LP ltd to 400, black vinyl, 2 color silkscreened jacket with obi (grey with particles, textured tan, black and red), inserts and a postcard
No digital / DL version
Will add the last copies in April
An’archives are pleased to announce the release of a self-titled album by Tori Kudo & 3C123. A reissue of a cassette that was originally released on Uramado in 2020, this is the first time this live session has appeared on vinyl. The performance, featuring Kudo on piano and 3C123 on clarinet, was recorded on October 18, 2009, at the Uramado venue in Shinjuku. A beautiful and quixotic forty-minute set, it reconnects both Kudo and 3C123 with various musical histories, including those of classical composition and free improvisation.
The performance documented on Tori Kudo & 3C123 is a curious one. While they both appear to slip into improvised ruminations at times, for the most part, Kudo performs pieces by Erik Satie on the piano, over which 3C123 teases an excoriating stream of improvisation from the clarinet. His playing here is wild in its poetry: sometimes lushly nestling alongside Satie’s melodies, elsewhere loosing Ayler-esque squalls from the instrument, it’s a bravura performance that is matched, in an indirect manner, by the poise and pacing of Kudo’s generous, fluent recital.
When asked about the thinking behind the performance documented here, Kudo explains by describing the historical juxtaposition of Satie with Takehisa Kosugi’s improvised violin as “an essence of the Japanese art of collective improvisation.” The playing here, as within Japanese collective improvisation, is about sitting ‘alongside’ each other, not necessarily in direct (or even indirect) reference, but rather sharing the space; “just being there together,” Kudo says, and letting go of the need for performers to engage in interplay.
Tori Kudo & 3C123 is certainly part of that tradition, and this is where its curious poetry resides; in that ‘third space’ that sits in between, but not directly connecting, the two performers. Kudo makes an analogy with Fluxus, which is appropriate. But you can also hear their shared history here, somehow, as Kudo and 3C123 have known each other since the eighties, when they shared a house in Kunitachi City, Tokyo. Their musical paths have been multiple – Kudo, of course, best known perhaps for his Maher Shalal Hash Baz ensemble; 3C123 as a member of Vedda Music Workshop, and with other Japanese musicians like Koichiro Watanabe.
It’s a lovely album that’s as mystifying as it is direct and beautiful.
水鏡 Suikyō –
Limited edition of 315, 12" vinyl
Takashi Masubuchi – Ayami Suzuki - TOMO
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血と雫 je prie pour que la goutte ne tombe pas –
Ltd edition of 400
Chi To Shizuku
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Renoir of the Toys –
Limited Edition 12"LP
Youri Kun
€25 EUR
昼花火（Sun and Fireworks） –
Limited edition
Los Doroncos
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Outside of the world –
Limited edition 12" black vinyl
Usurabi
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Kusōzu : Nine Death Stages –
12″LP black vinyl, ltd to 350
Archeus
€24 EUR
Tsilla –
Limited edition of 300, compact disc
Jean Noël Rebilly & Andrew Chalk
€15 EUR
You don' t need magic –
12"LP, Limited edition of 285
HUH
€24 EUR
妄想の楽園 | Paradise of Delusion –
Limited Edition Compac Disc
Shizuka
Sold Out
狂気の真珠 [Lunatic Pearl] –
10" vinyl, exclusive to the label
Shizuka
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狂気の真珠 [Lunatic Pearl] –
10" LP Limited edition of 550
Shizuka
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Ricshari –
12" LP, edition of 285
Mai Mao
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Gu-N –
Limited Edition 12" Vinyl
Gu-N
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Tearful Face Of My Cute Love (Is Begging To Me) –
12 " black vinyl, Ltd edition of 285
Ki
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2008-2021 –
Limited Edition 12" Vinyl
Mura
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The Night –
Limited Edition 12" Vinyl.
LSD March
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Live –
Ltd album - 285 copies
Akiko Hotaka - Takuya Nishimura - Ikuro Takahashi
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Self Portrait –
Limited Edition 12 " Vinyl
Kawaguchi Masami
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Sweet Inspirations at Muon –
12 ' vinyl with CDEP ltd to 385 copies
Sweet Inspirations
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Eihwaz –
Ltd 12" Vinyl
Albedo Gravitas
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秘密の回顧録 –
Limited Edition 12" Vinyl
Shūko No Omit
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Enka Mood Collection –
Enka Mood Collection
Mineko Itakura – Shin’ichi Isohata – Michel Henritzi | RQRQ
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灯の名残り Remains Of The Light –
Limited Edition 12 " Vinyl
Usurabi
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Painted Screens –
Limited Edition 10'' LP
Andrew Chalk
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UH (Takayuki Hashimoto - Shizuo Uchida) – UH
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Shiroi Kao –
CD ltd to 250
Fuji Yuki | Michel Henritzi | Harutaka Mochizuki
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Free Wind Mood –
12" LP limited to 275
Harutaka Mochizuki | Makoto Kawashima
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Culvert and Starry Night –
CD ltd to 250 - Free Wind Mood series
Albedo Fantastica
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Enka Mood Collection –
Kawaguchi Masami | Toshimitsu Akiko 情趣演歌 [Enka Mood Collection ]
Kawaguchi Masami | Toshimitsu Akiko
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Now –
Limited edition of 275, in a heavy silkscreened jacket with obi (dark blue or brick red), postcard & inserts.
Kawaguchi Masami's New Rock Syndicate
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しりえないものとずっと –
しりえないものとずっと
Ikuro Takahashi
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The Last Song Of My life –
Edition of 275, housed in a heavy “old style” silk-screened jacket with obi strip (light blue, light green, natural white), postcard and inserts
Tori Kudo
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