V.A. : Sound Storing Machines - The First 78rpm Records From Japan, 1903-1912

'The first commercial recordings from Asia were made in Japan in 1903 by Fred Gaisberg, the legendary producer and recording engineer who traveled the world making recordings for the Gramophone Company (later His Masters Voice). The recording industry barely existed at this time. Man’s ability to record and reproduce sound had only existed since 1877 (with the invention of Edison’s cylinder phonograph) and flat disc records, what we all collect and obsess over today, had only come into being in the late 1890s.
It is a miracle what these fragile discs have survived: wars with Russia and China, the fire bombings (and worse) of World War II, modernization, the onslaught of Western media. They document, through a dreamlike haze of surface noise, a Japan that had just barely begun to open its doors to the rest of the world.
Including gagaku, shakuhachi, shamisen, storytelling, folksong and more. these recordings are a unique glimpse into an ancient culture and an important document of the beginnings of the recording industry. Simple and complex. Alien and familiar. Featuring important artists and those who only appeared to sing before the strange Western recording horn and then vanished.
Sound Storing Machines spans only 9 years of recording—-from 1903 and the first commercial recordings made by Fred Gaisberg to 1912, the beginning of Japan’s homegrown record industry, including a few sides taken from Japan’s notorious bootleg 78rpm industry.'



A1 Suenaga Tōgi - Bairo 2:58
A2 Toyosawa Heikichi - Senryou Nobori 2:55
Shamisen – Toyosawa Heikichi
Vocals [Vocalist] – Unknown Artist
A3 Azumaya Kamanosuke - Chikumagawa 2:10
Recorded By – William Gaisberg
Voice, Shamisen – Azumaya Kamanosuke
A4 Sumako Of Shinbashi - Kappore 2:07
Voice, Shamisen – Sumako Of Shinbashi
A5 Unknown Artist - Hokai-bushi Oiwake-bushi 1:45
Flute, Voice – Unknown Artists
Recorded By – Fred Gaisberg
A6 Uehara Sakima, Takahashi Kiyokusa, Fukushira Kado - Matsukaze (Wind In The Pines) 2:05
Recorded By – Fred Gaisberg
Shakuhachi, Koto, Shamisen, Voice – Uehara Sakima, Fukushira Kado, Takahashi Kiyokusa
A7 Yanagiya Kosan - Rakugo: Ukiy-Buro (Scene In A Public Bath) 2:00
Voice – Yanagiya Kosan
A8 Suenaga Togi - Taishikichou 3:13
B1 Mimasuya Kachiguri - Shiokumi Kasatsukashi (Collecting Water) 2:02
Performer [Chikkin] – Mimasuya Kachiguri
Shamisen – Unknown Artist
B2 Umewaka Manzaburo, Umewaka Rokurou Of The Kanze Noh School - Yokyoku (From The Noh Drama Kakitsubata) 2:42
Voice, Drum, Flute – Umewaka Manzaburo, Umewaka Rokurou Of The Kanze Noh School
B3 Nokiken Hanadou - Sanjusangen-Do Kiyori 2:00
Shakuhachi – Nokiken Hanadou
B4 Shimeju Of Yoshiwara - Neko Ja 2:51
Voice, Shamisen – Shimeju Of Yoshiwara
B5 Takemoto Sumitayu, Toyozawa Danpei, Toyozawa Sennosuke - Horikawa Sarumawashi 2:36
Shamisen – Takemoto Sumitayu
Voice – Toyozawa Danpei, Toyozawa Sennosuke
B6 Takemoto Haruko Tayu, Toyozawa Shinzaemon - Sakaya No Dan (From Sankatsu Hanchichi) 3:08
Shamisen – Toyozawa Shinzaemon
Voice – Takemoto Haruko Tayu
B7 Toyozawa Shinzaemon, Inoue Satokishi - Joruri Taiko-Ki Ju Danme 2:53
Shamisen – Toyozawa Shinzaemon
Voice – Inoue Satokishi
Liner Notes, Compiled By, Producer – Robert Millis
Mastered By [LP Edition Mastered By], Restoration – Mark Gergis
Transferred By – Jonathan Ward
Text on hype sticker: "Sublime gagaku, ripping shamisen solos, ethereal shakuhachi, storytelling, folksong and more. The earliest recordings made in Japan, originally issued on fragile impossible to find 78rpm records. Produced and compiled by sound artist Robert Millis (Indian Talking Machine, Victrola Favorites, The Crying Princess, Scattered Melodies, etc.)".

Includes a two sided insert of liner notes by Robert Millis.

A1 recorded 1903
A2 recorded in 1904
A3 recorded in 1906
A4 recorded c. 1903
A5 recorded in 1903
A6 recorded in 1903
A7 recorded in 1903
A8 recorded in 1903
B1 recorded 1906
B2 recorded c. 1907
B3 recorded in 1906
B4 recorded c. 1904
B5 recorded c. 1909
B6 recorded c. 1910
B7 recorded c. 1912