1.30.2009

Edition NIkO is now open.

NIkO Label is now re-opened with their new direction and new theme, Surrealistic Minimalism. And we changed our name into Edition NIkO. Hope u enjoy our new style.
Edition NIkO new official website
Edition NIkO new official myspace
Edition NIkO new official imeem

Edition NIkO was founded by Japanese-American sound artist shotahirama in 2007. And it is a label cooperation for electronic music based in Tokyo. The main interest was to give uniting sound and art design with strong attention to scientific sequences, Dada, Bauhaus, and drone ambient sound scapes. So, priority is to publish series with focus on a specific philosophy of music/ sound/ art composing. Also it is a platform for conceptional and experimental related projects in music, art and sciencemusic both by myself (shotahirama) and by other artists and musicians. All NIkO releases have been on either CD or CDr or MP3 as I feel that these formats currently offer the most appropriate form of reproduction. But its basically, a non-profit label..... NIkO Label was closed down at the end of 2008 and reopened in January 2009 as Edition NIkO.

Over the years, Edition NIkO has expanded its cultural network through various initiative internationally, like Berlin, Paris, Hong kong, London, New york, Madeira, Canberra, Poland, and of course Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Fukuoka, Nagano... And NIkO brings together the artists that are breaking ground and shaping new standards in media and design, becoming the essential meeting point for the international scene of digital creation. And people with whom NIkO work/release music those days are.... ENG a radical free/spontaneous music/art ensemble from Tokyo founded by Edition NIkO founder shotahirama also known as JANDEATH, Jerome Faria, a media artist based in Madeira, Portugal, he has been published under a variety of formats including book, CD, DVD, live performance and installation across Europe, Asia and the United States. He has performed and collaborated with numerous artists, including @c, Frank Bretschneider, Christian Fennesz, among others. Shoeb Ahmad is a minimalistic musician/sound artist based in Canberra, Australia, Kasper T Toeplitz is a composer, electric bass player and musician who has developed his work in the no man's land between "academic" composition (orchestra, ensembles, opera) and electronic "new music" or "noise music". Nicolas Wiese, most people known him as under the name -hyph- and he's doing video art, sound art, contemporary chamber music, photo manipulation, experimental design/typography, electroacoustic and audiovisual performance. Darren McClure, From N. Ireland and currently live in Matsumoto, Japan. The music he make results from a combination of digital sounds generated from software and field recordings are beautiful. MICLO DIET, is one of most influencial electronic music act in Tokyo. And laptop new age from Kansai-region in Japna, like yuji kondo, PROVOKE, enormous O'clock.... Over 20 other laptop artists we’ve endeavored to represent every corner of the electronic arts in motion today.


1.27.2009

New Track, New Video, New Direction on ENG myspace!

New track and new video from ENG (electronoise group).
Come and check their new direction:)

AIRWAY by JANDEATH as ENG (electronoise group) from JANDEATH (shotahirama) on Vimeo.
thanks: shotahirama (JANDEATH), founder of ENG/electronoise group

ENG (electronoise group) official website

shotahirama is a Japanese-American concrete sound artist and also known as a photomontage artist, inspired by Dada and Bauhaus. Most people also know him under the name ENG (electronoise group), or Jandeath. He uses laptop and sinewave generator, some tape-operation and tape-loops, making concrete-noise-drone.

He has been documented on a number of projects, each revealing new facets of his wide-ranging and unique talents on both laptop and tape-operation. He has recorded and performed with Zbigniew Karkowski (mego/subrosa), Kelly Churko (Canada), Incapacitants (ex-hijokaidan), and Justice Yeldham (Australia), Darren McClure (the land of), MicloDiet (SOUP), Monooka (Roumania), ASTRO, PainJerk, yuji kondo, enormous O'clock...etc.

And in early 2006 he founded his main project, radical free/spontaneous music/art ensemble, The Electronoise Group (ENG). And he also founded the NIkO Label, a non-profit label for free copyright and free expression by laptop expressionism artists.

