Yasuaki Shimizu
Japanese saxophonist-composer with dub, Bach, and art-pop detours
From Japan
Expect tenor sax lines that can turn glassy, keening, or clipped, set against dubby low-end, spare electronics, and arrangements that move between pop form and studio experiment. The set can swing from the controlled weirdness of Kakashi to the more songlike, art-pop side of Mariah and his Bach reworkings.
More about Yasuaki Shimizu
Shimizu comes out of Tokyo’s late-70s/early-80s art-pop and jazz experimental scene, where he led Mariah and built a solo catalogue that moves between records, film music, and installations. His name stays central in Japanese underground reissue culture because Kakashi and Mariah’s Utakata no Hibi became touchstones for listeners chasing the seam between folk, pop, dub, and studio craft.
A story
Carl Stone heard the Bach cello suite arrangements playing every day in a Tokyo shopping center near his home, before they later worked together.
Playing
- 2026-11-06 2026-11-06T21:15:00 · Yasuaki Shimizu · Stadsschouwburg
Labels
Start here
- Kakashi (1982) · Palto Flats / WRWTFWW Records
Best-known solo record; dub, sax, and musique concrète pressure. - Utakata no Hibi (1983) · Mariah / reissues on Everland
Key Mariah album; Japanese folk-pop with strange studio edges.
Worked with
- Ryuichi Sakamoto collaborated with
- Björk collaborated with
- Van Dyke Parks collaborated with
- Carl Stone collaborated with
- Towa Tei collaborated with
For fans of
Jim O'Rourke, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Loren Connors, Sun RaOfficial links
Plan Le Guess Who? 2026 with Songpot · Ask about Yasuaki Shimizu in ChatGPT or Claude