Merzbow - 13 Japanese Birds In A Bag

Customer reviews
Press release

Limited opportunity to get all 13 records from Masami Akita's Thirteen Japanese Bird Series at a box set price. Packaged along with a limited edition Merzbow Bird Bag and a bonus hand stamped CDR of unreleased material from the 13 Japanese Bird Sessions. A small number of these are being made available. Merzbow's 13 Japanese Birds was a 13 month series of releases inspired by Olivier Messaien's Catalogue D'Oiseaux. Beginning in January 2009 one volume of 13 Japanese Birds was be released each month. The 13th and final volume was released January 2010. Author, activist, painter and sound artist Masami Akita had been at the foreground of experimental music for over 25 years. Inspired by psycedelic rock, free jazz, early electronic composition as well the physical arts, especial Kurt Schwitters' Merzbau, Masami Akita has created a musical language all his own. Bird Bags are not returnable & there are ll tiny holes drilled in the barcodes so any separate Birds with drilled UPC's cannot be returned.

5...according to Simon Franklin.

Shortly after ordering this 14 CD set; I read a newspaper article about the plight of the Eurasian cuckoo whose habitat is being gradually destroyed both in Britain and abroad.

It is this type of threat to birdlife that inspired Japanese ‘noise music’ meister and long-time animal activist Masami Akita’s (aka Merzbow) 2009 album series, “13 Japanese Birds”. Now the entire set, plus a new CDR and piece of screen print art-work have been reissued as “13 Birds In A Bag”, with a navy blue eco-friendly jute bag to keep them in. Just 500 sets have been made.

As usual with Merzbow, this is not music for the faint-hearted. The opening track on album one, “Suzume” (Sparrow) titled “Red Bird Of Summer pt. 1” sounds like a soundtrack for the end of the world with John Bonham on drums!

With Merzbow, there is no melody, no rhythm, no conventional instruments (except for the drums), no vocals, and no concept of any traditional music making. This is noise pure and simple. And yet there is structure and sense to it; take time to really listen and you can hear how Merzbow builds his pieces layer upon layer using computers, samplers and sound generators.

So far I have only come across one track, “Across The Earth” on album no. 9, “Hiyodori” (Brown-eared Bulbul) that could be described as having any melody at all; in fact it reminds me of Death In Vegas!

Merzbow is not for everybody. But for those with the courage and curiosity to explore previously untouched areas of music will be greatly rewarded.

So, what do you think? Best reviewer each month gets £10 off their next order!