1.19.2009

shotahirama dot com

New shotahirama's official website is now open!
come and check whats new:) and his new direction....
shotahirama dot com
All artwork by shotahirama.
"Multicolor" (09)




1.17.2009

Record Collectors #1

Record Collectors #1
1. Ready for the House by The Units (1978)


Jandek is the musical project of an outsider musician who operates out of Houston, Texas. Since 1978, Jandek has self-released 55 albums of unusual, often emotionally dissolute folk and blues songs without ever granting more than the occasional interview or providing any biographical information. Jandek often plays a highly idiosyncratic and frequently atonal form of folk and blues music, often using an open and unconventional chord structure. Jandek's music is unique, but the lyrics closely mirror the country blues and folk traditions of East Texas. The name "Jandek" is most commonly used to refer specifically to the main—often sole—performer, rather than to the project.-wiki
アウトサイダーSSWことテキサスの伝説、Jandekのファースト、しかも1978年オリジナルです。最近Corwoodから再発が出たとか出ないとかなんだけど、これは正真正銘オリジナル。名義もJandekではなくてunitsになってます。再発はJandek表記の表JKTの黒枠がなくなってるみたい。個人的な予想だといらないコーティングもされてるのでは。。。2万近くしたけどJandekコレクターにしては安すぎる、、と言いたい所ですが、そんなのどうでもいい。実際これぐらいじゃないと買えない。。感謝してます。友人のレコ屋にて。ここ数年で一番嬉しいオリジナルでした。

2. Lost Cause by JANDEK (1992)


続いてもJandekです。というのも彼の作品でLPものは10枚だか11枚しか出てなくてただ今必死でコレクト中。な訳で、Jandekブームが今自分に再来してる訳です。DiscogsにはStrange, reclusive, yet prolific artist. Little is known about him. Music ranges from folk to electric to acapella、なんて書かれてる彼。素敵。

3. Arctic Rangers by PAN SONIC (1998)


Pan Sonic (they were called Panasonic before but had to change their name in 1997 due to legal issues with the Japanese electronics company) are two guys from Finland. Mika Vainio and Ilpo Vaisanen, who started out with long-term, low-frequency, high-decibel experiments and organizing rave partys where "hardly anything happens ever" (a.k.a. Finland). The minimalistic music of Pan Sonic is composed "from a forbidding array of pure tones, sinewaves, pulses, electronic squelches and ultrasonic waveforms," and a humorous attitude, "skilfully arranged into an accessible rhythmic package" mainly taken from the bowels of custom-built sinewave generators. Given songs titled "Kurnutus" or "Rutina" (that is "Croaking" and "Crackle"), the environmental buzz, crackles and hums emanating from the speakers are harldy a surprise. Despite suggesting a harmless set of natural (sounding) frequencies, Pan Sonic have built up a reputation for fearsome live volume levels and atonal indulgence. Sami Salo (Hertsi), the former third member of Panasonic, left the band in 1996.
はい、PAN SONICの限定500の7インチキット。500って正直多い。だけど持ってなくてずっと欲しかった。最近やっとやっと手に入って嬉しかった。98年の作品です。

1.07.2009

ENG "SUN" from Alg-a Label, released out again from NTNS Records!

ENG (electronoise group), track "SUN" from their 2nd album "Kollaps" was released on NTNS Records!
Well well well, happy new year my friends. Im fine and i am moving to new:) anyway, I got some new for my ENG project, i mean i just got some email from Mark, who organized this NTNS Records/Radio, and he said that they just released out their label's compilation album, and our song "SUN" was included to it.
about NTNS Records/Radio, broadcasted live every saturday from a Dutch studio, hosted by mark (aka mystahr). And radio station that is focussing on independant global electronic (and accoustic now and then) experimentalism, NTNS radio showcases artists and netlabels into a weekly 3 hour mixture. Every fridaynight - saturdaymorning.
2 AM New York time CST
9 AM Amsterdam time CET
5 PM Tokyo time CCT

Anyway release date was 3rd Jan 2009, "SUN" from our album "Kollaps" /Alg-a Label (Spain), was taken for their labels compilation. NTNS05"SUN" and its 1st track will be ours. Please give us your beautiful deep listening. U can check this release at

NTNS Radio official website
NTNS Radio release page


ENG (electronoise group) mp3 Album "Kollaps" release on
Alg-a Label (Spain). is now available!