Masami Akita better known as Merzbow, is a Japanese musician and artist, focused specifically in noise music. It could be argued that Merzbow is one of the leading pioneers of the Japanoise scene, working with noise as his main building blocks of compositions. I recently read an interview conducted by Jason Gross to Merzbow in 1997 where they discuss Merzbow ideology and concepts behind his music. Merzbow explains that his approach on doing music comes from his necessity to escape the traditional ways of composition and aesthetic, specially to abandon the delicate music scene that has developed in Japan in the recent years. His music has also been connected with sexual practices such as bondage (he actually did the sound track for a bondage group), similar to his approach with music he seeks to explore the limits of sexuality, to break with the traditional sex culture of Japan. By using effect pedals and mixers as instruments, he creates thick violent layer of noise, that give character to his style. Merzbow music is also widely inspired from industrial music, his album “Ecobondage” was creating using self made metal percussion.

“Ecobondage” is an example of Herzbow interest in bondage and hard sex cultures, the title of the album comes from a book by Michel Foucault, a philosopher that explored sexuality.

Merzbow was a big inspiration for me when composing my assessment piece. I used industrial sounds and heavy distortion to convey the genre of noise music. I will now further explore the Japanoise scene and at the same time indulge in other noise cultures around the world.