Toshimaru Nakamura: no-input mixing board
Sachiko M: sampler with sine wave

Toshimaru Nakamura and Sachiko M are two of the most prominent members of the burgeoning onkyo movement. Onkyo, a Japanese word meaning "reverberation of sound", places much more emphasis on sound texture than on musical structure, distilling elements of techno, noise, and electronic music into a unique hybrid. Nakamura plays the "no-input mixing board", connecting the input of the board to the output, then manipulating the resultant feedback. Since 1998, he's been exploring the possibilities of his instrument in contexts ranging from solo to collaborations with Taku Sugimoto, Keith Rowe, and the duo project Repeat with drummer Jason Kahn. Nakamura is also a co-founder of The Improvisation Meeting at Bar Aoyama, a monthly concert series in Tokyo, which recently changed its name and location to Meeting At Off Site. Sachiko M was a member of the seminal nineties band Ground Zero, led by her frequent collaborator Otomo Yoshihide. Since Ground Zero ended in 1998, she has developed a unique style utilizing a memory-free sampler, creating pure, piercing sine waves with the device's built-in test tones and noise. Sachiko has worked extensively as a solo artist, and in groups such as Filament, I.S.O., and Hoahio. She also founded and runs the superb Amoebic label. do is the second release from this duo, following 1998's un (meme). do consists of three live improvisations, recorded in the summer of 2000 at three separate concerts. The unique look of the artwork was created entirely from the output of a no-input video mixer by NYC designer Chris Harvey. do #1, the 37 minute centerpiece track, is a masterpiece of gradual progression, inducing rolling waves inside your head, while constantly, infinitesimally, inexorably creeping forward. "Toshimaru Nakamura and Sachiko M minimize their music to a gorgeous maximum. In its reduction to electronic signals, the music becomes very physical. Your speakers become an instrument, and when you move your head or walk around, your ears also become an instrument, you get involved, you can participate. Another prominent aspect is how time seems to escape and how the listener can escape into time simultanously. Not easy listening music for sure. Abstract music? No, to me it seems very concrete." * Günter Müller

Sachiko M: sinewaves (1, 3), contact microphone on objects (2)
Ami Yoshida: voice

Sachiko M and Ami Yoshida, both from Tokyo, met in 1997 and formed the duo of Cosmos the following year.

Sachiko M has developed a unique style utilizing a memory-free sampler, creating pure, piercing sine waves with the device's built-in test tones and noise. She has also recently begun exploring the use of contact microphones, as documented on the second track of Tears. Sachiko has worked extensively as a solo artist, in groups such as Filament, I.S.O., and Hoahio, and in duo with Toshimaru Nakamura, as captured on do (Erstwhile). She also founded and runs the superb Amoebic label.

Ami Yoshida strives to create a pure sound, abstracting her voice until it becomes almost completely unrecognizable. In 1997, she released a duo CD, Spiritual Voice (1040), with Tamaru on electronics. Cosmos is the first project since then to feature her prominently, although she appears on Otomo Yoshihide's Cathode and Ensemble Cathode projects, and her solo pieces are a highlight of the 10-CD Japan Improv box set.

Though both women reside in Tokyo, Cosmos only perform together occasionally, so each meeting is very special. Tears is taken from two of those rare encounters, in September 2001 and February 2002. Sachiko and Ami incrementally build an atmosphere of fragile, yet deeply focused, intensity, forging a symbiotic fusion between human and electronic expression.