is a Japanese

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and

multi-instrumentalist A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays two or more musical instruments at a professional level of proficiency. Also known as doubling, the practice allows greater ensemble flexibility and more efficient employment of musicians, where ...

. He mainly plays

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

turntables A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

, and electronics. He first came to international prominence in the 1990s as the leader of the

experimental rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments with the basic elements of the genre. Artists aim to liberate and innovate, with ...

group

Ground Zero In relation to nuclear explosions and other large bombs, ground zero (also called surface zero) is the point on the Earth's surface closest to a detonation. In the case of an explosion above the ground, ''ground zero'' is the point on the ground ...

, and has since worked in a variety of contexts, ranging from

free improvisation Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the musician(s) involved. The term can refer to both a technique (employed by any musician in any genre) and as a recognizable genre in its ...

noise Noise is unwanted sound considered unpleasant, loud or disruptive to hearing. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrations through a medium, such as air or water. The difference arise ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

and contemporary classical. He is also a pioneering figure in the EAI-scene, and is featured on important records on labels like

Erstwhile Records Erstwhile Records is an independent record label devoted to free improvisation, particularly the electroacoustic variety, contemporary, experimental composed music, and combinations of both. Erstwhile was founded by Jon Abbey in 1999, whose perso ...

. He has composed music for many films, television dramas, and commercials. In 2017, Otomo became the 2nd Guest Artistic Director of The Sapporo International Art Festival 2017.

Biography

Early years

Otomo was born in

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

in 1959, but due to his father's job, moved to

Fukushima may refer to: Japan * Fukushima Prefecture, Japanese prefecture ** Fukushima, Fukushima, capital city of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan ***Fukushima University, national university in Japan *** Fukushima Station (Fukushima) in Fukushima, Fukushim ...

when he was nine years old. In high school, he frequented jazz cafés and started his own band. After entering university, he began studying under the improvisational jazz guitarist,

Masayuki Takayanagi was a Japanese jazz / free improvisation / noise musician. He was active in the Japanese jazz scene from the late 1950s. In the 1960s he formed New Directions (later New Direction Unit), which recorded several albums throughout the 1970s. He also ...

. He began performing around the world and released his first album in 1991 in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. It was when the music he composed for a 1994 Hong Kong film was well received at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

that he also began to work as a composer.

Film and television

Otomo has composed music for a number of films and television programs, including Naoki Kato's ''Abraxas'', Tsuyoshi Inoue's ''The Town's Children'', and Ryuichi Hiroki's ''Yellow Elephant''. He composed the music for the 2013

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestri ...

morning television drama ''

Amachan is a Japanese television drama series. It debuted on April 1, 2013, and was broadcast until September 28, 2013. It was scripted by Kankurō Kudō and starred Rena Nōnen as Aki Amano, a high-school girl from Tokyo who moves to the Sanriku Coast i ...

'' and it became his most commercially successful work up to that point. The soundtrack for ''Amachan'' reached number 5 on the

Oricon Albums Chart The Oricon Albums Chart is the Japanese music industry standard albums popularity chart issued daily, weekly, monthly and yearly by Oricon. Oricon originally published LP, CT, Cartridge and CD charts prior to the establishment of the Oricon Albu ...

, and

Kyōko Koizumi (born February 4, 1966) is a Japanese singer and actress. She is signed to Victor Entertainment. Career In 1981, Kyoko Koizumi participated and won the Star Tanjo! programme and released her 1st single in March 1982. She gained her first num ...

's version of the song ''Shiosai no Memorī'' from the drama, composed by Otomo, reached number 2 on the

Oricon Singles Chart The Oricon Singles Chart is the Japanese music industry-standard singles popularity chart issued daily, weekly, monthly and yearly by Oricon. Chart rankings are based on physical singles' sales. Until 2017, Oricon did not track download sales. In J ...

. He performed live on New Year's Eve at the 2013 ''

Kōhaku Uta Gassen , more commonly known simply as ''Kōhaku'', is an annual New Year's Eve television special produced by Japanese public broadcaster NHK. It is broadcast live simultaneously on television and radio, nationally and internationally by the NHK net ...

