An archival interview with Yen Records’ engineer Yasuhiko Terada along with some words from Hosono himself on SFX. The following interviews were originally featured in the book Haruomi […]
Chee Shimizu on Sound Collage, Improvisation, and Listening Music

Join us February 1st for a rare stateside performance from Chee Shimizu in collaboration with guitarist miku-mari.
Chee Shimizu needs little introduction here. His work as a musical guide (DJ, selector, compiler, writer, producer, record shop and label owner) has been a deep inspiration for In Sheep’s Clothing from the very beginnings of the listening bar into our current iteration as a music publication and record shop. In particular, Chee’s Obscure Sound disc guide has opened up pathways to worlds of meditative, organic, and psychedelic sounds, and, in many ways, has profoundly shaped the way we listen to music. We met up with Chee in Tokyo last May and he invited us to experience another side of his musical practice: improvisation and sound collage.
The performance was presented by ideala, a “deep listening lab” occurring weekly at Forestlimit in Hatagaya. The basement-level DIY music venue featured a number of interchangeable speaker systems and has become a home base of sorts for Chee and other experimental DJ’s, musicians, and visual artists. For this performance, the space was set up with a four-point sound system, the performers in the center of the room, and attendees surrounding them. Chee Shimizu’s “instruments” included turntables, CDJ’s, laptop, and mixing board while his collaborator, experimental guitarist miku-mari, played through a guitar-controlled synthesizer called the ‘Sound Tube,’ which is a software device developed by legendary Japanese ambient composer Hiroshi Yoshimura.
The entire room was silent as Chee and miku-mari began their set. Gradually, field recordings and synthesized sounds began to fill the room with a calming ambience while bell tones, light percussion, and organic materials quietly emerged and lingered, almost floating in the space, for extended periods of time. Chee and miku-mari seemed to intuitively react to one another throughout the set, each one building upon the delicate sonic landscape with subtle textural shifts and movement. The performance reminded me somehow of jazz musicians, so deeply connected that they become one voice speaking in a unified, perhaps universal, language. It was quite unlike any other live ambient performance that I’d heard before.

Cut to 2025… We’ve invited Chee Shimizu and miku-mari to perform a similar improvisational sound collage piece in Los Angeles. Presented in collaboration with E.S.P. Institute, who released the duo’s debut EP Reconstructions in 2021, the event will occur on Saturday, February 1st in the main theater at 2220 Arts + Archives in Historic Filipinotown, and also feature a pedal steel performance by Raymond Richards (previously of Slowdive side project Mojave 3), and a DJ set by Lovefingers. This will be a rare stateside appearance for Chee, who was last in Los Angeles in 2018. Don’t miss it…
Tickets are available now via dice: https://link.dice.fm/yc72aa418560

