Yoshihide Otomo

Sound

Yoshihide Otomo

Born

1959-08-01 (67)

Place of birth

Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan

Known for

Sound

Credits

10 titles

Otomo Yoshihide (大友 良英, Otomo Yoshihide, born 1 August 1959) is a Japanese composer and multi-instrumentalist known for his work in experimental music, free improvisation, and film scoring. Emerging in the 1990s as the leader of the experimental group Ground Zero, he became an influential figure in avant-garde and electroacoustic improvisation. Otomo has built an extensive career as a composer for film and television, contributing music to dozens of projects across Asia and beyond. His early film work includes The Blue Kite (1993), The Day the Sun Turned Cold (1994), and Blue (2002), with the reception of his 1994 score helping establish his reputation in cinema. His most widely recognized…

Known for

Film credits

2020s · 2 titles

2010s · 3 titles

Amplified Gesture poster
NR

The film explores the journeys and philosophies of a select group of experimental musicians including Keith Rowe, Evan Parker, Eddie Prevost, Otomo Yoshihide, Toshimaru Nakamura and Christian Fennesz.

Amplified Gesture

2012

We Don't Care About Music Anyway poster
6.3

From radical turntablism (Otomo Yoshihide) to laptop music innovation (Numb), via classical instrument hijacking (Sakamoto Hiromichi), Tokyo's avant-garde music scene is internationally known for its boldness. While introducing some of the greatest musicians of this scene, "We Don't Care About Music Anyway..." offers a kaleidoscopic view of Tokyo, confronting music and noise, sound and image, reality and representation, documentary and fiction.

We Don't Care About Music Anyway

2011

Mother, I've Pretty Much Forgotten Your Face poster
NR

Pig heads, intestines, megaphones: all these and more have been thrown into crowds of loyal fans following the influential punk band THE STALIN or any of number of Michiro Endo's other bands since 1980. Taking a step in front of the camera, however, Endo offers a very different kind of encounter in this inspiring self-portrait. "Mother, I've Pretty Much Forgotten Your Face" follows the artist, a native of Nihonmatsu, Fukushima, on the 2011 nationwide solo tour celebrating his 60th birthday, which was interrupted by the Great East Japan Earthquake. Traveling, performing and talking with fellow musicians and activists, Endo reflects on the past and future of Fukushima, the legacy of Hiroshima, his upbringing and his feelings about his mother, communicated in the song from which the documentary is named.

Mother, I've Pretty Much Forgotten Your Face

2016

2000s · 4 titles

Muhlifein poster
NR

A concert focusing on the NUNKI album, with additional songs from Trapéziste and Larme de Crocodile. Recorded live on February 18, 2007 at the Hitomi Memorial Hall in Tokyo. Featuring performers Otomo Yoshihide, Jim O'Rourke, and Sachiko M.

Muhlifein

2007

AA poster
4.6

"AA" is a documentary about Akira Aida (mostly known as Aquirax Aida), a japanese music critic who introduced free jazz, improvisation, and progressive rock to Japan. It's based on interviews with 12 critics and musicians who had connections with him. This is a documentary that considers the past, present and future of improvisation.

AA

2006

Kikoe poster
NR

Experimental documentary about Japanese experimental musician Otomo Yoshihide. Includes interviews with multiple musicians, artists, and writers as well as live footage.

Kikoe

2009

Nor Noise poster
NR

Nor Noise is the first norwegian documentary about noise music. Movie Maker Tom Hovinbøle has from the start in 2001 interviewed a number of artists in the noise genre. The artists relay their thoughts on the phenomenon of noise music - what is it, where does it come from, what is the trade off when replacing traditional harmony and melody for pure audio experience, which possibilities can be explored? The movie explains the historical context of the genre, from the movement of Futurism and Luigi Russolo from before WWI to electronic experiments in the fifties, avantgarde in the sixties, industry and punk in the seventies to the final establishment of the noise genre at the end of the seventies in Japan. Adding to the flavour are concert performances.

Nor Noise

2004