''.

Selected discography

Studio albums

* ''Otomo Yoshihide'' (1987) * ''Problem'' (1988) * ''Duo'' (1989) with Junji Hirose * ''Silanganan Ingay'' (1989) with Junji Hirose * ''No Problem'' (1990) with No Problem * ''Who Is Otomo Yoshihide?'' (1991) * ''Visions of Japan'' (1991) with Yuji Katsui and Hiroshi Higo * ''Ground-0, No. 0'' (1991) * ''Terminal-Zero'' (1991) * ''We Insist?'' (1992) * ''Turntables Solo'' (1992) * ''Memory Disorder'' (1993) * ''Peril'' (1993) with Peril * ''The Night Before the Death of the Sampling Virus'' (1993) * ''Ground Zero'' (1993) with

* ''Early Works 1: 81-85'' (1994) * ''Monogatari: Amino Argot'' (1994) with Carl Stone * ''Balance of Power: Variety'' (1994) with Hiedaki Sasaki * ''All at Once at Any Time'' (1994) with David Moss and John King * ''Multiverse'' (1994) with Peril * ''Null & Void'' (1995) with Ground Zero * ''Tatakiuri'' (1995) with

Jon Rose Jonathan Anthony Rose (born 19 February 1951) is an Australian violinist, cellist, composer, and multimedia artist. Rose's work is centered in the experimental music known as free improvisation, where he has created large environmental multimed ...

* ''Revolutionary Pekinese Opera'' (1995) with Ground Zero * ''Revolutionary Pekinese Opera, Version 1.28'' (1996) with Ground Zero * ''Duo Improvisation'' (1996) with Yasuhiro Otani * ''

p53 p53, also known as Tumor protein P53, cellular tumor antigen p53 (UniProt name), or transformation-related protein 53 (TRP53) is a regulatory protein that is often mutated in human cancers. The p53 proteins (originally thought to be, and often s ...

'' (1996) with

* ''Twins!!'' (1996) with Bob Ostertag * ''Ututu: Doppo Jukyo-at no Ho e Atelier El Sur'' (1996) with Kiwao Nomura and Keiki Midorikawa * ''My Dear Mummy'' (1997) with Masahiko Shimada * ''Memory & Money'' (1997) with Les Sculpteurs de Vinyl * ''Conflagration'' (1997) with Ground Zero * ''Consume Red'' (1997) with Ground Zero * ''Plays Standards'' (1997) with Ground Zero * ''Sound Factory'' (1997) * ''Melted Memory'' (1997) * ''Vinyl Tranquilizer'' (1997) * ''Filament 1'' (1998) with Filament * ''Consummation'' (1998) with Ground Zero * ''Gravity Clock'' (1998) with I.S.O. * ''Memory Defacement'' (1998) * ''Television Power Electric'' (1999) with Jim Baker, Aeron Bergman, Todd Carter, Brent Gutzeit, Michael Hartman, Ernst Long, and R. Wilkus * ''Filament 2: Secret Recordings'' (1999) with Filament * ''I.S.O.'' (1999) with I.S.O. * ''Bits, Bots and Signs'' (1999) with Voice Crack * ''Metal Tastes like Orange'' (1999) with Masahiko Okura, Günter Müller, and Taku Sugimoto * ''Cathode'' (1999) * ''Plays the Music of Takeo Yamashita'' (1999) * ''Four Focuses'' (1999) with Martin Tétreault, Yasuhiro Otani, and

Sachiko M Sachiko Matsubara (Japanese: 松原幸子; born 1973), better known by her stage name Sachiko M, is a Japanese musician. Her first solo album, ''Sine Wave Solo'', was released in 1999. Working in collaboration with Ami Yoshida under the name Cosmo ...

