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Absent Friend

  Tobias

One of Japan's greatest Noise artists has died. Koji Tano was diagnosed with stomach cancer in May of this year and passed away a mere two months later. One of the early proponents of the Extreme music scene, called by some Japanoise, Tano gained the attention of a worldwide minority of faithful disciples when Industrial sounds from Asia experienced a small-scale boom from 1992-1996.

His compositions were less drastic than those by the scene's figurehead Merzbow (who dabbled with porn and sexual provocation) and not quite as obviously striking as those by Aube (who liked to concentrate on one single sound source per release), but had some remarkable qualitities that will make his work interesting for future generations: Diversity, structure and a brutal finesse that distinguished him from most other acts. Even though you should not expect music to go to sleep by, tracks released under his MSBR pseudonym were always open to newcomers and presented a welcome way to enter an entirely new world devoid of about everything mainstream culture was about.

Tano was the first to realise this and and subsequently felt he had a mission to fulfill. By constantly touring the world and by presenting young artists in the process, by running a small but well-equipped record store and a mail order and by publishing the Denzatsu magazine, he made the scene more colourful and lively.

As a final tribute, Steinklang, one of Austria's primary outfits for Industrial music, will make a free Download-sampler with music by friendly artists available on its page. Some big names have already agreed to provide music for the album, but Steinklang are still open to submissions. Find out more about the project, which has a deadline of August 29th, on their site.

Homepage: Koji Tano / MSBR
Homepage: Steinklang Industries
Source: Release Magazine
Source: Deatwatch