# Nobukazu Takemura

Nobukazu Takemura (竹村延和 Takemura Nobukazu; born August 28, 1968, in Hirakata, Osaka) is a Japanese musician and artist. He became interested in music at a young age by listening to the radio, and began to make music at home with a tape recorder and keyboard. During high school, after a record store job that exposed him to jazz and hip-hop, he had regular gigs in the clubs of Osaka and Kyoto as a battle DJ before launching his music career. Takemura's music career has seen him cover a wide range of genres and styles within short periods of time. Beginning his career in hip-hop and jazz, Takemura later entered into a prolific period as an electronic musician, exploring genres such as glitch, drum and bass and minimalism. Takemura's most recent work has included chamber music and performance art.

## Career

In 1990, Takemura founded the instrumental hip hop group Audio Sports with Yamatsuka Eye (of The Boredoms) and Aki Onda. Their first album, Era of Glittering Gas, was released in 1992 (after which Onda subsequently took control of the project).
In 1992, Takemura formed the nu-jazz collective Spiritual Vibes, which released several albums and a few singles throughout the early to mid-1990s. During this period Takemura would occasionally toy with (and eventually pursue full-time in the late 1990s) his own solo releases, typically under the names of DJ Takemura or Kool Jazz Productions. He has released music under the pseudonyms of DJ Takemura, Child's View and Assembler, and his music has covered a wide variety of genres in a short amount of time, ranging from hip-hop instrumentals, to jazz, to chamber music and electronic minimalism, breakbeat, noise pop, glitch and jungle music. The vast majority of Takemura's music has been recorded in his home-made "Moonlit Studio", in his Kyoto apartment.
He founded the Lollop and Childisc labels in the 1990s after meeting musicians who were unable to release their music due to not having a record label. His voluminous releases, remixes, and collaborations make a comprehensive discography difficult, and his music often defies any easy categorization. Takemura's first U.S. release was Funfair on the Bubble Core label in 1998, a slightly altered release of the Yoru No Yuenchi album released previously in Japan. This was followed by Scope on the Thrill Jockey label in 1999, an album that was released solely in the U.S. He has frequently collaborated with fellow Childisc vocalist/composer Aki Tsuyuko, with her vocals having been sampled on many of his albums.
His unique and complex approach to melody and instrumentation has generated a catalog of collaborations with critically acclaimed artists including Issey Miyake, Zu, Steve Reich, DJ Spooky, Yo La Tengo, Tortoise, and Tujiko Noriko. Takemura performed live extensively in the early 2000s, having toured the U.S. opening for Tortoise and Plaid, as well as touring the U.K. with a full live band playing his music on a sponsorship from the British Arts Council. Takemura was also responsible for the sound design of Sony's robotic dog AIBO.
Takemura moved from his long-term home of Kyoto to Berlin, Germany in 2008. In February 2014, Takemura released Zeitraum, a compilation of music, sounds and images he had created from 2004 – 2013 for various projects, commissions and collaborations. Zeitraum is Takemura's first solo album release in 11 years.

## Discography

Note: This discography only includes solo and collaboration releases under the names of "Nobukazu Takemura", "Child's View", "Assembler" or "DJ Takemura". None of Takemura's group releases, such as with Audio Sports or Spiritual Vibes, are included.

