Shigehiro Tsubota

Shigehiro Tsubota

Shigehiro Tsubota studied contemporary music at Berklee College in Boston, USA, and subsequently lived in New York to meet many of the vanguard musicians of the late 1980s and early '90s. One day, while practising in his Brooklyn apartment, his neighbours called the police to report a possible murder in progress, so alarmed were they by the incredible noise and wild screaming in the adjacent apartment.

Indeed, Shigehiro's music is deeply existential, pushing the aesthetic limits of the traditionally beautiful. Yet, far beyond conventional noise, it sparks an extreme, energy-ridden and bizarre beauty. Definitely left-field underground and not for everybody, his free improvisations on guitars and effects board, occasionally accompanied by his voice, are influenced by live electronics and the profound knowledge of the musics by luminaries such as Miles Davis, Stravinsky, Stockhausen, Can, David Tudor, Lee Perry, and Brian Eno, to name just a few.

Shigehiro Tsubota also has participated in Philippe Chatelain's Tokyo-based "laptop orchestra", is a very honest and humble person after all, and probably owns the fastest changing record collection on earth.

 Contact Shigehiro Tsubota

 Download free MP3 || Tune table (full mp3 track, 10"29' with 14.3 MB)

This track uses only record crackle, sent through an effects board.
(Though slightly mastered, watch out for sudden peaks in volume!)



Watch video of Shigehiro Tsubota

Event: Live @ Loop-Line in Sendagaya, Tokyo, 10 May 2007
"Intervall-audio || four solo performances in electronic music"

"Plastic bags, a beer can, a kitchen knife, a wine bottle, a potato chip bag, and a pocket radio. These are the instruments that Shigehiro Tsubota used to create music at Loop-Line on May 10th. Performance art. Sound artist. An interesting outlook and approach to making noise. Rather than diving into the world of computer software and sound wave manipulation, Tsubota uses everyday items to create sound art. Music? Art? Decide for yourself."

– Text by Lewis Rapkin from LiveFromTokyo



Listen to other music by Shigehiro Tsubota

(Album) Volvo – volvo live    
[CD-R: Self-released, 2004]

|01| Unborn |02| Moving on
|03| Weeping pillow |04| Bossa velha
|05| Mirror man |06| And you said |07| Volvo
Recorded live at EF Gallery, Tokyo, 18 March 2004. Musicians: Nobara Hayakawa (voice), Shigehiro Tsubota (guitar, noises and voices), Philippe Chatelain (textures, beats), Kumiko Okamura (atmosphere, beats).


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