Tetsu Inoue Interviews

Tetsu Inoue's music is more than simply ambient -- it seems to fill the listener's space, creating a different environment. His pieces slowly unfold, evoking a range of emotions and images.

Although not popularly known, Tetsu Inoue continues to be an innovator in modern electronic music. He has recorded almost thirty albums and has collaborated with other well known ambient musicians such as Bill Laswell, Peter Namlook of FAX records, Jonah Sharp of Spacetime Continuum, and German producer Uwe Schmidt who records as Atom Heart. A versatile artist, Inoue's work is difficult to categorize, and spreads over multiple genres. He has recorded trance tracks as 'OM', deep chill monochrome with Namlook under the moniker '2350 Broadway', and more psychedelic ambient with Atom Heart as 'Datacide.' Recently, he and Atom Heart joined Haruomi Hosono of Yellow Magic Orchestra to produce the funk and jazz influenced album 'HAT.'

As a solo artist, Inoue's work has evolved from melodic ambient projects like _Ambiant Otaku_ and _Organic Cloud_ to the looser, more organic works _Slow and Low_, and the recently released _World Receiver_. On _World Receiver_, location recordings from different countries mesh with elusive melodies to produce music which owes as much to 'classic' ambient as it does to more experimental cut-and-paste music. It appears as if this experimental trend will continue with collaborative projects planned for John Zorn's label, Tzadik.

Conducted September 1995, at 2350 Broadway, and August 1996, at KALX Berkeley
Interviewer: Sean Cooper

  • When did you start doing music?
    In high school I played guitar. I played sort of rock music, the Beatles and that sort of thing. I grew up listening to the Beatles and Yellow Magic Orchestra, Tomita, that sort of thing. I started experimenting with playing it when I was around 18. I started out using mostly just a sequencer, like monophonic. Those were reasonably priced. I still have some tapes of that early stuff; actually, Peter [Namlook, of Fax Records] wants to release it.

  • What's that stuff like?
    It's ambient! (laughs)

  • You actually started out from the beginning making ambient? Why? What drew you to it?
    As a musician I was very much inspired by Pink Floyd and Tomita. The reasons why I liked these groups was that they put you in a very different state of mind; turn off the lights, listen to it. It was great. And I wanted to make music that could be listened to that way. Because there weren't really drugs in Japan that you could take for that, so music would [play that role].

  • Did you release anything then?
    No. But I did make music for ballet and things like that, dance companies. Of course, nobody really liked what I was doing. But I was able to get work, and people pay...a little bit, not much. I knew a musician who was making music for them, drums and things like that, but I thought doing this sort of [electronic] music would be more interesting.

  • When did you come to the U.S.?
    About 10 years ago. I lived in San Francisco for a time, six or seven years ago, on a houseboat [in the North Bay city of Sausalito]. That was really nice. A friend of mine, Peter Campbell, used to be in a famous sixties band -- South With Camel, I think it was called -- a famous sixties band. "Hello, Hello" was their hit. Anyway, he used to take care of the boat, and I rented a room for $150 -- very cheap. [Up to that point] I was playing guitar and singing in a Japanese bar, like karaoke style; that was in New York. I came to New York first, I kept an apartment and saved up enough money to move for a time to San Francisco. I was in a way bi-coastal. While I was out there I also recorded with Naut Humon.

  • Really? Was any of that ever released?
    No. He rarely puts anything out. He likes to take a lot of time working on things before putting them out. But I like his work on the _Throne Of Drones_ record. It's good. It's important work.

  • From there how did you get hooked up with Peter Namlook?
    Peter worked with Pod Communications in Germany, based in Frankfurt. And I was also working with Pod at the time with a project called Station Rose. When I visited Austria with Ingrid [his girlfriend, an Austrian, whom he met in New York] I got involved with a multimedia project -- Mind Machine -- dealing with light and sound. I was doing frequencies, and they would do visuals. We made a record called _Gunafra 2000_. So I was involved with that kind of thing. Anyway, they were in Frankfurt and through Pod I was introduced to Uwe [Schmidt, aka Atom Heart] and Peter. That was in 1989. The beginning of rave culture. Acid and techno.