In anticipation of the performance, we asked Chee a few questions over email to learn more about his musical practice and also share a few selections from his record shop.
You and guitarist miku-mari are longtime friends. How did this collaboration begin?
I started a party called “sacrifice” with graphic artist and DJ Ginji Kimura over 10 years ago. The name of the party implies that the performers will be sacrificed for the images. In the beginning, the party was simply a DJing based on the inspiration from the films and motion graphics, but later musicians joined in and the party took on a more flexible and improvisational flavor. Participating there was miku-mari, an improvised guitarist. We had many sessions there. We had the opportunity to perform live at several other events, so we started working as a unit.
How did you first get into sound collage composition / improvisation and can you talk about your approach?
I’m basically a DJ, and miku-mari doesn’t compose music. He is an improviser. We never intended to perform our own compositions. Also, we had no intention of creating our own music, but we came up with the idea of recording our improvisations in multi-channel format as a way of preserving our work. It’s my role to turn the recorded material into completed tracks, and my experience and techniques as a DJ have been incredibly helpful in this process.
I usually use a mixing console and effector to dub-mix the sounds of miku-mari, and turntables and CDJs to collage various sounds. Sometimes I use ready-made music, and sometimes I use my own recordings. I also use small percussion instruments as a source of collage. Recently, I have been updating my setup to be more flexible as I have more opportunities to do improvised gigs with musicians in addition to my unit with miku-mari.
You’ve mentioned that you don’t rehearse in a traditional sense. How do you communicate ideas before a set?
Most of the time, we set up some appropriate theme and approach the performance differently each time. In many cases, miku-mari is the one who comes up with the ideas. I add a new suggestion based on his idea. Normally, we rarely have so-called traditional rehearsals, but this time in LA, we intend to perform after careful planning. Because, there are limits to the equipment we can bring with us. This time, as in the previous show at Forestlimit, the theme will be a collection of poems by an American poet named Cid Corman who lived in Kyoto in the 70s. Improvisation will be based on a basic track generated by an application called Text to Music, which miku-mari has recently become addicted to.
What are some of the locations or sounds that you’ve collected field recordings from?
When I go to an outdoor party, I sometimes take time out to record environmental sounds in the mountains or at a river, but I rarely go anywhere just for field recording. For the most part, it is coincidental. No special equipment I used. The sound of waves that I often use was recorded on an empty beach when I went to an island in Okinawa a long time ago. I didn’t bring my recorder with me at the time, so I recorded it with my iPhone. The other one, there was a torrential downpour in Tokyo, and I went out onto my balcony and recorded the sound of strong rain and thunderstorms for over an hour. Of course, I was soaked all over but this is a very good sounding recording and I use it often. Also, while visiting a shrine in my wife’s hometown, I found a very beautiful clear stream and recorded the flow of the river. This is also often used. Other than that, it’s the sound of insects recorded in the fall.
You recently selected music at a special listening session in the famous Haruchika Noguchi Memorial Music Room. As a DJ, how do you approach a “listening” set versus other styles?
Whether I’m DJing in a club or playing vinyl in a listening set, there isn’t a significant difference in my mindset. If I had to point out a distinction, the main purpose of the “listening set” is to enjoy good music with good sound quality in a good situation and good atmosphere. To that end, I do my best to ensure that those conditions are met as much as possible. At the recent Listening Practice event held in the Haruchika Noguchi Memorial Music Room, my friend and I handled everything from selecting the audio equipment to cleaning the connectors, wiring, and setting up the system. We spare no effort to ensure that people can enjoy music with the best possible sound quality. The listening style could be described as a form of comprehensive playback art. Many DJ bars in Japan adopt this approach, so the same can be said even when DJing in the dance music style at there.
We are of course big fans of your shop, and are always inspired by your selections and offerings. Can you share a few favorite selections (5 or so) that are currently available for sale?
My store’s inventory is constantly changing, but I’d like to share some recommended items that are currently in stock. These may not be very familiar to many of you, but in recent years, I have been introducing contemporary Japanese music and music incorporating traditional Japanese instruments to my customers. Jazz is always well-stocked in my shop as well.

TOKK-Ensemble Tokyo – S.T. (1976)
A masterpiece album released in 1976 by the TOKK Ensemble, the performing group of the Tokyo Music Planning Institute, established by Japanese composers Maki Ishii and Yoshiaki Irino. In addition to works by the two founders, the album includes chamber music compositions by Toru Takemitsu and Toshi Ichiyanagi.
https://organicmusic.jp/en/collections/new-arrivals-music/products/tokk-ensemble-tokyo-s-t

Hozan Yamamoto – Vivarta (1974)
The late Hozan Yamamoto, a shakuhachi player of the Tozan school, who was awarded the title of Living National Treasure in 2002 for his continuous efforts in challenging not only classical music but also jazz, contemporary music, and avant-garde music, performed the works of composer Ryohei Hirose on this masterpiece album released in 1974.
https://organicmusic.jp/en/collections/new-arrivals-music/products/hozan-yamamoto-vivarta-2

Keiko Nosaka and Pro Musica Nipponia – Concerto Requiem (1982)
This is a masterpiece album released in 1982 by Keiko Nosaka, a koto player who invented the 20-stringed koto by herself, gave hundreds of lectures in Japan and abroad, and in 2002 took over the name of Misohisa Nosaka II. It features Keiko Nosaka performing a composition by the contemporary musician Minoru Miki.

Ensemble Nipponia – The Young Sprout (1974)
After studying composition under Akira Ifukube and working on film and stage music, Minoru Miki began his career as a composer in earnest, and after founding the Ensemble Nipponia in 1964, composed a number of contemporary pieces on classical Japanese instruments. This album features four pieces, ranging from ensembles and solos on traditional Japanese instruments.
https://organicmusic.jp/collections/new-arrivals-music/products/ensemble-nipponia-the-young-sprout

Toru Takemitsu – In an Autumn Garden (1980)
Toru Takemitsu, a composer from Japan celebrated worldwide, went beyond the boundaries of contemporary music to experiment with various compositional approaches. Following his 1973 work In Autumn Garden, composed for Gagaku—one of Japan’s traditional forms of court music—he revisited the same theme with this 1979 piece, performed by the Tokyo Gakuso ensemble. Takemitsu himself noted in his commentary, “There is no medium as suitable as Gagaku to explore matters such as timbral color, closely integrated time—the issues of tempo, duration, and the spatial transformation of color.”
https://organicmusic.jp/collections/new-arrivals-music/products/toru-takemitsu-in-an-autumn-garden-8