"At first, Agencement was started as an anonymous tape music project in 1985. It started from an indie movement that had occurred in inverse proportion to the calm situation of Japan's mid-'80s domestic improvised music scene. As for activity of violin performances that I started from the influence of European improvised music after it is related to the edit of underground music magazine named Avant-Garde that Kanazawa University students issued from 1976 until 1979, several years have passed from beginning. I played the violin in various places at that time, for instance, I have participated at the '2nd Ten Minutes Solo Improvisation Festival' (1982) at Kyoto Seika University, and I sometimes performed violin + live electronics solo at Merzbau cafe, etc. I was gradually editing them with multi-track though the magnetic tapes that recorded live performances. Such a work style originates from the drawing works which I started producing when I was a teen. The work of my 1st LP was made by using a cheap analog multi-track tape recorder and took 1 year. The flow of such time has not basically changed in the studio work of me digitalized now too. In 1986, I was able to come in contact with artists such as Merzbow, Toukaseibunshi, 10T and others through compilation cassette releases, etc. Masami Akita who had contact for several years recommended it though I did not think that I make LP of myself at first." --Hideaki Shimada
Hideaki Shimada was born in 1962 in Kanazawa and began work with violin solo improvisation in 1980. He started tape music project Agencement in 1985, where he creates multi-layered violin improvisation and records them on magnetic tape. He has performed live in the noise music scene since the early '90s. In 2000-2003, he collaborated with Kiyoharu Kuwayama (Lethe) and Kiyoshi Mizutani in "Lethe Voice Festival" in Nagoya. In recent years he has improvised with Katsuyoshi Kou, Mori-shige, and also a sound event curated by Toshi Ichiyanagi in 2009. Housed in a cardboard paper gatefold sleeve with artwork by the artist. Includes newly-written liner notes in Japanese & English. Limited edition of 500 copies. |