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V / A // Sound Storing Machines: The First 78rpm Records from Japan, 1903-1912 LP

V / A // Sound Storing Machines: The First 78rpm Records from Japan, 1903-1912 LP

¥3,780
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This is a compilation of the earliest Japanese recordings engraved on a 78 rpm record.Below is a description of the label.

Seattle's popular label Sublime Frequencies, which has dug up sound sources from all over the world, chose Japan's early 20th century sound source as the third <Asian SP board anthology> following Myanmar and South Korea.From February 15 to XNUMX, when Fred Gaisberg and his group recorded for the first time in Japan, XNUMX tracks including valuable sound sources recorded on a business trip by record companies such as Gramophone in the UK and Colombia in the US were carefully selected.It contains various "sounds" that were popular in Japan at that time, from gagaku to gagaku, folk songs, rakugo, and instrumental performances such as shakuhachi.In addition to the original English liner, this work is accompanied by a Japanese commentary by Norio Okada, a leading researcher in Japanese entertainment history and SP record researcher, and the contents of the recorded songs from the background of the business trip recording at that time. He added a detailed explanation.This work, which has the content of "the beginning of Japanese music" seen by foreigners, is likely to be a chance to reconsider the history of Japanese music. 

1.Bairo
2. Senryo Nobori
3. Chikumagawa
4. Kappore
5. Hokai-bushi Oiwake-bushi
6. Matsukaze
7. Rakugo: Ukiy-buro
8. Taishikichou
9. Shiokumi Kasatsukashi
10. Yokyoku
11. Sanjusangen-do Kiyori
12. Neko Ja
13. Horikawa Sarumawashi
14. Sakaya no dan
15. Joruri Taiko-ki Ju Danme


Text by Sublime Frequencies:

"The first commercial recordings from Asia were made in Japan in 1903 by Fred Gaisberg, the legendary producer and recording engineer who traveled the world making recordings for the Gramophone Company (later His Masters Voice). The recording industry barely existed at this time. Man's ability to record and reproduce sound had only existed since 1877 (with the invention of Edison's cylinder phonograph) and flat disc records, what we all collect and obsess over today, had only come into being in the late 1890s.

It is a miracle what these fragile discs have survived: wars with Russia and China, the fire bombings (and worse) of World War II, modernization, the onslaught of Western media. that had just barely begun to open its doors to the rest of the world.

Including gagaku, shakuhachi, shamisen, storytelling, folksong and more. These recordings are a unique glimpse into an ancient culture and an important document of the beginnings of the recording industry. Simple and complex. Alien and familiar. Featuring important artists and those who only appeared to sing before the strange Western recording horn and then vanished.

Sound Storing Machines spans only 9 years of recording—-from 1903 and the first commercial recordings made by Fred Gaisberg to 1912, the beginning of Japan's homegrown record industry, including a few sides taken from Japan's notorious bootleg 78rpm industry.

Collected on various trips to Japan and compiled by sound artist Robert Millis (Indian Talking Machine, Victrola Favorites, Climax Golden Twins, Phi Ta Khon: Ghosts of Isan, This World is Unreal Like a Snake in a Rope, etc). This is part three in a series (all produced by Millis) of early recording from Asia—including Sublime Frequencies' The Crying Princess: 78rpm Records from Burma and Scattered Melodies: Korean Kayagum Sanjo.

(Limited edition LP with two sided insert of liner notes by Robert Millis) "

Artist: V / A

Label: Sublime Frequencies

This is a compilation of the earliest Japanese recordings engraved on a 78 rpm record.Below is a description of the label.

Seattle's popular label Sublime Frequencies, which has dug up sound sources from all over the world, chose Japan's early 20th century sound source as the third <Asian SP board anthology> following Myanmar and South Korea.From February 15 to XNUMX, when Fred Gaisberg and his group recorded for the first time in Japan, XNUMX tracks including valuable sound sources recorded on a business trip by record companies such as Gramophone in the UK and Colombia in the US were carefully selected.It contains various "sounds" that were popular in Japan at that time, from gagaku to gagaku, folk songs, rakugo, and instrumental performances such as shakuhachi.In addition to the original English liner, this work is accompanied by a Japanese commentary by Norio Okada, a leading researcher in Japanese entertainment history and SP record researcher, and the contents of the recorded songs from the background of the business trip recording at that time. He added a detailed explanation.This work, which has the content of "the beginning of Japanese music" seen by foreigners, is likely to be a chance to reconsider the history of Japanese music. 

1.Bairo
2. Senryo Nobori
3. Chikumagawa
4. Kappore
5. Hokai-bushi Oiwake-bushi
6. Matsukaze
7. Rakugo: Ukiy-buro
8. Taishikichou
9. Shiokumi Kasatsukashi
10. Yokyoku
11. Sanjusangen-do Kiyori
12. Neko Ja
13. Horikawa Sarumawashi
14. Sakaya no dan
15. Joruri Taiko-ki Ju Danme


Text by Sublime Frequencies:

"The first commercial recordings from Asia were made in Japan in 1903 by Fred Gaisberg, the legendary producer and recording engineer who traveled the world making recordings for the Gramophone Company (later His Masters Voice). The recording industry barely existed at this time. Man's ability to record and reproduce sound had only existed since 1877 (with the invention of Edison's cylinder phonograph) and flat disc records, what we all collect and obsess over today, had only come into being in the late 1890s.

It is a miracle what these fragile discs have survived: wars with Russia and China, the fire bombings (and worse) of World War II, modernization, the onslaught of Western media. that had just barely begun to open its doors to the rest of the world.

Including gagaku, shakuhachi, shamisen, storytelling, folksong and more. These recordings are a unique glimpse into an ancient culture and an important document of the beginnings of the recording industry. Simple and complex. Alien and familiar. Featuring important artists and those who only appeared to sing before the strange Western recording horn and then vanished.

Sound Storing Machines spans only 9 years of recording—-from 1903 and the first commercial recordings made by Fred Gaisberg to 1912, the beginning of Japan's homegrown record industry, including a few sides taken from Japan's notorious bootleg 78rpm industry.

Collected on various trips to Japan and compiled by sound artist Robert Millis (Indian Talking Machine, Victrola Favorites, Climax Golden Twins, Phi Ta Khon: Ghosts of Isan, This World is Unreal Like a Snake in a Rope, etc). This is part three in a series (all produced by Millis) of early recording from Asia—including Sublime Frequencies' The Crying Princess: 78rpm Records from Burma and Scattered Melodies: Korean Kayagum Sanjo.

(Limited edition LP with two sided insert of liner notes by Robert Millis) "

Artist: V / A

Label: Sublime Frequencies