is the vast output of recordings under a variety of group names? What drives you to create so much? Do you worry that you will swamp the world with too many releases?
A031:
My music is neither a form of personal expression nor something that I myself create. All I do is tune into the sounds of the cosmos (some people may call it god) like a radio receiver, and then play them so that other people can hear them too. Every day I am able to hear various kinds of these sounds, so it is inevitable that I produce much music. Another reason may be that over the years we Japanese have experienced many forms of music as information, and have thus created a huge illusion. Then, from a certain time, maybe somehow we found a way to compact and process this massive amount of information at high speeds.
The majority of musicians who lead the Japanese underground are in their 30s or 40s, and this was precisely the generation that first experienced rock as imported information and from this small amount of data created their own massive illusion. After rock, this generation then listened exhaustively to all forms of music - jazz of course, contemporary composition, ethnic music. They absorbed and compacted all kinds of music as pure data, without reference to its original musical history or social background. Now this music explodes out from them in altered and transformed shapes.
What is there to worry about? I have to continue making music for as long as I keep hearing sounds from my private cosmos. Furthermore, I believe that by releasing records in various countries on various labels, even if they are sometimes limited pressings, I can get as many people as possible to hear my music. Even if only 1% of the people want to hear my music, then I will continue to release music for that 1%. And if you pause to consider that some free music players have released dozens of live recordings that sound only marginally different, then my efforts will seem quite serious. My releases are not motivated in the slightest by any need to appeal to collectors.