Japanese Noise Project

"Noise" music is one of the most experimental and boundry-pushing efforts in modern music since Jazz. Despite growing to mammoth proportions in Japan and gaining a cult following internationally, the Japanese brand of noise music remains misunderstood and unexplored. This film is working to give full resonance to the Japanese noise scene while shining a light on its history, personalities and community.  Through exclusive interviews and filming at significant locales, this film explores in depth the older and newer phases of the Japanese avant garde, developments into a genre commonly referred to as "noise" in addition to tracking the path to becoming a vibrant international export despite remaining somewhat shrouded domestically. This film will show the global influences which Japanese "noise" has absorbed and show the ideas and power it has reverberated back.  

"Noise" as a musical genre is as hard to define and categorize as "Jazz" once was (and still is)- it encompasses a wide range of experimental music, sound art and musique concreté.  However, suppose to a musician you’d classify their music as "noise" and it is safe to doubt the response would be more congenial than the question. Conscious of that, it is a working term we’d like to play with.

Noise is pure sound and pure energy- in a twilight zone between art and sound and consciousness and no one inhabits and enthuses these qualities with as much imagination and ferocity as the Japanese. The music is as diverse as the people who make it and yet, very few have ever heard these artists speak for themselves.

We are not only producing this film as music journalists, photographers and lovers of experimental music but with a musicological lens as well. At this point in time, we feel this is a story best told over video- louder and more animated than our printed words and photos. Into Tokyo’s underground we venture. We look forward to your interest and support.

Thank you,
Vicente Gutierrez & Sebastian Mayer.