  • Were you experimenting at all with those styles? Peter was very much involved with techno and trance.
    Peter and I made mostly ambient, but he never used any of it! He would cut it! [laughs] I was really surprised. We would do a one-hour session, and he would only use portions of what we did for the b-sides. He would put out 12-inches, so of course he had to put some beats on them, but I think at that time he wanted to do strictly ambient, but was concerned that there was no market for it. Ambient was not very popular at that time.

  • When did you guys decide to record together? Had you heard some of his music?
    He just came here and said, "Let's play!" [laughs] We didn't really plan anything in the beginning. That's how _2350 Broadway_ came about. We just pushed the record button on the DAT and started playing. No programming, no nothing. Just "ERRRRRRR," from beginning to end: the recording session became the running time of the CD. Very intense.

  • And the idea for that album, according to the liner notes, was "Music for a city that is unlivable." Yes. Peter doesn't like New York. At that point we were both so sick of New York, and it was so hot. And New York in the summer can be quite horrible. But the recording of that album was a very natural process. I would play some, and then Peter would play some. He brought the Synthi -- that's his favorite synthesizer -- and we both used that.

  • The next album you did together was _Shades Of Orion_, which of course begins with a very beat-oriented track. Yeah. I wanted to do more ambient stuff, but Peter said "No, let's do something different," so we did that. Half of that album is beats, and half ambient.

  • And your solo work has been for the most part strictly ambient, except for a couple of tracks here and there that incoporate very experimental beats. Right. Although some of my earlier stuff, like _Om_ and some stuff with Peter is more like hardcore, trance, that style.

  • So you enjoy experimenting occasiomally with more beat-oriented styles?
    I used to. I wouldn't mind doing it again. I like the stuff Rephlex is putting out, Aphex Twin's label. I like that style, really weird sound. Very interesting.

  • I think there's a similarity in the way that the both of you approach beats in your music, a novel approach that tries to do beats in a way that's musically very interesting, that's not just throwing a standard breakbeat in or a standard four-on-the-floor beat.
    Yeah. I try to avoid doing beats which are very obvious sounding. In fact, I strictly avoid 808 and 909 drum sounds altogether, because everybody is using them. I use synthesizers to generate drum noises and sample them. I find that more interesting. It's essentially the same thing, but more interesting.

  • Which do you like better, working solo or in collaboration?
    I like both. Collaborating is more like vibration and feedback and it's kind of interesting in that respect. I get bored sometimes just working by myself, because there's no feedback. It's very hard to get feedback with a machine, but with people it's very easy.

  • Do you find that different collaborators bring out different aspects of you music?
    Of course.

  • What does Peter bring out?
    Oh, that's very difficult. [pauses] Spirituality.

  • Uwe?
    Uwe brings out beats and texture.

  • Uh-huh. Although, I find you music to be very textural anyway. Yeah, that's true.

  • How about Bill Laswell. Bill... [laughs] Bill I think is one of the greatest producers of our time. He brings out in me, like, vibrations...[pauses] It's hard to explain...

  • What's it like working with him?
    I think Bill's ideas and my ideas are often very similar in the way that we choose sounds -- very similar. That scares me. In the last session we did [the day before the interview] I brought sounds, and the sounds Bill had were almost the same sounds. Very odd. We plan to work more. I'd like to do something like _Outer Dark_, very organic. A little bit dark. But very organic.

  • Is _Slow And Low_ a step toward that sort of a sound?
    No, I think _Slow And Low_ is totally different. I did it in part as a sort of sculpture -- no emotion. I just didn't want to put any emotion into it, and that's why I think a lot of people find it hard to get into. Also at that time I was so sick of regular ambient. You know, like chords and being very easy to listen to. So much of that stuff just sounds like New Age.

  • Well that's a good point. How do you think ambient is doing these days? Is it still vibrant, or has it reached a brick wall of sorts?
    Well, many people have stopped doing ambient, so I'm kind of happy. It started to become like trance, just an empty style. It was almost becoming like New Age again. In the beginning some New Age music was very interesting, but then big record companies began to market it and it became Easy Listening. And ambient was sort of moving in that direction. And I got really sick of it. Just like [monotone intonation] "Oooohhhh"-then a chord, some singing, then another chord. And it became like, how many of those records are you going to do? Why don't people do a different style?