* ''21 Situations'' (1999) with Martin Tétreault * ''Panty Christ'' (1999) with Justin Bond and Bob Ostertag * ''Pilgrimage'' (1999) with Microcosmos * ''Without Kuryokhin'' (1999) with Kenny Millions * ''Moving Parts'' (2000) with Christian Marclay * ''Music for Dance Art Hong Kong's "Memory Disorder"'' (2000) * ''Anode'' (2001) * ''Flutter'' (2001) with Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Quintet * ''29092000'' (2001) with Filament * ''Thumb'' (2002) with Keith Rowe, Oren Ambarchi, Sachiko M, and Robbie Avenaim * ''Ensemble Cathode'' (2002) * ''Les Hautes Solitudes: A Philippe Garrel Film: Imaginarry Soundtrack'' (2002) with Taku Sugimoto and Sachiko M * ''Miira ni Naru made: German Version'' (2002) with Masahiko Shimada * ''Pulser'' (2002) with Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Quintet * ''Invisible Architecture No. 1'' (2002) with Philip Jeck and Martin Tétreault * ''Ajar'' (2002) with Almá Fury, Yasuhiro Otani, and Xavier Charles * ''Dreams'' (2002) with Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Ensemble * ''Tails Out'' (2003) with Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Quintet * ''ONJQ + OE'' (2003) with Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Quintet and Tatsuya Oe * ''ONJQ + OE: Short Density'' (2003) with Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Quintet and Tatsuya Oe * ''Turntables and Computers'' (2003) with

Nobukazu Takemura Nobukazu Takemura (竹村延和 ''Takemura Nobukazu'') is a Japanese musician and artist. Born in Hirakata, Osaka in August 1968, he became interested in music at a young age by listening to the radio, and began to make music at home with a tap ...

* ''Studio—Analogique—Numérique'' (2003) with Martin Tétreault * ''Time Travel'' (2003) with Günter Müller * ''Warholes or All Andy Would Enjoy (And Fear) / Warhol Memory Disorder'' (2003) with Lengow, Heyermears, and Sachiko M * ''

Soup Soup is a primarily liquid food, generally served warm or hot (but may be cool or cold), that is made by combining ingredients of meat or vegetables with stock, milk, or water. Hot soups are additionally characterized by boiling solid ing ...

'' (2003) with

Bill Laswell William Otis Laswell (born February 12, 1955) is an American bass guitarist, record producer, and record label owner. He has been involved in thousands of recordings with many collaborators from all over the world. His music draws from funk, w ...

and

Yasuhiro Yoshigaki is a Japanese jazz drummer and percussionist. He is known as a founding member of the bands Altered States and Sights, as well as his work with composers Otomo Yoshihide and John Zorn. Biography During his time as a university student, Yasuhir ...

* ''Loose Community'' (2003) with Park Je Chun and Mi Yeon * ''The Crushed Pellet'' (2003) with Eiichi Hayashi and Yoshisaburo Toyozumi * ''Turntable Solo'' (2004) * ''Compositions for Guitars Vol. 2'' (2004) with

Tetuzi Akiyama Tetuzi Akiyama (Akiyama Tetsuji) (born 13 April 1964) is a Japanese guitarist, violinist, and instrument-maker. Akiyama formed the improvisation group Madhar in 1987, and the classical ensemble Hikyo String Quintet in 1994 (which also included T ...

, Toshimaru Nakamura, and Taku Unami * ''Brackwater'' (2004) with Korber, Tomas, eRikm, and Toshimaru Nakamura * ''Good Morning Good Night'' (2004) with Sachiko M and Toshimaru Nakamura * ''Intonarumori Orchestra'' (2004) with Intonarumori Orchestra * ''Filament Box'' (2004) with Filament * ''1. Grrr'' (2004) with Martin Tétreault * ''2. Tok'' (2005) with Martin Tétreault * ''3. Ahhh'' (2005) with Martin Tétreault * ''4. Hmmm'' (2005) with Martin Tétreault * ''Out to Lunch'' (2005) with Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Orchestra * ''See You in a Dream'' (2005) with Yuki Saga * ''Trace Cuts'' (2005) with eRikm, Martin Tétreault * ''Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Orchestra'' (2005) with Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Orchestra * ''Time Magic City'' (2006) with BusRatch * ''

Episome An episome is a special type of plasmid, which remains as a part of the eukaryotic genome without integration. Episomes manage this by replicating together with the rest of the genome and subsequently associating with metaphase chromosomes during m ...

