Jazz critic Yoshiyuki Kitazato launched the independent, free magazine ORT LIVE in April of 1987. The magazine contained interviews of musicians and producers, translations of improtant musical essays featured in foreign music magazines, and music information and articles hard to find in the mainstream mass media. The magazine came to an end after 24 issues; but Kitazato has continued to release tapes and CDs by talented, innovative Japanese musicians on his own record label, Omba Records, which he started in 1988. In his various activities, he emphasizes the value of borderless networking on a grassroots level; and of all kinds of creative music--including free improvisation--which will help open up a new era. There have been no releases on this label since the CD Altered Egos came out in 1998.

Audiocassettes

• OMBA-008
  Kalle Laar/Takashi Kazamaki ZIZS 1989.
  
  
• OMBA-007
  Kyoko Kuroda Solo: Singing, Playing and Dancing 1989.
  
  
• OMBA-005
  Kyoko Kuroda/Shinoda Masami Duo 1988.
  
  
• OMBA-004
  Takashi Kazamaki Eiko no Hata: Live in New York 1987 1987.
  
  
• OMBA-003
  Kyoko Kuroda ORT Live: Brecht a la Machina 1988.
  
  
• OMBA-002
  Otomo Yoshihide Problem 1988.
  
  
• OMBA-001
  Kyoto Kuroda ORT 1988.

CDs

• OMBA-004CD
  Lauren Newton/Patrick Scheyder/Vladimir Tarasov Altered Egos 1998.
  
  
• OMBA-003CD
  Joëlle Léandre/Tetsu Saitoh Joëlle et Tetsu: Live at Yokohama Jazz Promenade Festival 1996 1998.
  
  
• OMBA-002CD
  Tetsu Saitoh Stone Out 1996.
  
  
• OMBA-CD 001
  Kyoko Kuroda Something Keeps Me Alive 1991.

• Improvised Music from Japan home page
  • Independent Labels in Japan home page