Solmania

Solmania is the noise project Masahiko Ohno founded in Osaka in 1984, releasing chiefly through Alchemy Records, where he also worked as house graphic designer on much of the label’s catalog. Ohno performs on experimental electric guitars he builds himself from spare parts — multi-necked, harp-bodied instruments fitted with extra pickups and microphones in unconventional places, nine of his own construction as of 2026. Katsumi Sugahara, formerly of the band Outo, joined as a second performer, first appearing on Trembling Tongues (1995).

Ohno recorded with Aube’s Akifumi Nakajima as Ise Jingu, and, with Nakajima joined by Pain Jerk’s Kohei Gomi and Toshiji Mikawa of Incapacitants, on the four-way Atsuta Jingu. Ohno also played alongside Merzbow’s Masami Akita in the short-lived Osaka noise/freak-rock supergroup Bustmonster, in 1992–94, a rotating lineup that at various points also included C.C.C.C.’s Fumio Kosakai and Monde Bruits’ Shohei Iwasaki.