No-input mixing board player
Toshimaru Nakamura's instrument is the no-input mixing board, which describes a way of using a standard mixing board as an electronic music instrument, producing sound without any external audio input. The use of the mixing board in this manner is not only innovative in the the sounds it can create but, more importantly, in the approach this method of working with the mixer demands. The unpredictability of the instrument requires an attitude of obedience and resignation to the system and the sounds it produces, bringing a high level of indeterminacy and surprise to the music. Nakamura pioneered this approach to the use of the mixing board in the mid-1990's and has since then appeared on over one hundred audio publications, including nine solo CD's.
He has performed throughout Europe, North America, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia, Korea, China, Singapore and Malaysia, performing and recording both as a soloist and in collaboration with numerous other musicians.
As an active organizer of concerts in Tokyo, Nakamura has helped many musicians coming to Japan find places to perform, both with himself and with others. From 1998 to 2003 Nakamura and Tetuzi Akiyama ran the concert series Improvisation Series at Bar Aoyama and then later the Meeting at Off Site series of concerts. Both these concert series were crucially important in exposing a new manner to improvised music (referred to as Electro Acoustic Improvisation) to the Japanese public and to foreign musicians visiting Japan, making Tokyo one of the global hotspots for this new approach to music.
Selected Discography
Solo
No Input Mixing Board #8. Oral Records, ORAL 53; The Dim Coast, the dim coast 3, 2013
Maruto. Erstwhile, ErstSolo 002, 2011
Egrets. Samadhisound, sound cd ss017, 2010
Dance Music. Bottrop-Boy, B-BOY 025, 2008
Side Guitar. Improvised Music from Japan, IMJ-513, 2003
Vehicle. cubic music, cubic music 08, 2002
No-input Mixing Board [3]. Alcohol, ALTN1CD, 2003
No-input Mixing Board. Zero Gravity, ZGV-026, 2000
Collaboration
Tetuzi Akiyama, Jason Kahn, and Toshimaru Nakamura. IHJ/Ftarri. Winds Measure, wm39, 2014
Klaus Filip/Toshimaru Nakamura/Andrea Neumann/Ivan Palacký. messier objects. Ftarri, meena-999, 2012
Toshimaru Nakamura, and John Butcher. Dusted Machinery. Monotype, mono 041, 2011
Koboku Senjû. Selektiv Hogst. Sofa, SOFA 530, 2010
Keith Rowe, and Toshimaru Nakamura. ErstLive 008. Erstwhile, erstlive 008, 2009
Tetuzi Akiyama, and Toshimaru Nakamura. Semi-Impressionism. Spekk, KK: 020, 2009
Ami Yoshida, and Toshimaru Nakamura. Soba to Bara. Erstwhile, erstwhile 056, 2009
with David Sylvian. Manafon. SamadhiSound, SS016, 2009
Annette Krebs, and Toshimaru Nakamura. Siyu. SoSeditions, soseditions 804, 2008
Jean-Luc Guionnet, and Toshimaru Nakamura. Map. Potlatch, P108, 2008
Sachiko M, Toshimaru Nakamura, and Otomo Yoshihide. Good Morning Good Night. 2-CD set. Erstwhile, erstwhile 042-2, 2004