Michio Kurihara

This guy gets brought up on the regular in Boris/Ghost/Damon & Naomi threads but he deserves his own spot on ILM imo. So here it is! post in here whenever you want to rave about your favorite kurihara jamz. currently mine is superslow you ishihara epic "nightwalker"!
Oh and as promised, I've posted that Kurihara sampler over yonder http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/6150119365/kurihara-this-amazing-guitarist-is-mainly-known

Bless you, sir. Having caught him live several times now I consider myself very lucky.

Thanks so much for this! I'm going to be in definite need of some fresh (to these ears) Kurihara after this long week.

love Out...such a great album

o and here's the tracklisting
#1
Midsummer Stroll White Heaven
Shadow of the Sun White Heaven
Look of Love White Heaven
Crevice You Ishihara
Wednesday You Ishihara
Nightwalker You Ishihara
The Doors Ha-Za-Ma
Once Upon a Time 1, the beginning Ha-Za-Ma
Once Upon a Time 6, the answer Ha-Za-Ma
Today The Stars
Bavard The Stars
Wind in Three Quarter The Stars

#2

Immortal Nothing Blues You Ishihara
Blue link / Sky Was Falling Cosmic Invention
Callin' Me Home Cosmic Invention
Ancient Wind (live) Marble Sheep
Space - Earth Calling (live) Marble Sheep
Bloody Butterfly Onna
Tama Yura Ghost
Sun Is Tangging Ghost
Suspect Tells of Dog Under The Sun Ghost

ahhhhh! thanks!

MK just slept on my living room floor. he tidied up after himself v neatly.

i love his sunset notes lp; boat of courage is music that winds me up so tightly that i'd crash a car into a tree if i was driving while listening to it. other pleasing sparse, quieter, almost gabor szabo pieces on the same lp.

wow, thanks, tw! downloading the comps, plan to enjoy. i know kurihara primarily through his collaborations: ghost, boris and yura yura teikoku (where he's a "guest member"). have seen him with boris a couple times, smile and rainbow tours, but never in any other context. love his playing, but am largely familiar with his catalog and the larger scene he belongs to. need to dig deeper, i supppose...

wfmu's michio kurihara discography

^ useful!

um, by "familiar", i mean "unfamiliar." in case you were wondering

That's way cool; only thing I've heard is the first White Heaven album (which is great btw). Need to check more of this stuff out...

enjoy -- credit should go to the dude who sent this comp to me about five years ago. can't remember who he was! but it is a good listen - even w/o kurihara's involvement it's a cool walk through japanese psych in the 90s. he's really played with a lot of bands!

Thanks again for posting this comp tyler, sounded great on the train ride in this morning. Made my morning that much easier to cope with.

yeah, I'm listening right now and it is gorgeous. thanks!

Oh man, I needed this today. Thanks, Tyler. Thanks, ILM.

total lol @ the Look of Love cover so great

This is awesome. I love Marble Sheep and White Heaven and Sunset Notes blew my mind many times, but the rest of this is new to me (except Ghost - don't like Ghost - I'll probably delete their stuff before I put this on the iPod!)

Thanks Tyler!

Is The Stars the band with Cotton Casino?

(except Ghost - don't like Ghost - I'll probably delete their stuff before I put this on the iPod!)

Still trying to wrap my head around this.

Sorry. I liked them around the time of those initial Drag City reissues - Second Tim Around, Temple Stone, etc - but got over 'em pretty quick. Haven't really enjoyed anything I've heard since.

err, that's Second TimE Around, obvs

have you tried hypnotic underworld? that's the one that hit me in a major way.

Is The Stars the band with Cotton Casino?

I don't think she was in that band - think it was You and Ken Ishihara from White Heaven's new thing?

New like ten years ago, I guess. Man.

Alan, never heard that one. Will give it a try! Thanks.

Yeah, I was never very much into the early Ghost stuff, apart from a few things here and there, but I love both Hypnotic Underworld and In Stormy Nights so much.

yeah, hypnotic underworld is godhead stuff imo. still grappling with in stormy nights.

Underworld is definitely a better place to start and a more cohesive whole, but I think In Stormy Nights has a lot to offer as well.

yeah, now that I think about it... I don't think I've listened since around when in stormy nights first came out? so take what I say with a grain of salt but at the time I wasn't quite sure what to make of the 30min improv blowout and liked the cromagnon cover a lot.

i think that anyone who digs the stuff on this comp would also dig the michio-era ghost stuff (and yes, especially hypnotic underworld, which is probably one of the best albms of the 00s).

That U.S. Ghost tour from 2009 was pretty epic...Michio in the band and Helena Espvall (of Espers/Fursaxa). I think they played for almost two hours in New York.

especially hypnotic underworld, which is probably one of the best albms of the 00s

bears endless repeating

Sunset Notes is ruling my morning

still so pissed about the time i saw him touring for sunset notes and left the t-shirt i bought in a cab

tyler's mix ref'd upthread is classic

Marble Sheep Old From New Heads is one of my favorite albums ever, it's a live compilation originally recorded in 1988 and released in 94. Kurihara's searing fuzz guitar is what puts it over the top. The sound quality is rough and hazy, but I like that personally.

