Experimental / Free Improvisation / Percussion 2026
Erosão Percussion Trio
Erosão Percussion Trio
via Tokyo Buy Buy Diary
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Saturday, September 5, 2026 • Vinyl Finds from Around the World
rendez-vous
An early album by pianist Satsuki Shibano, originally on Japan's Newsic label and now pressed to vinyl for the first time. Known in the '80s for her Erik Satie interpretations, here she reworks Pascal Comelade and Satie, folding drum machines, synths and domestic-sound experiments into her neo-classical piano — one of the most beloved records on the ambient-defining label. Reissued by Switzerland's WRWTFWW.
Live on Fire
Triple Fire's first live album, expanding the core quartet to a near-"complete" seven-piece with Wakana Ikeda (flute), Shigeki Numazawa (keys) and Shimada Boy (percussion). Drawn from a February 2026 project where the band played the same setlist three times in one day and picked the best takes, it layers Afrobeat, post-punk and funk under Yasunao Yoshida's unmistakable slack-yet-fevered vocals.
弓神楽 [10th Anniversary Repress]
Not Ethiopian music, nor spiritual jazz, but "yumi kagura" — bow-shrine ritual music from Ihinaga Hachiman Shrine in Hiroshima, designated an intangible folk cultural property. A real bow is struck with thin bamboo to produce uncanny timbres and rhythms, layered with small metal percussion, floating flute and startlingly magnetic voices. Drawn from a 1991 recording preserved by the late gūji Shigeo Tanaka; this 10th-anniversary CD adds a chant by Ritsuko Tanaka.
Three Movements from "Some Kind of Seasoning"
Experimental composer Warren Burt's early-1990s "A Certain Spice" is a nearly six-hour oddity written for interactive computer-controlled synthesizer. Ranging from Sun Ra, Elliott Carter and Charles Ives to ancient Greek modes, Burt deliberately renders it in cheap, gaudy synth tones and embraces the machine's "errors," letting orthodox structures drift into fascinating chaos. This EM Records edition excerpts the final three movements — an edit on LP, the full version plus Burt's own liner notes on CD.
Black Bastards
The pivotal record made just before the birth of masked hip-hop legend MF DOOM — KMD's hard-won classic "Black Bastards." Built by brothers Subroc and Zev Love X (the future MF DOOM), it was frozen for years after Subroc's sudden death and label disputes over its controversial cover, only surfacing later to become the origin point of DOOM's masked rebirth. Restocked as a 2LP.
Live at Third Man Records
New York post-punk mainstays Interpol land on Jack White's Third Man Records with a live recording cut straight to acetate. Captured in the Blue Room using the nearly lost late-'50s "direct-to-acetate" technique — no overdubs, no retakes, sound etched into the master by a 1955 Scully lathe — it captures Interpol's cold, taut, high-tension post-punk in pure analog.
Umbrella
The debut album from NYC upstarts Starcleaner Reunion. Steeped in '90s spirit — Jo Roman's cool, ethereal, faintly mechanical Continental vocals recall Stereolab's Lætitia Sadier — it weaves retro-futurist '60s/'70s synths over Neu!-style krautrock/motorik pulses, threading indie rock, shoegaze and space pop together.
森は生きている
Standing alongside cero and mitsume in 2010s Tokyo indie, Mori wa Ikiteiru left only two records, both now reissued. Formed in 2012 around Takuro Okada, the band absorbed country, soft rock, ambient, jazz and blues in just three years. This self-titled debut is the pick — the gentle opener "Hirusagari no Yume" and the nine-minute "Rondo" drift like an endless dream. Remixed by the members themselves for P-Vine, with obi.
グッド・ナイト
"Good Night" (2014), the second and final album from Mori wa Ikiteiru before their 2015 split. With fine playing and quietly literary lyrics, they forged a world blending country, soft rock, tropical and jazz. The band's name comes from the ending of a Doraemon story — "let's just say it was a dream." Reissued by P-Vine after more than a decade, remixed by the members.
DANCE TO YOU
A reissue of Sunny Day Service's acclaimed "Dance to You," its cover illustrated by Hiroshi Nagai, pressed to vinyl for the eighth time to mark its 10th anniversary. Remixed and recut from the original 6mm master tapes for sharper sound, it gathers favorites like "Sakura Super Love" alongside the beloved "Setsuna," a searing live staple. 2026 also marks 30 years since their landmark "Tokyo."
上機嫌
Marking her 40th anniversary, Mariko Nagai's 1987 debut album "Jokigen" gets its first proper vinyl reissue. Featuring all ten tracks including her signature debut single "Oh, Moonlight," fully remastered and recut to 2026 specs, it brims with the crisp late-'80s energy and city-pop/J-pop bounce of her youth.
Nearly
Bullion — the producer behind beguiling records for The xx's Oliver Sim, Avalon Emerson, Carly Rae Jepsen, Westerman and Ben Howard — steps out under his own name for "Nearly" on the esteemed Ghostly label. A gem of electronic pop that embraces imperfect beauty with romantic shimmer and lasting craft, it shows his writing and arranging at full stretch, finding fine-grained nuance in restraint while exploring change, desire and unstoppable creativity.
Quiet Storm
Manchester/Berlin duo Space Afrika return with the ambitious "Quiet Storm," fusing ambient, trip-hop, techno and modern classical into rugged yet delicate urban dub soundscapes. Grander in scope, it turns personal history into a deep, cathartic abstract journey. Contemporary artist Glenn Ligon named the album and painted its cover, while opener "Vanity" features Grammy winner Axelle Fanyo.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
The soundtrack to "28 Years Later: The Bone Temple," scored by Hildur Guðnadóttir. Using bone instruments, a giant mammoth horn, string quartet and flutes made of bone, she crafts an extraordinarily dark, experimental score — suffocating, haunting, and heavier than almost any metal record in recent memory. Pressed on orange vinyl.
Sunday At The Village Vanguard
The Bill Evans Trio classic "Sunday at the Village Vanguard," reissued by Craft on clear orange vinyl. This legendary June 1961 date at New York's Village Vanguard captures the telepathic interplay of Evans, Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian — a precious document made just days before LaFaro's death in a car crash.
A strange, avant-garde work from the EROSÃO Percussion Trio — Brazilian drummer/singer/producer Mariá Portugal with Berlin-based percussionists Burkhard Beins (Germany) and Emilio Gordoa (Mexico). They interlace pre-written structures with free improvisation on unpitched percussion — drums, bowed cymbals, metal, wood, straws, even chains — threaded with field recordings and electronics. Out on Berlin's Fun in the Church, it also reimagines Caetano Veloso's "Pulsar," Portugal's voice drifting ghostlike through the din.