Nagamatzu

‘Nagamatzu were darkwave before anyone bothered to give this strand of synth music its own identity.‘ https://www.electronicsound.co.uk/reviews/nagamatzu-neural-interval-zoharum/ Electronic Sound Magazine

Nagamatzu ‘Neural Interval’ (Zoharum) – Electronic Sound RReviews Nagamatzu ‘Neural Interval’ (Zoharum) byMat SmithDecember 31, 2014 0 Shares 0 0 0 The long-lost back catalogue of the cult darkwave duo is released on CD for the first time JG Ballard’s ‘The Atrocity Exhibition’ was less a novel and more a compendium of random, interconnected thou...

Thoughts from our Andrew...

iam so glad today to invited my friend Andrew Lagowski Composer and Musician in Electronic Music For Music interview so the interview will be in Texting (Question and Answer )

1- how did you start making electronic music ?

Ans :- Listening to Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle in the early 80’s triggered my imagination. I got a kids’ keyboard and realised you could remove the plastic case and mess with the electronics. My father also bought me a reel to reel tape recorder, which was an amazing gift at that time and got me even more hooked. I would create drone tracks by bouncing across the tape and playing it back at half speed.

2- How did you discover your particular sound ?

Ans :- Do I have a sound? I think I find sounds I like and tend to refine them across various releases. Lately I have been trying to challenge myself not to fall into the same traps as before.

3- What inspires you and what makes you want to
keep producing music ?

Ans :- I get inspiration from everywhere but mostly I’m looking for new avenues in my process. At the moment, I’m very interested in manual creation of sounds using noise boxes, pedals and tape recordings, and trying to keep away from DAW’s like Ableton which increase my anxiety too much.
There’s too much choice now and I’m trying to narrow my choices down, if that makes sense.

I need to keep making music and sound at this very moment to keep my sanity.

4 - What are a few key lessons you’ve learned about producing that other aspiring musicians and producers could take advice from?

Ans :- (i) Don’t over-produce if you’re making dance music. Most club-going people don’t care as long as there’s a beat.
(ii) If you’re making beatless music and sounds, I’d advise being yourself with the caveat that nobody really wants to listen to you playing the same time-stretched sounds through a giant reverb for 30 minutes.
(iii) Music should have a story to grip people’s imaginations. Once they have a story in mind, they can listen to your sounds alongside it and appreciate it more.
(iv) Keep the mistakes - sometimes the mistakes are what makes a track great.
(v) Don’t rush anything. It’s better to come back to a track after a few days, weeks or months with a different mindset. The human brain perceives music differently depending on variable external parameters, so it’s quite a good process to ignore something and listen back later, before releasing it to the public.
I recently made an 18 minute tracks of granular sounds for my ‘Strange Minds’ series, which sounded great to me for a while, then I thought “nobody in their right minds will listen to this”and excluded it from the release.

5- What outside of music inspires you to create ?

Ans :- Dada, Anti-art, natural gardens and forests

6 - What gear do you use in studio/live ?

Ans :- Hardware

Tascam stereo digital recorder.

Synths

Novation Circuit Mono Station
Novation Circuit
Mutable Instruments Shruthi

Drum Machines/sequencers

Error Instruments Passive Operator
Arturia KeyStep
Korg SQ-1 sequencer

Effects

Eoten B - glitch/fuzz
Koma BD-101 delay
Koma Field Kit FX
Jomox T-Resonator II
Zoom MS CDR70 Reverb/Delay/Chorus
TC Electronic Flashback Delay

Utilities

Decadebridge audio/cv Matrix Mixer

Software

Arturia Pigments
Tracktion Waveform 12 for compiling and editing.
A lot of AU and VST plug-ins

Various iPad applications and effects.

7- What’s next for you as an artist ?

Ans :- More field recording and use of natural sounds processed with the above hard/software.

8- Which 3 artists have influenced you the most growing up ?

Ans :- Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle, SPK (pre-1987)

9- Describe your sound for us. What do you want people to feel when they hear your music ?

Ans :- At this very moment, it’s the sound of decaying beauty, entropy, panic, paranoia, calm dreams and mysterious nightmares, the kind which hold surprises around each corner.

I want people to identify that they are not the only ones with fleeting thoughts encompassed in the above. I want them to use my music as an outlet for their troubles, if that’s at all possible. If they’re angry at the state of the world, they can play something heavy from my ‘2525’ album. If they’re in need of comfort, any of the ‘Strictly Drone’ series or S.E.T.I.’s ‘Sleep Environments for Interplanetary Travel’ are the required therapies.

10- Who would you most like to collaborate with?

Ans :- I’m about to start a new collaboration with someone but I’ll keep it secret for now.

11- How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life?

Ans :- They’re quite similar - I start with all the best intentions and plans but things get chaotic pretty quickly.

Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

I don’t know but it’s a great comfort when you need something that human or other sentient interaction can’t give you.

12- Did you experiment with other genres before settling on ambient?

Ans :- Not with any purpose. I tried making electronic music with ‘dance’ beats and what I do now is an escape from that. It’s not always ambient…perhaps more like soundtracks or environments. Ideally, I’d like the listeners to decide what genre it is.

13 - Why Music is important part in your life and what mean to you ?

Ans :- I can’t imagine a life without music. It’s a catharsis and a liberating force, as well as a companion whose shoulder you can lean on when you need to.

14- What is it that you learn as a musician from each new album that you compose and record?

Ans :- I’m not a musician myself but I’ve learned that music has an infinite number of possible doorways that you can open and you don’t always need a room full of equipment to make something meaningful to someone.

15 - What is your most productive time of day for writing music

Ans :- Two hours after waking up, whenever that might be.

