Abstract:
The article discusses the history of Japanese experimental music as a confrontation between the traditional – even conservative – Japanese cultural values and the modern, or postmodern, artistic and social values of the experimental music influenced by jazz, rock and roll and American popular music. The early electronic works, post-jazz improvised music, free-form composition, avant-garde rock music, and electronic and electro-acoustic noise are music genres to which the rise of the Japanese counter-culture in the late 1960s and early 1970 can be attributed. The article presents the works of such artists as Taj Mahal Travellers and Kosugi Takehisa, Takayanagi Masayuki, Otomo Yoshihide, Merzbow, Nakamura Toshimaru, Maru Sankaku Shikaku, Les Rallizes Dénudés, Haino Keiji and Fushitsusha.