Sunday 27 December 2026, 7.30pm
Japan Blues returns to OTO for an evening of Japanese records and live music. Howard Williams plays selections from his collection alongside performances by singer Akari Mochizuki (voice, enka and min'yō) and Tsugaru shamisen player Hibiki Ichikawa, bringing together Japanese folk song, enka and shamisen instrumentals.
An independent record distributor and founder of Ethbo - a label whose roster includes releases by Mike Cooper; 70s Japanese gangster soundtracks; crazed garage-rockabilly, a reissue of Alternative TV, and more recently the debut LP by The Dengie Hundred. He co-compiled the Moondog retrospective "The Viking Of Sixth Avenue”, and Japanese jazz singer Maki Asakawa, both for Honest Jon's and three compilation albums of vintage music for Ace Records: Nippon Guitars, Nippon Rock'n'Roll, and Lovin’ Mighty Fire, a selection of Japanese soul, funk and disco.
An avid collector of Japanese records, he has played at The Barbican, Frieze, The Tate Modern, the V&A, and has toured extensively. Japan Blues is also the name of his previous Japanese music show on NTS Live, ten years of which are now on the NTS archive, his current radio show is monthly on Slack City.
His eponymous label released his debut “Sells His Record Collection” and an album by Osakan transcendental steel drum maverick (and OTO performer) Iku Sakan, reissued a Japanese private press "psych/folk" 7" belter from 1970, by Agi Jo (aka the late Agi Yuzuru, owner of the legendary Vanity Records) and a retrospective of Japanese singer/songwriter Lily . He also released an EP by Tokyo minyo/ analogue techno group, Kufuki, on yet another in-house label Les Editions Japonais, and collaborated on the compilation of Yiddish East End Jazz, "Music is the Most Beautiful Language in the World", on JWM. 2023 saw his collaboration LP (and a tape) "Japan Blues Meets The Dengie Hundred" on Demdike Stare.
