Taku Unami

Taku Unami (born in Tokyo in 1976) is a Japanese improviser, composer and multi-instrumentalist whose work crosses experimental music, electronic sound, performance and conceptual composition. He plays guitar, other string instruments, computers and everyday objects, sometimes bringing near-silent actions and the physical circumstances of a performance into the musical material.

His practice ranges from sparse improvised interactions to ensemble work, film music and sound installations. Unami has worked with Taku Sugimoto, Masahiko Okura, Radu Malfatti, Rhodri Davies, Jean-Luc Guionnet and Éric La Casa, among many others. He was involved in the projects HOSE and Tengu et Kitsune and helped develop the experimental label hibari music, which has documented Japanese and international approaches to adventurous sound.

On Creative Sources he appears on Vasistas (CS022) with Bertrand Denzler (tenor saxophone), Jean-Luc Guionnet (alto saxophone) and Kazushige Kinoshita (violin). Recorded in London on 19 September 2003, the quartet's continuous 67-minute improvisation explores faint instrumental sounds, the acoustic space around them and the shifting boundary between silence and audible activity. Unami is credited with laptop and guitar.