Not familiar with much else he's done and I don't like Ghost personally but he'll always be legendary to me for his work with Marble Sheep.

kurihara mix is still live if you haven't gotten it yet...

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9mpnyTVSX1qzy30io1_500.jpg

what on earth?

not sure if they're still available
http://www.giantrobot.com/martin/michio-kurihara-fundraiser-for-safe-energy-in-japan/

just saw this
Ensemble Pearl debut record Ensemble Pearl out March 19, 2013 on Drag City

Cosmic heavy amplified rock drops and ripples, auras radiate and expand into cloudforms, through which lightning bolts. Tides rise, the moons wax upon a place somewhere between Link Wray, Hex-era Earth and early Tangerine Dream. The echoes return, leaving a trail that blows and drifts, creating a separate piece. The metal of coils is the metal of the earth, the air... the meteoric and primal elements found in space. Ensemble Pearl reaches through the clouds and atmospheres and brings it all back down to the ground, to forge further creations for woman and man. This music production is inspired by rock from the classic era (50s through 70s) and acousmatic contemporary composition alike.
Ensemble Pearl are Atsuo, William Herzog, Michio Kurihara and Stephen O'Malley. Their debut album also features the elemental forces of Eyvind Kang and Timba Harris. These players have all moved air and earth in many other projects and can create monolith and river alike on their own - but for Ensemble Pearl they give and take, knowing and understanding each other's strengths and lack of weakness. Rather than blast sheets of air-filling sound, their contributions float the space with positive and negative dynamics. There are no borders being patrolled, allowing Ensemble Pearl to move from place to place unhindered. Over the course of six sides of music (and four sides of vinyl) they ride the jet stream as the world revolves slowly below, static almost, shimmering imperceptibly, mostly water. In and amongst the sprays of foam, there's a wash of twin-lead psych-proggery, a raft of tribal-beat sun worship, a passing rumble of neck-stretching, some delicate noise-blowing, a bit of float-and-drone and finally, a majestic drift into the deep waters of dub atmosphere.

Ensemble Pearl was recorded by Masato Suzuki, mixed by Randall Dunn and mastered by Bob Weston. The album features artwork from Simon Fowler and Michał Mozolewski that extends and enhances the music in integral fashion, helping to make Ensemble Pearl a complete experience for the aspirant listener, a full-spectrum sensory bath.

Oh shit, I'm in!

excited

i'm almost worried it sounds too good to be true.

Album of the Year, 2013.

Been a Michio fan for many years, mainly cos of his Ghost stuff, and had never seen him play live before, but I went to see Boris a couple of weeks back. Went and stood at the front but right over on the right hand side and you could have knocked me over with a feather when Michio walked on and plugged in about two feet away from me. I was thinking, hmmm, this guy with the SG looks familiar... HOLY SHIT IT'S KURIHARA! Obviously he's played with Boris many times, so I was kind of a dope for not expecting to see him there. Anyhow, I hope he didn't mind me blissfully gurning at him all night. Wish i'd have got a photo of his pedals, think I counted 18 of them...

anyone have any of the ha-za-ma albums? i can't seem to track them down. i've got a live show, but that's it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxHfj1zuWLE

Really like that. Don't own any ha-za-ma, and need to dig into Kurihara generally. Always like his playing, but just don't own anything.

found a copy of their once upon a time CD on discogs! yay for me! kurihara has some deeply david gilmour things happening here.

oooh, that sounds good. any chance you could u/l a flac rip?

Sunset Notes just got rereleased

https://pedalrecords.bandcamp.com/album/sunset-notes

good record!

Another rerelease on Pedal -- the Ai Aso album he played on from 2007, Chamomile Pool:

https://pedalrecords.bandcamp.com/album/chamomile-pool

nice, i don't think I've heard this one!

I don't quite know what Pedal's deal is but I'm intrigued with where they're going so far -- they also have another old Ai Aso album out plus a new release from September from an act called pagtas featuring scene vets like Tabata Mitsuru and Tatsuhisa Yamamoto.

Another Kurihara goodness on Pedal -- White Heaven's Levitation from way back when:

https://pedalrecords.bandcamp.com/album/levitation-remastered-edition-2021

<3 michio, veritable guitar god

And another one! Live recording of the Stars from 2006

https://pedalrecords.bandcamp.com/album/live-in-kyoto-2006

Picked up a CD copy of Out (White Heaven) over the weekend, really enjoying this!

Fantastic album! Quicksilver Messenger Service if they'd been brought up on Sonny Sharrock, maybe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMfsWTvRw7M

so cool!