Kiyoshi Mizutani
Japanese noise musician, co-founding member of Merzbow until 1989, since pursuing a solo career in electronic noise and field recording.
Kiyoshi Mizutani met Masami Akita in junior high school in Tokyo and played improvised rock with him before the two co-founded Merzbow in 1979, remaining the project’s other constant member — performing on its early recordings and live shows — through the 1980s. He left after Merzbow’s 1989 European tour to pursue a solo career, releasing electronic noise built from feedback and instrumentation alongside compositions drawing on field recording, beginning with Actual Infinity / 2 Variations and The Same Thing Makes Always Her Laugh (both 1990). Works 1989-1991, issued on cassette by the Osaka label Povertech Industries, documents the recordings made around his departure from Merzbow.
