It was a warm early winter Sunday morning as I embarked on a journey to meet Terry Riley at his apartment in Yamanashi. It was real, yet unreal. I arrived at the station two hours early, inhaling the fresh morning air and enjoying the view of the lush green mountains…

Terry Riley, a musician and composer born in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California. At a very tender age he cried when he heard the tunes of “South of the Border Down Mexico Way” on the radio, he intuitively knew music can move people deeply and stir up emotions, “I…

“Analogue modular is very much a living organic medium” “The possibilities are wide open. That is the beauty of a modular system.” – Suzanne Cianni, 2020 from Patch & Tweak’s Foreword At the foothill of Mt. Ogusu, on the west side of the Miura Peninsula, further south of Yokohama, the…

A 56-minute walk from Isawa Onsen Station, Sound Life Harmony is a small coffee shop and audio workshop in Yamanashi Prefecture. I first came across this cafe at Jazz Kissa Umi in Saitama from the magazine Ontomo Mook’s special feature called Good Sound, Good Place, Good Shop. Since then, it…

“Instead of giving up because I couldn’t afford modular synthesizers, I wanted to do it no matter what. I wanted to make it myself. That was the beginning of Hikari Instruments.” — Pikamachi, the founder of Hikari Instruments. Video: Sam King (Website), who is also a musician from a…

Neighbour: This is a place for women’s business, not a place for music business. Owner: If you want to crush it, then do it. The owner of Jazz Kissa Umi was intimidated by his neighbor when he opened in 1952 (Showa Period 27). Asaka, northwest of Tokyo, was known as…

The funkiest jazz kissa that I’ve been to so far, called Eigakan, which translates to ‘cinema’. Run by the masters, Yoshida-san and his wife who are both film and jazz maniacs. Opened in 1978, the space is situated in the quiet residential neighborhood of Hakusan, Tokyo. On the wall, there…

Before soundscape ecologist Bernie Krause began his endeavours in field recording, he was a key member of the synthesizer and Hollywood scene, scoring soundtracks for 135 films, including Apocalypse Now. Today, Krause is a pioneer in the bioacoustic field, and has travelled extensively since 1968 to record astounding soundscapes from…