'' (2006) with

and

Tatsuya Yoshida (born 9 January 1961 in Kitakami, Iwate) is a Japanese musician; drummer and composer who is the only consistent member of the renowned progressive rock duo Ruins, as well as of Koenji Hyakkei. He is also a member of the progressive rock trios ...

* ''Sora'' (2007) * ''Prisoner: A Film by Adachi Masao: Original Soundtrack'' (2007) * ''Multiple Otomo'' (2007) * ''Encounter'' (2007) with Itaru Oki * ''Modulation with 2 Electric Guitars and 2 Amplifiers'' (2007) * ''Modulation with 2 Electric Guitars and 2 Amplifiers: Alternative Version'' (2008) * ''Core Anode'' (2008) * ''Country Kill'' (2008) with Joy Heights * ''Les Archives Sauvées des Eaux'' (2008) with Luc Ferrari * ''Guitar Duo'' (2008) with Seiichi Yamamoto * ''Sweet Cuts, Distant Curves'' (2008) with Choi, Joonyong, Hong Chulki, and Sachiko M * ''Monte Alto Estate'' (2009) with Sim * ''Guitar Duo x Solo'' (2009) with Shinichi Isohata * ''Shinjuku Crawl'' (2009) with The Thing * ''Good Cop Bad Cop'' (2009) with Derek Bailey, Tony Bevan, and Paul Hession * ''Ultra Miracle Love Story'' (2009) * ''Book from Hell'' (2010) with Zai Kuning and Dickson Dee * ''3-Part In(ter)ventions'' (2012) with Jim O'Rourke * ''Piano Solo'' (2013) * ''Existence'' (2013) with Shinichi Isohata * ''Quintet/Sextet'' (2013) with Sachiko M,

Evan Parker Evan Shaw Parker (born 5 April 1944) is a British tenor and soprano saxophone player who plays free improvisation. Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free ja ...

, John Butcher, John Edwards and Tony Marsh,

Live albums

* ''Live at Aketa-no-mise in Tokyo, July 28, 1989'' (1989) * ''Solo Live in Kyoto 93'' (1995) * ''Revolutionary Pekinese Opera, Tokyo 1995'' (1995) with Ground Zero * ''Live!'' (1995) with Eye Yamatsuka * ''Live!!'' (1996) with Eye Yamatsuka * ''Session 18 Oct. 1997'' (1998) with Seed Mouth * ''Live at Otis!'' (1998) with Sachiko M and Yoshimitsu Ichiraku * ''Live'' (1998) with I.S.O. * ''Last Concert'' (1999) with Ground Zero * ''Guitar Solo Live 1'' (1999) * ''Live'' (2002) with Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Quintet * ''Turntables Solo Live, 28 Feb 2002 in Tokyo'' (2002) * '' Soup Live'' (2004) with

and

* ''Erst Live 004'' (2005) with Christian Fennesz, Sachiko M, and Peter Rehberg * ''Erst Live 005'' (2005) with Keith Rowe, Sachiko M, and Toshimaru Nakamura * ''Concert in St. Louis'' (2005) with Grnr Coleman, Franz Hautzinger, and Sachiko M * ''Guitar Solo: 12 October 2004 @ Shinjuku Pit Inn, Tokyo + 1'' (2005) * ''ONJQ Live in Lisbon'' (2006) with Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Quintet * ''Live 1992'' (2007) with Ground Zero * ''Live Vol. 1: Series Circuit'' (2007) with Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Orchestra * ''Live Vol. 2: Parallel Circuit'' (2007) with Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Orchestra

