About

Genji Sawai’s classic LP Sowaka, featuring Midori Takada and Bill Laswell, reissued for the very first time.
Sowaka, recorded in 1984, displayed an innovative sound that went beyond genre – mixing dub, world, jazz, electro, hip-hop and avant-garde. A perfect match of some of the most experimental artists of that time resulting in an extremely sought after and singular piece of music of the golden Japanese era. A talented crossover.
In 1984, working with Bill Laswell, Michael Beinhorn and Midori Takada would be unlike working with anyone else Genji Sawai had before, pulling him out of the J-jazz experimental scene he was based on. Rather than work off written music, they’d build songs like cooks. Genji might supply the ingredients, perhaps the tonal choices – sax, FM synths, drum machines, and Bill would task himself to do the “cooking”, creating the overall image of the song. It’s the use of imagery to have a conversation with each other, musically, that just felt so different to Genji.

Unlike the other musicians who contributed to Sowaka, musicians of impressive, rarefied technique like Midori Takada, Shuichi “Ponta” Murakami, and Kazuhiko Shibayama, notation or sheet music wasn’t a part of Genji’s vocabulary with Bill. With him, drawings were how songs were built from the ether. Whatever image a demo conjured up – that’s where the song had to go.— (via Bandcamp)



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Label: Glossy Mistakes
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Limited Edition, Reissue, Remastered, Transparent Yellow
Country: Spain
Reissued: Feb 3, 2023 / Original Release: April 1984
Genre: Electronic, Jazz, Funk / Soul
Style: Electro, Jazz-Funk, Avant-garde Jazz
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File under: Avant Garde / Free Jazz