Merzbow

Lore & Background

In his youth he listened to psychedelic music, progressive rock and later free jazz, all of which influenced his noise. He and school friend Kiyoshi Mizutani started playing improvised studio sessions described as 'long jam sessions along the lines of Ash Ra Tempel or Can but we didn't have any psychedelic taste'. He later attended Tamagawa University to study fine art, majoring in painting and art theory, where he became interested in dada and surrealism and studied Butoh dance. There he learned of Kurt Schwitters' Merz, including Schwitters' Merzbau, the source of the name Merzbow. Merzbow began as the duo of Akita and Mizutani. Akita started releasing noise recordings on cassettes through his own record label, Lowest Music & Arts, founded to trade cassette tapes with other underground artists. The earliest recording was Metal Acoustic Music. Early methods included 'material action', making quiet sounds with household objects recorded with close miking or rubbing the microphone directly on things and overloading recording levels. This led to 'environmental percussion', using non-instruments such as banging on the floor, gas stove, or spring of a table lamp. Akita also made a homemade instrument of a metal case strung with piano wires, guitar strings, and springs, played by bowing or shaking. Among early releases like the box set Pornoise/1kg, Akita created artwork using photocopies of collages made from manga and porn magazines found in trash cans in the Tokyo subway. Akita's work has been the subject of several remix albums and at least one tribute album. Akita is known as a vegan who avoids meat, eggs (except those from chickens he raises himself), dairy and leather products, and is a strict straight edge, abstaining from alcohol and tobacco. He is an avid bird lover who keeps many birds at home, includes 'Bariken' in his work titles, inserts anti-KFC flyers in his works, and actively supports animal rights organizations like PETA.

Reader's Guide

Merzbow, the project of Masami Akita, is a central figure in the history of noise music, often cited as the most important artist in the genre. Akita's approach is deeply informed by dadaism, surrealism, and junk art aesthetics, reflected in his use of found objects, homemade instruments, and collage artwork. His music draws on influences from progressive rock, heavy metal, free jazz, and early electronic music, as well as non-musical sources like fetish culture. Beyond music, Akita has been a writer and editor, authoring books on topics including BDSM, Japanese bondage, and animal rights. His later work is shaped by veganism and straight edge lifestyle, with animal rights activism integrated into his releases. Merzbow's legacy lies in expanding the boundaries of sound and art, influencing generations of experimental musicians.

Did You Know?

• The name Merzbow comes from Kurt Schwitters' artwork Merzbau, reflecting Akita's dada influence and junk art aesthetic.
• Akita is a strict straight edge vegan who keeps many birds at home and inserts anti-KFC flyers in his works.

Origins and the Merzbow Name

The project initially functioned as a duo alongside Kiyoshi Mizutani, a schoolmate from junior high, and the earliest tapes were traded among underground artists before any commercial distribution. The name itself carries a deliberate artistic lineage: Akita encountered the work of German dadaist Kurt Schwitters while studying painting and art theory at Tamagawa University, and adopted the term from Schwitters' Merzbau, a structure built entirely from discarded objects to transform the interior of a dwelling. For Akita, the reference encapsulated both his dadaist sensibility and a junk-art philosophy that would permeate decades of output.

Technique and Prolific Output

Akita's studio practice has always centered on what he calls non-instrumental sound generation. In the earliest recordings, a method he labeled 'material action' involved producing quiet noises with everyday household objects, capturing them through close-miking or by pressing the microphone directly against surfaces and deliberately overloading the recording levels. This evolved into what he termed 'environmental percussion'—striking a gas stove, the spring mechanism of a table lamp, or the floor itself for rhythmic texture, drawing a violin bow across plastic cassette cases, stretching rubber bands to mimic guitar tones, or blowing into a roll of toilet paper. Remix compilations and at least one tribute album further attest to the project's reach, and within the noise community Merzbow is frequently cited as the single most significant artist in the genre.

Writing, Art, and the Wider Practice

Beyond the studio, Akita has maintained a parallel career as a writer and editor in Japan's underground publishing scene. After completing his fine-art degree, he freelanced for several magazines and went on to author a substantial body of books spanning sexuality, underground culture, architecture, and animal welfare. None of these volumes have been translated into English. His artistic interests extend well past audio: he has practiced painting, photography, and filmmaking, and studied Butoh dance at Tamagawa University. Dadaism, surrealism, and fetish aesthetics form a shared conceptual thread linking his written work, visual art, and the sonic experiments that define Merzbow.

Veganism, Animal Rights, and Legacy

Since the early 2000s, Akita's personal ethics have become inseparable from his artistic identity. He adopted a strict vegan diet—avoiding meat, dairy, leather, and eggs from any source other than chickens he raises himself—and committed to a straight-edge lifestyle that excludes alcohol and tobacco. His devotion to animal welfare is woven directly into his music: the word 'Bariken' appears in several work titles, and anti-KFC flyers have been tucked inside his releases. He is an avid bird keeper, maintains close ties with organizations like PETA, and has spoken publicly against whaling and dolphin hunting. These convictions, layered over a career of more than five hundred recordings, a fifty-CD box set, and a bibliography of nearly twenty books, cement a legacy in which sonic extremity and ethical commitment are treated as two sides of the same artistic statement.