  • And now a lot of people are making trip-hop, and a lot of people are making experimental techno, electro, and jungle. Do you think ambient will start getting back on track?
    Yeah, I think so. Also, I think, with something like jungle, I don't think people are going to be into it as much in a couple of years, whereas with ambient I think there will always be an audience. But I think jungle is very interesting -- music is music.

  • What about performing. Do you ever perform out?
    Yeah, sometimes. Mostly in New York, at clubs or festivals. But it's very tiring, transporting equipment around and things getting stolen or broken and things like that. I prefer the studio, it's much easier. Unless you have a roadie [laughs].

  • What are you listening to these days?
    Street sounds. The sounds of the city, texures and things like that. When I listen to music its mostly older stuff, from the sixties, not new stuff so much. Jazz -- Jimmy Smith, I listen to a little electronic music. I like Terre's new album very much [Terre Thaemlitz's "Soil," on Instinct]. Skylab is kind of interesting,, very similar idea to the _Masters Of Psychedelic Ambience_ CD, though more commercial. _Masters Of Psychedelic Ambience_ people didn't get. "How can you make such music? It doesn't go anywhere!"

  • Reviews of your stuff pop up from time to time, but I haven't really seen enough to get a sense of what people, say in the U.S., think of your music? Have you gotten a sense of that?
    Um, I don't really care about that, actually. I think I probably shouldn't care about that. I don't know, I don't have internet access, and I don't really read reviews or anything like that, so I can't really tell. Sometimes I'll ask you or I'll ask Will-E what's going on. I ask Terre. Sometimes I'll hear an album is reviewed or whatever. People seemed to like _Organic Cloud_.

  • Yeah. A lot of people liked that album a lot.
    I was surprised. It was done very quickly and it was old at the time of release. Peter kept it for almost one year before releasing it.

  • What do you consider to be your best work or the work you are most proud of? You mentioned _Masters Of Psychedelic Ambience_. What of the solo stuff?
    I think my new solo stuff is very similar to _Masters_, but with more changes. Some other new work I've given to Bill to use on a new Divination album [_Distill_, 1996, SubMeta].. Hosono is on it, Mick Harris, and Peter is on it, too.

  • A running criticism of Fax, which I tend to think is somewhat bogus, is that Fax utilizes limited releases to secure a collector's market for their releases and keep the price and demand high. The Fax line on that is that a release limit is what allows the label to continue operating at a sustainable level, providing an avenue for artists to make a living with their music. Whatever the case, do you feel constrained as an artist by an arbitrary limit like 1,000 copies being placed on any given release, regardless of the quaility or demand?
    Yeah, of course. Some records I think deserve to be released beyond 1,000 copies. If it's a good record and people want it and it sells out really quickly then it deserves to have more copies put out. But on the other hand, I understand where Peter is coming from because he's releasing so much stuff he can only really do one record pressing at a time, and then he has to move on.

  • What are some Fax releases that you think deserved a higher run?
    _Outland_, definitely. At least 4,000 copies. It's a good record. It's old school ambient, but hey have a feel to it. That sort of old school sound I thnk stays fresh for a long time. [Puts on DAT of noises used on Laswell/Hosono/Inoue project for Polygram Japan.]

  • Tell me about the project you're doing with Bill Laswell and Haruomi Hosono. Did you start with a concept or with sounds?
    I usually just start with sounds. To me a sound has to be really...[pauses]...sounds are very important. Right now I'm trying to get more to the organic side...it's hard to explain. It goes with something Bill told me: collecting information. [Piece begins to build.] This is just the basic song structure, then Bill will go back over it and add something and Hosono will add something.

  • Do you sort of hang out and listen to what their adding, or do you just drop the tape off and sort of let them do their thing.
    No, I just let him do it...Lately, Bill's been working with a lot of, not breakbeats, but like jungle influence that's really interesting, very treated. I think Bill is really good at it. He's constantly trying to do new things. He's got a lot of equipment, too, and he's been around a long, long time. Just incredible. [Sounds begin stuttering.] This is the subway. I recorded the subway and then fast-forwarded through the DAT so it's like "dut-dut-dut-dut."

  • Hosono is kind of a key figure in your own musical coming-of-age. How did you hook up with him?
    Bill gave me his number and I sent him some of my CDs -- _Masters Of Psychedelic Ambience_, _Datacide: Flowerhead_, and _Ambiant Otaku_, and _Organic Cloud_. He liked them, and he said, "Let's do it."

