Watch the first part of Kazuo Imai's performance here.
Starting out as a student of pioneering improvising guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi in the early 1970s, and going on to study under the artist and composer Takehisa Kosugi of the Taj Mahal Travellers, Kazuo Imai has been a central figure on Tokyo's free improvisation scene for the past 40 years.
In 1987 Imai, along with Chie Mukai, Yasushi Ozawa (also of Fushitsusha), Masami Tada, Kei Shii and Tomonao Koshikawa, formed Marginal Consort for a performance in Tokyo. Minus Mukai, they continued to play their improvised fixed-time sets (between three and four hours) until 2008 when Ozawa died just days before their first overseas performance at Glasgow's Instal Festival.
Soloworks61 Part One was performed at Tokyo's Plan-B venue on 8 July, 2012. Recorded by Eigen Kino.
Imai and Marginal Consort are featured in an article by Alan Cummings in The Wire 355. Marginal Consort play at the South London Gallery on 8 September; their 4xLP box set is out soon on Pan.