### Studio albums

| Year | Title | Album details |
| 1994 | Child's View | Released: 2 November 1994 Label: Toy's Factory (JP) / Bellissima Records (GER) Formats: LP, CD |
| 1997 | Child and Magic | Released: 15 December 1997 Label: Warner Music Japan (JP) Formats: CD |
| 1998 | Yoru No Yuenchi | As Child's View Released: 1998 Label: Childisc (JP) Formats: CD |
| 1999 | Funfair | As Child's View Released: March 1999 Label: Bubble Core Records (US) Formats: CD U.S. version of Yoru No Yuenchi with slightly altered tracklist |
| 1999 | Milano: For Issey Miyake Men By Naoki Takizawa | Released: 26 May 1999 Label: Warner Music Japan (JP) Formats: CD |
| 1999 | Scope | Released: 9 June 1999 Label: Thrill Jockey (US) Formats: LP, CD |
| 1999 | Finale: For Issey Miyake Men By Naoki Takizawa | Released: 22 December 1999 Label: Warner Music Japan (JP) Formats: CD |
| 2000 | Meteor | Released: 2000 Label: Childisc (JP) Format: CD Was released in U.S. as a 12" single instead of an album |
| 2000 | Hoshi No Koe | Released: 2000 Label: Childisc (JP) / Thrill Jockey (US) Formats: LP, CD Japan and U.S. versions had one different track on each |
| 2000 | Sign | Released: November 2000 Label: Tokuma Japan Communications (JP) / Thrill Jockey (US) Formats: LP, CD Japan and U.S. versions had some differing tracks |
| 2001 | Songbook | Released: 21 December 2001 Label: Childisc (JP) / Bubble Core Records (US) Formats: LP, CD Japan and U.S. versions had different tracklistings |
| 2002 | Assembler 1 | As Assembler Released: 13 March 2002 Label: Childisc (JP) Formats: CD |
| 2002 | Animate | Released: 13 March 2002 Label: Childisc (JP) Formats: CD |
| 2002 | 10th | Released: 24 July 2002 Label: Childisc (JP) / Thrill Jockey (US) Formats: LP, CD Japan version had one extra track |
| 2002 | Water's Suite | Released: 2002 Label: Extreme (AUS) Formats: CD |
| 2003 | Assembler 2 | As Assembler Released: 30 May 2003 Label: Moonlit (JP) / Thrill Jockey (US) Formats: CD Japan version had an extra live bonus track |
| 2003 | Etude | Released: 2003 Label: En/Of (GER) Formats: LP Limited edition of 100 vinyls |
| 2007 | Kobito No Kuni (Unreleased Tracks up to 1999) | Released: 21 December 2007 Label: Moonlit (JP) Formats: CD |
| 2014 | Zeitraum | Released: 26 February 2014 Labels: Happenings (JP) Formats: CD |
| 2015 | Einheit | Released: 5 December 2015 Labels: Happenings (JP) Formats: CD Exclusively sold at Hotel Anteroom in Kyoto for a Takemura art exhibition. |

### Extended plays

| Year | Title | Album details |
| 1993 | The Quest Is A Reward | Released: 1993 Label: NEC Avenue (JP) Formats: CD |
| 1998 | Sablé & Grill EP | As Child's View Released: 1998 Label: Childisc (JP) Formats: CD, 12" The CD version had one more track than the 12" |
| 2001 | Recursion EP | Released: 2001 Label: Childisc (JP) Formats: 12" |
| 2002 | Animate EP | Released: 2002 Label: Childisc (JP) Formats: 12" |
| 2002 | Mimic Robot | Released: 2002 Label: Thrill Jockey (US) Formats: 12" |

### Singles

| Year | Title | Album details |
| 1992 | Hoping For The Sun / Kool Jazz Scene / Science Fiction | As DJ Takemura Released: 1992 Label: Global Dept Records (UK) Formats: 12" |
| 1994 | For Tomorrow | Released: 1994 Label: Toy's Factory (JP) / 99 Records (GER) / Bellissima Records (GER) Formats: 12", CD |
| 1999 | The Cradle of Light / After Image | As Child's View Released: 1999 Label: Childisc (JP) Formats: 12" |
| 1999 | Meteor | Released: 1999 Label: Thrill Jockey (US) Formats: 12" U.S. single version of the Meteor album |
| 2001 | Mahou No Hiroba | Released: 21 November 2001 Label: Childisc (JP) Formats: CD |
| 2001 | Picnic / Oyasumi | Released: 2001 Label: Bottrop-Boy (GER) Formats: 7" |
| 2002 | Hiking / Viking | Released: 2002 Label: Bottrop-Boy (GER) Formats: 7" |

### Collaborative albums

| Year | Title | Album details |
| 1997 | Changing Hands | With Richard Barbieri & Steve Jansen Released: 16 July 1997 Label: Flavour of Sound (JP) Formats: CD |
| 2003 | Turntables and Computers | With Otomo Yoshihide Released: 6 November 2003 Label: Headz Formats: CD |
| 2007 | Identification With the Enemy: A Key To the Underworld | With Zu Released: 2007 Label: Atavistic Formats: CD |
| 2012 | East Facing Balcony | With Tujiko Noriko Released: 6 June 2012 Label: Happenings Formats: CD |