  • Speaking of Hosono, maybe we can talk about HAT a little bit. Collaboration has been a pretty big part of your output, working with Namlook, Atom Heart and others. And, for albums such as Masters of Psychadelic Ambience, and Flowerhead, the results have been pretty complex. How does that collaboration work? Do you do it through the mail, or are you in the studio together?

    With Masters of Psychadelic Ambience and Flowerhead, Uwe and I worked in different studios. We'd discuss a concept, and work on it independently. Then, we'd go into his studio with our material, and link them together.

  • Did it work that way with HAT as well?
    HAT was more of a live thing. Uwe and I flew to Japan to record with Hosono. We were jamming in the studio, and the material was edited later.

  • HAT is coming out on a separate label in Japan, possibly on vinyl?
    Yeah, Hosono is starting a new label, Dasiyworld, this coming November.

  • And then, of course, your most recent album World Reciever just came out. Why don't you tell us a little about how that came together. I know that you travelled around the world and were gathering up source recordings.
    I was more involved with environmental recordings, specifically digital. When I bought a DAT walkman, I started recording samples of the city. I played them back in my studio, and noticed very interesting textures. Lots of unexpected rythms and lots of different textures. I put them through a sampling machine and processed them. That was the idea of World Reciever.

  • Well, it's a pretty phenomenal work as a whole. It's very integrated and coherent.
    Yeah, it took a lot of time to finish.

  • How long did you spend on each piece?
    Each piece took three or four days, but collecting the sounds and programming each sound was quite difficult. I had to choose from lots of different sounds.

  • How much source material did you gather?
    Oh, over two hours of environmental recordings. I used lots of them, but it doesn't sound like a big environmental recording.

  • Yeah, there are some sounds which are so effects laden, for example, you walking on the beach, that you can barely tell what they are any more.
    That was the idea. Not just using regular environmental sounds.

  • Was this an idea that you've had for some time?
    Yes. I've had the idea since the late eighties, but I couldn't do it. I didn't have the right equipment -- a DAT walkman, a good sampler. In the past couple of years I've been travelling a lot. I have a landscape in my mind that I had to express. A lot of ambient music -- I don't want to use the term ambient music -- but that kind of music is so boring. I wanted to make something that would be more interesting.

  • You told me earlier of some projects you've got going with members of the New York experimental music scene, like Ikue Mori and Kato Hideki. What do you percieve as some of the commmon elements of your music and their music?
    I think they're quite similar, actually. Recently, I've been getting into more of a New York funky, underground, avant guarde sound. It's really exciting for me. I'm starting to incorporate more of a jazz and funk influence into my music. I liked their album, Death Ambient. The way their work is structured and the way it moves approaches what I'm trying to do.

  • Have you begun recording?
    We haven't really played yet, but we should begin recording this year.

  • Will you be integrating acoustic instruments along with electronics?
    Kato is probably going to play electric bass. Most likely, I will be playing electronic instruments. It will be harder to listen to than my earlier work.

  • I hear this is going to be released on John Zorn's label [Tzadik], will Zorn be involved with the recording?
    I have no idea. I spoke with him, and he's interested in releasing the project.

  • In the immediate future, what do you have coming out?
    There will be a new Datacide album in October. It will be an easy listening, lounge, environmental recording. And, I'm going to Germany next month to record with Peter.

  • Will the album which you're going to record be part of an existing series, or a new work?
    I have to talk with Peter, but I hope it will be a new work. I don't want to call it 'something two' or 'something three.' I'm getting sick of it.

  • And what about the piece you've recorded with Jonah Sharp for EMI in Europe?
    It's called Instant Replay. It's more of a funky ambient hip hop album.

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    Tetsu Inoue's most recent work, _World Receiver_, is available through Instinct Records. His most recent Fax work includes two collaborations with Pete Namlook --_2350 Broadway 3_ and _Shades Of Orion 3_ and the solo _Slow And Low_. Tetsu also collaborated with Atom Heart and Haruomi Hosono on the recent _Hat_ CD, available on Rather Interesting. The Datacide _Flowerhead_ album has been rereleased on Asphodel.