Thank You so much Andrew :)

Hello to all our Japanese friends...

Nagamatzu - アンドリュー・ラゴフスキ Nagamatzu@SpotifyNagamatzu@Googleナガマツは、1980年代初頭から1990年代初頭まで活動したイギリスのミュージックバンドです。バンドは、シンセサイザー、サンプリング、ギターのユニークな融合を通じて、ゴシック要素とシューゲ....

36 years ago this week.

It's no secret that our Andrew L is a genius, I've always thought so. So it was delightful to find him in the latest issue of Electronic Sound Magazine when it tumbled through the letterbox today. An excellent issue focusing on ambient music, with a wonderful A to Zzzz guide, our Andrew heading the L section. One of his tracks under the 'Legion' alias is also featured on the reader offer CD. Fantastic.

Our Andrew's first outing since 2019...

33YLOKI Berlin Happy to report that S.E.T.I. will play live (hardware set) on 9th March 2024, with some great acts. The first S.E.T.I. live performance since November 2019 at the Wroclaw Industrial Music Festival…

Back in 2016 Electronic Sound magazine , having started out online only, moved into print copies with issue 20. Founded by Push, a supporter of Nagamatzu from the outset, we were lucky enough to be featured in very good company in this article, with Andrew L reminiscing about the early days.

Our Andrew's pre Nagamatzu days...

Photo courtesy of Ian Goold circa 1981....

John Dwyer of Osees Picks His Bandcamp Favorites The underground institution's recommendations include grimy hardcore, melodic drones, far-out jazz, Orange County punk, and more.

John Bowers has a new album. His first for 17 years. He recorded and produced ‘Shatter Days’ by Nagamatzu back in 1983 and has been working in many interesting fields

Unlanded Volume 1, by John Bowers 5 track album

July 13th 1983 Rumours nightclub Ipswich. What a night. Nagamatzu and Scum Auxiliary.

Great time to get hold of some history - including Nagamatzu

Close To The Noise Floor Presents... Additive Noise Function: Formative UK, European & North American Electronica 1978-84, Various Artists Limited Edition Triple LP - Cherry Red Records “Additive Noise Function” takes in dancefloor fillers, inner space explorations and everything in between as it journeys over five thousand miles in search of the perfect drum pattern.

https://www.mixcloud.com/Subculture_Videocast/subculture-friday-16-june-2023-dancing-on-your-grave/

SUBCULTURE : Friday 16 June 2023 (Dancing On Your Grave) 3.5 hour all vinyl mix of synth, wave, postpunk some italo and more. I felt like playing some more dancy tracks this week. Hope you enjoy it!

Oblivion Engine by Tomoroh Hidari

w/ two remixes from Lagowski
(S.E.T.I., Nagamatzu, Terror Against Terror)

Mastered by Jay Lemak

Cover by dfkt

The latest issue of Electronic Sound magazine is all about the future. It includes a feature, '100 tracks of tomorrow', artists who have directly addressed the future through their music, and our Andrew Lagowski is one of the artists featured. Since his first solo release, "Nadir' in 1988, he has continued to produce electronic music in a variety of styles and guises and has released 40 plus albums. If you haven't followed his career now is the time to catch up, check him out at https://lagowski.bandcamp.com/ Follow him Thank you

On this day back in 1989 we performed live for the last time as support to our good friends Dean Dwyer at Hype at The Bull & Gate in Kentish Town, London. The only gig of ours that we have film of, available to view on our You Tube channel https://www.youtube.com/

https://www.mixcloud.com/Subculture_Videocast/subculture-sunday-19-march-2023-waiting-in-the-cold-light/

SUBCULTURE : Sunday 19 March 2023 (Waiting in the cold light) 2 hour vinyl set of darkwave, postpunk and more. Bright opening notes with a strong finish of wormwood.

It’s not every day we get a visit from celebrities :-) This was a nice start to the week, though. Jeff Wootton in the area!

Forty years ago today. Gig number five.

Wish we were in San Francisco this weekend to celebrate with Josh....

Dark Entries record store opens at 910 Larkin Street San Francisco on Saturday December 10 with DJ sets by Carlos Souffront, Topazu and Jeremy Castillo from 6-9pm. flyer design by Eloise Leigh risograph print by

And that was after having screen printed the posters....

On this day 40 years ago we performed our second gig (back then it was a Saturday night). So excited to be doing it I made a lino cut to block print the tickets.

Josh who founded the Dark Entries record label and brought you long forgotten Nagamatzu albums on vinyl is now opening a store in San Francisco. Go visit if you're in the area, you're sure to find something amazing.

Nagamatzu Artist · 905 monthly listeners.

Who'd have thought. Forty years ago on this date we performed our first gig, supporting I Don't Go With Girls at the Albion Mills. We didn't have any material when we were offered the slot a couple of weeks beforehand by Pete Abbott, but he'd heard we were planning something, so offered us the chance anyway. It went surprisingly well. Here is one of the tracks from that very first outing.

NAGAMATZU No Edge 2.10.82 From our very first live outing at the Albion Mills on 2nd October 1982, supporting 'I Don't Go With Girls'. What a hot sweaty night that was.

Andrew posted this link on his page, with a little info about how it came about; "

Deliberation Provided to YouTube by IngroovesDeliberation · NagamatzuShatter Days℗ ℗ 2013 Dark Entries RecordsReleased on: 2013-07-25Composer, Writer: Stephen JarvisCompo...

Sorry for the quiet spell, somewhat distracted by the state of the world. However, pleased to say our Andrew never stops making new music and uncovering old gems, so please check out his latest sounds here...

Danger! Robots and Melting!, by Lagowski 7 track album