, known by his stage name KK Null, is a Japanese experimental multi-instrumentalist active since the early 1980s. He began as a guitarist but learned how to compose, sing, play drums, and create electronic music. He also studied

Butoh is a form of Japanese dance theatre that encompasses a diverse range of activities, techniques and motivations for dance, performance, or movement. Following World War II, butoh arose in 1959 through collaborations between its two key founder ...

dance at

Min Tanaka is a Japanese dancer and actor. Biography Tanaka was trained in ballet and modern dance, but in 1974, turned his back on these forms. He began his solo career with a series of nearly-naked primarily outdoor improvisational dances that took place ...

's workshop. KK Null joined the

noise Noise is sound, chiefly unwanted, unintentional, or harmful sound considered unpleasant, loud, or disruptive to mental or hearing faculties. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrat ...

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

band YBO2 in 1984, issuing several albums and

EPs An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

throughout the remainder of the decade. Later he founded bands, such as Absolut Null Punkt (a.k.a. ANP) and the most well known, a self-described "progressive hardcore trio",

Zeni Geva Zeni Geva is a Japanese noise rock band featuring singer and guitarist KK Null and drummer Tatsuya Yoshida. Formed in Tokyo in 1987, the group's name translates roughly as "money violence" ("Zeni" is an old Japanese term for money, and "Geva" co ...

. From that point he also produced albums for other artists, created his own record label (Nux Organization), played live and collaborated on albums with many other musicians, including

John Zorn John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer, conducting, conductor, saxophonist, arrangement, arranger and record producer, producer who "deliberately resists category". His Avant-garde music, avant-garde and experimental music, ex ...

Yona-Kit Yona-Kit was a math rock quartet active in 1994. Background A U.S.-Japanese collaboration, the group consisted of KK Null (electric guitar and vocals), Jim O'Rourke (electric guitar), Darin Gray (electric bass guitar), and Thymme Jones (drum ...

Steve Albini Steven Frank Albini (; July 22, 1962 – May 7, 2024) was an American musician and audio engineer. He founded and fronted the influential post-hardcore and noise rock bands Big Black (1981–1987), Rapeman (1987–1989) and Shellac (band), ...

Boredoms Boredoms () (later known as V∞redoms) is a rock band from Osaka, Japan formed in 1986. The band's sound is often referred to as noise rock, or sometimes Japanoise (Japan's noise music scene), though their more recent records have moved towar ...

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, Jim O'Rourke,

Merzbow is a Japanese noise project started in 1979 by Masami Akita, best known for a style of harsh noise music. Since 1980, Akita has released over 500 recordings and collaborated with numerous artists. The name Merzbow comes from the German dada a ...

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, Damian Catera,

OvO OVO may refer to: * ''OVO'' (album), by Peter Gabriel, 2000 *OvO (band), an Italian rock band *Ovo (Cirque du Soleil), a touring Cirque du Soleil show * OVO (payment service), an Indonesian digital payment and fintech company * OVO (video encyclope ...

, Atau Tanaka,

Zbigniew Karkowski Zbigniew Karkowski (14 March 1958 – 12 December 2013) was a Polish experimental musician and composer. Biography Karkowski was born on 14 March 1958 in Kraków, Poland. He studied composition at the State College of Music in Gothenburg, Sweden ...

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Alexei Borisov Alexei Yurievich Borisov () (born 7 December 1960) is a Russian musician, active in the Russian underground music scene since the beginning of the 1980s, and a member of Night Prospekt, F.R.U.I.T.S., Volga, ASTMA, Fake Cats Project and various ...

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, Cris X.,

Noisegate Noisegate was a group of artists dedicated to the exploration of sound as an artistic medium, based in Oakland, California, United States. Constantly recording, touring, and collaborating with other experimental artists and filmmakers, they beca ...

and Philip Samartzis, as well as supporting such artists as

Sonic Youth Sonic Youth were an American rock band formed in New York City in 1981. Founding members Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar), Thurston Moore (lead guitar, vocals) and Lee Ranaldo (rhythm guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of ...

and

Mike Patton Michael Allan Patton (born January 27, 1968) is an American singer, songwriter, producer, and voice actor, best known as the lead vocalist of the rock bands Faith No More and Mr. Bungle. He has also fronted and/or played with Tomahawk, The ...

on tour. Altogether KK Null has released more than 100 albums. In 2004 he restarted ANP and in 2006 they released their first studio album in 20 years.

References

External links

KK NULL official site

* 1961 births Living people Japanese rock guitarists Japanese male rock singers Singers from Tokyo Noise musicians Zeni Geva members {{Japan-musician-stub