Ground Zero

Ground Zero was a Japanese free improvisation and noise ensemble led by Otomo Yoshihide, active from 1990 to 1998. The group's practice was defined by extreme collage — fragments of free jazz, Okinawan folk music, anime soundtracks, noise, and found recordings assembled into chaotic, politically charged performances and records. Their Consume Red (1994) and the live Revolutionary Pekinese Opera (1995) on the RéR and Tzadik labels are among the most confrontational and inventive records of the Japanese experimental scene. The project was deliberately temporary; its dissolution was announced in advance as part of the project's conceptual logic.