Intuitive Music

Tetsu Inoue

Born in Tokyo, Tetsu Inoue is one of the most creative ambient computer music artists in recent years.

Tetsu Inoue started playing music in high school when he was part of a pop-rock cover band. He later started experimenting with synthesizers and sequencers getting inspiration from artists like Pink Floyd, Kraftwerk and Yellow Magic Orchestra. He later he moved to Germany and eventually to San Francisco, where he worked with Naut Humon. In 1986, he finally moved to New York, where he still resides.

On a trip to Germany, Inoue met the electronic artists Pete Namlook and Uwe Schmidt -aka Atom Heart- with whom he recorded his first work “Datacide” released in 1994, oriented to organic ambient electronica.

After his return to New York he also started a series of collabotations with Pete Namlook, which were released on Namlook’s Fax label, including “Orion” (1993), “Orion II” (1994), and the trilogy “2350 Broadway”.

In 1994, Tetsu Inoue started one of the most interesting electronica projects in modern music released on the album “Flowerhead” (1994). The album was followed by what is still considered one of the master pieces of ambient electronic music, the album “Ambiant Otaku”, released on Fax in 1994).

In 1994, Inoue released the collaboration with Jonah Sharp “Organic Cloud” (1994) and the collaboration with percussionist Carlos Vivanco “Zenith” (1994). A year later, he also collaborated with jazz bass player Bill Laswell on the album “Cymatic Scan” (1995). Uwe Schmidt and Tetsu Inoue also recorded the album “MU” (1995) under the moniker Masters Of Psychedelic Ambiance. In 1995, the three of them, Inoue, Schimdt and Laswell, started a new project of soundscapes called Second Nature.

In 1999, Tetsu Inoue released a collaborative project with London’s Waterloo Station, scanning thousands pictures of the station into his computer to translating the architectural forms of the structures into electronic sounds. The work was released in the “Waterloo Terminal” album. Next year, Inoue entered the world of glitch music with the album “Active/Freeze” on the 12k label, and in 2001 he released in a collaboration with Taylor Deupree and Firld Tracker the album “Anomalous”, oriented to computer music. Inoue also collaborated with the avantgarde composer Carl Stone in the album “Pict Soul” (2002). Tetsu Inoue is also one of the most prolific electronic artists who has released more than 40 works in the last 20 years.