Masami Akita (Qiu Tian  Chang Mei , Akita Masami, born December 19, 1956), better known by his stage name Merzbow (merutsubau, Merutsubau), is a Japanese noise musician. He is best known for his style of harsh, confrontational noise exemplified on his 1996 release, Pulse Demon. Since 1980, he has released over 400 recordings, and has collaborated with various artists.

During the European tour in September-October 1989, Merzbow could only bring simple and portable gear; this led to the harsh noise style Merzbow became known for in the 1990s. Cloud Cock OO Grand (1990) was the first example of this new style, Merzbow's first digital recording (on DAT), and the first recording made for the CD format. It also includes live material recorded during the tour.  But when I started live in late 1980s I didn't like to use tape on stage. I like only live electronics. So, my studio works changed to more live composition style. I'm still using many tapes in studio works, but difference is I treat tapes and instruments. Before, I used tapes as overdubbing concept. But now tapes are crashing together, no static overdub. I found that style on Cloud Cock OO Grand.  Beginning in the mid-1990s, Merzbow began to be influenced by death metal and grindcore. Recordings from this time are mostly recorded at extreme volume, some mastered at levels far beyond standard (Noisembryo, Pulse Demon). In 1994, Akita acquired a vintage EMS synthesizer. From 1996, plans were made to release a "10 (or maybe 12)" CD box set on Extreme Records. In 2000, Extreme Records released the Merzbox, a fifty CD set of Merzbow records, twenty of them not previously released.  Throughout most of the 1990s, Merzbow live was a trio with Reiko A. on electronics and Bara on voice and dance. Masami Akita occasionally played drums for Hijokaidan during the early-mid 1990s.  In the early 1990s, Masami Akita composed the soundtracks to numerous kinbaku videos by Fuji Planning (Bu Er Qi Hua , Fuji Kikaku) and seppuku-themed videos by their sub-label Right Brain. Akita also directed Lost Paradise (Shi Le Yuan  Cheng Ma Fu Nu Fu Qie ri, Shitsurakuen: Jobafuku onna harakiri) for Right Brain. Some of this music was included on Music for Bondage Performance and Music for Bondage Performance 2, co-credited to Right Brain Audile. Director Ian Kerkhof would use a Merzbow track for his 1992 film La sequence des barres paralleles, and Akita composed original music for Kerhof's 1994 film The Dead Man 2: Return of the Dead Man. Kerkhof made the documentary Beyond Ultra Violence: Uneasy Listening by Merzbow in 1998. Akita also created music for Ilppo Pohjola's Asphalto (1998) and Routemaster (2000).

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