Akifumi Nakajima (中嶋昭文, Nakajima Akifumi) (January 13, 1959 – September 25, 2013), better known by his stage nameAube, was a Japanese noise musician. He released many CDs, LPs and cassettes, and was regarded as one of the most important noise musicians of his time. He did not like to term his work "music," preferring the term "design": "I don't think of myself as a musician or an artist. I'm a designer. I therefore consider my sound works to be designs as well".[2]
Biography
Akifumi Nakajima was born in January 1959 in Kyoto. He worked as an Industrial designer and became thoroughly interested in sound work in the 1980s. In 1993, he was asked to create music for an art installation. After that, he created an enormous body of work.
Music
The essential element of Nakajima recordings is that each record was composed with only a single material source, which was manipulated and processed using various types of electronic equipment. Examples of sources he manipulated include air, water, fluorescent lamps, voltage-controlled oscillators, voices, pulmonary sounds, the Holy Bible's pages, and steel wire. In November 1996, he performed at the Takamatsu City Museum Of Art using only telephones as source material.[3] His 1993 album Luminous was written for an art installation by Takashi Sasaoka and Sasaoka Takashi, which used flickering fluorescent lights; the sound source for the album is fluorescent & glow lamps.[4] He also used the sounds of the human body--the lungs, heart and blood vessels, saying "The sounds in the body, like brainwaves, the lungs, heartbeat, blood vessels, these are usually not heard very well. But I have a mysterious image of the body, and what kinds of sound are within. My albums using these body sound sources are my way of expressing my image of the body".[5]
Many of his earliest recordings use water as a source, in either a still form or a gush, as from a faucet or a stream. Among the most well-known are Hydrophobia (1991, Vanilla, Japan), Métal De Métal (1996, Manifold, USA), Cardiac Strain (1997, Alien8 Recordings, Canada), and Set On (2001, Manifold, USA). His early work was noisier; his later work leaned toward ambient. Some of his albums are thirty minutes long; some consist of one 60-minute piece.
Nakajima had his own record label, G.R.O.S.S. Records, through which he released his music, and that of several other musicians.[6] G.R.O.S.S. then partnered with many different labels to release Aube's music in Asia, North America and Europe.
He often provided work to order--a label would ask for an album based on a specific sound and he'd create it. One example of this is from 1998, when the American label Elsie and Jack Recordings asked him to create ''Pages From The Book, and the requested source was the sound of the pages of the Bible being rubbed together (the first copies of the release included fragments of the pages used in the recording). "If it is an interesting sound source, I will accept it," said Nakajima. "I'm always interested in both the sound itself and the image from the source. I was worried about the use of the Bible, and I'm not anti-Christian. The label told me there would be no problems, so I did it. My sounds are a peaceful and delicate representation of it."[7]
Nakajima released his music on cassette, with exquisitely designed, often hand-made J-cards. Many of the cassette designs were elaborate, e.g. each case of his 1994 album E-Power contained a fragment of an x-ray.[8] His 1995 album Squash was packaged in a squashed can held together by nuts and bolts; 1997's Aqua Syndrome was packaged with a bag of blue water.[9] All tapes were numbered with unique stickers and were produced in very limited numbers, with the quantities often being as significant as the meaning of the music. The G.R.O.S.S. Envelope series, packaged in a sealed black envelope, was limited to 120 numbered copies. In the case of the G.R.O.S.S. series, the first 50 copies of each were on metal tape, the remainder on chrome tape.[10] Many of Aube's recordings have been recently re-released.
Death
Nakajima died on 25 September 2013, of a pneumothorax, at age 54.
Collaborations
Several compilation CDs are of note in Aube's history. Most notable, perhaps, is the Come Again compilation, released in 1991 on Vanilla Records, which contains one of the first tracks recorded under the Aube moniker.[11] Later notable compilations include Come Again II (1993),[12]The Japanese/American Noise Treaty (1995),[13] and Ant-Hology (1998).[14]
Nakajima also collaborated with many Japanoise artists. They are: Club Skull with Hiroshi Hasegawa of C.C.C.C. & Fumio Kosakai of Incapacitants, SIAN with Shohei Iwasaki of Monde Bruits, Kinkakuji with Maso Yamazaki (Masonna), Ginkakuji with Hiroshi Hasegawa, Gokurakuji' with Maso Yamazaki and Hiroshi Hasegawa, Loop Circuit with Dub Murashita of Dubwise, Hyper Ventilation with Dub Murashita, Meiji Jingu with Kohei Gomi of Pain Jerk, Ise Jingu with Masahiko Ohno of Solmania, Heian Jingu with Toshiji Mikawa of Incapacitants, and Atsuta Jingu with Kohei Gomi, Masahiko Ohno and & Toshiji Mikawa. In 2005 he cooperated with the Italian experimental artist Maurizio Bianchi for two projects titled "Junkyo" (Noctovision) and "Mectpyo Saisei" (Para Disc). In his memory, his friend Eric Lanzillotta shared a live recording of a collaboration between him and Akifumi on Soundcloud, which was recorded in 2004.
Discography
Albums
Hydrophobia (water) (1991), Vanilla Records, Japan
Spindrift (water) (1992), G.R.O.S.S. (Re-issued 2016 and 2020)
