Ryoji Ikeda

Ryoji Ikeda (born 1966 in Gifu, Japan) is a Japanese sound artist who lives and works in New York City. Sometimes harsh, sometimes remarkably gentle, Ikeda's music is concerned primarily with sound in a variety of "raw" states, such as sine tones and noise, often using frequencies at the edges of the range of human hearing. The conclusion of his album "+/-" features just such a tone; of it, Ikeda says "a high frequency sound is used that the listener becomes aware of only upon its disappearance" (from the CD booklet). Rhythmically, Ikeda's music is highly imaginative, exploiting beat patterns and, at times, using a variety of discrete tones and noise to create the semblance of a drum machine. His work also encroaches on the world of ambient music; many tracks on his albums are concerned with slowly evolving soundscapes, with little or no sense of pulse.

In addition to working as a solo artist, he has also collaborated with, among others, Carsten Nicolai (under the name "Cyclo.") and the art collective Dumb Type. His work "matrix" won the Golden Nica Award in 2001. [http://prixars.aec.at/2001/winner.html http://prixars.aec.at/2001/winner.html] ]

Discography

; Albums

* "1000 Fragments" (Cci recordings, 1995)
* "+/-" (Touch, 1997)
* "Time and Space" (Staalplaat, 1998)
* "0°C" (Touch, 1998)
* "Mort Aux Vaches" (live recording at VPRO Radio; Staalplaat, 1998)
* "99 [for 20' to 2000] " (Raster-Noton, 1999)
* "Matrix" (Touch, 2001)
* "Cyclo." (with Carsten Nicolai; Raster-Noton, 2001)
* "Opus" (Touch, 2002)
* "Dataplex" (Raster-Noton, 2005)
* "Test Pattern" (Raster-Noton, 2008)

; Compilations

* "Silence CD" (Spiral, 1993)
* "S/N" (Dumb Type; Spiral 1994)
* "Document 02 - Sine" (Dorobo, 1995)
* "Statics" (Cci recordings, 1995)
* "Mesmervariations" (Ash International, 1995)
* "A Fault in the Nothing" (Ash International, 1996)
* "Night Passage: demixed" (Dorobo, 1996)
* "Atomic Weight" (Iridium, 1996)
* "Touch Sampler 2" (Touch, 1996)
* "Tulpas" (Selektion, 1997)
* "OR" (Dumb Type; Foil Records, 1998)
* "Chill Out" (Sabotage, 1998)
* "Meme" (meme, 1998)
* "Modulations" (Caipirinha, 1998)
* "Stilluppsteypa Remix" (Fire Inc., 1998)
* "END ID" (Digital Narcis, 1999)
* "Modulation & Transformation 4" (Mille Plateaux, 1999)
* "Microscopic" (Caipirinha, 1999)
* "Touch Sampler 0" (Touch, 2000)
* "Memorandum" (Dumb Type; Cci recordings, 2000)
* "Clicks & Cuts 2" (Mille Plateaux, 2001)
* "An Anthology of Noise & Electronic Music, Vol.1" (Sub Rosa, 2002)
* "Touch 25" (Touch, 2007)

; DVDs/books

* "Formula" (Forma, 2005)

References

External links

* [http://www.ryojiikeda.com Official website]
* [http://www.forma.org.uk/artists/represented/ryoji_ikeda_biog.html Biography at Forma.org.uk]
* [http://www.contemporary-magazine.com/music68.htm Contemporary Magazine article]
* [http://5-against-4.blogspot.com/2008/04/ryoji-ikeda-retrospective.html 5 against 4 retrospective (includes audio samples)]