Singles

* ''Otomo + Mao'' (1995) * ''Revolutionary Pekinese Opera, Version 1.50'' (1996) with Ground Zero * ''Live Mao '99'' (1996) with Ground Zero * ''Untitled'' (1996) with Eye Yamatsuka * ''Museum of Towing & Recovery'' (1998) with Steve Beresford * ''Lupin the Third: Ending Theme'' (1999) * ''Split 7"'' (1999) with Christian Marclay * ''Re/cycling Rectangle'' (2000) * ''Digital Tranquilizer Ver. 1.0'' (2004) * ''Digital Tranquilizer Ver. 1.01'' (2004) * ''4 Speakers'' (2009)

DVDs

* ''Dark Room Filled with Light'' (2006) with Filament * ''Music(s)'' (2006) * ''Ensembles 09: Pre-opening Live at Shinjuku Pit Inn'' (2009)

As sideman

With Rova::Orchestrova *''

Electric Ascension ''Electric Ascension'' is a live album by Rova::Orchestrova, the American ensemble Rova Saxophone Quartet along with additional musicians, performing an interpretation of John Coltrane's 1966 album '' Ascension''. The album was recorded in Califor ...

'' (Atavistic, 2005)

Film scores

Film

*''

The Blue Kite ''The Blue Kite'' () is a 1993 drama film directed by Tian Zhuangzhuang. Though banned by the Chinese government upon its completion (along with a ten-year ban on filmmaking imposed on Tian), the film soon found a receptive international audienc ...

'' (1993) *''

Summer Snow ''Summer Snow'' is a Japanese television drama that was broadcast from July 7 to September 15, 2000, on TBS. It is a love story between a young man who has been forced to grow up too quickly, and a young woman with an activity-restricting ailment ...

'' (1995) *''

Postman A mail carrier, mailman, mailwoman, postal carrier, postman, postwoman, or letter carrier (in American English), sometimes colloquially known as a postie (in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom), is an employee of a post ...

'' (1995) *''

Kitchen A kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation in a dwelling or in a commercial establishment. A modern middle-class residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running water, a ...

'' (1997) *'' Wait and See'' (1998) *''Kaza-hana'' (2000) *''

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...

'' (2001) *''Les Hautes Solitudes:

Philippe Garrel Philippe Garrel (; born 6 April 1948) is a French director, cinematographer, screenwriter, film editor, and producer, associated with the French New Wave movement. His films have won him awards at Cannes Film Festival and Venice Film Festival. ...

Film'' (2002) *''Iden & Tity'' (2003) *''Canary'' (2005) *''

Boku wa Imōto ni Koi o Suru is a Japanese manga series by Kotomi Aoki. Originally serialized in ''Shōjo Comic'', the individual chapters were published in ten ''tankōbon'' volumes by Shogakukan from May 2003 until August 2005. The series focuses on fraternal twins ...

'' (2007) *''Ultra Miracle Love Story'' (2009) *''Tokyo Island'' (2010) *''Abraxas'' (2010) *''The Town's Children'' (2011) *''Olo the Boy from Tibet'' (2012) *''Botchan'' (2012) *''Yellow Elephant'' (2013) *''Junan'' (2013) *'' Piece of Cake'' (2015) *''Beneath the Shadow'' (2020) *''You've Got a Friend'' (2022) *''Noise'' (2022) *''

Inu-Oh is a 2021 Japanese animated musical film directed by Masaaki Yuasa and produced by Science SARU. Based upon the novel ''Tales of the Heike: Inu-Oh'' by Hideo Furukawa, the film is set in 14th century Japan and centers on the friendship betwee ...

'' (2022)

Television

*''

'' (2013) *'' Idaten'' (2019)

References

External links

*
Sapporo international art festival 2017
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Otomo, Yoshihide 1959 births Avant-garde jazz musicians Clean Feed Records artists Electroacoustic improvisation Free improvisation Japanese experimental musicians Japanese film score composers Japanese male film score composers Living people Musicians from Kanagawa Prefecture Musicians from Yokohama Peril (band) members Tzadik Records artists