Biography
Widely admired as a DJ and producer, Fumiya Tanaka introduced minimal, intense techno to Japan in the early 1990s. Through club events across Osaka and Tokyo he exposed thousands of dancers to leading producers from Detroit and Germany. His mix CDs, among them 1995’s I Am Not a DJ, delivered brisk, exhilarating sequences of hard, driving techno, while his own tracks—particularly the Unknown Possibility series—functioned as meticulously engineered DJ tools that sometimes carried tribal accents. Under the aliases Individual Orchestra and Karafuto he also explored downtempo and experimental material. By the 2010s his sound had moved toward a lightly glitch-inflected microhouse, documented on numerous Perlon releases including the 2016 album You Find the Key and 2019’s Right Moment, as well as on his own Sundance imprint.
Born in Kyoto, Tanaka performed in punk bands as a teenager before entering the dance-music world in 1990 through house, techno, and hip-hop. He began DJing soon afterward and launched Japan’s first electronic dance label, Torema Records, in 1993 to release his own pared-down productions.
In 1995 he issued his debut mix album, I Am Not a DJ, on Torema, which had secured major distribution via Sony. Later that year he founded Untitled Records, whose compilation Abstract, Set 1 opened doors for more experimental techno. International bookings followed, frequently alongside his heroes Jeff Mills, Derrick May, and Dave Clarke, prompting European techno insiders to recognize Tanaka as one of the world’s finest DJs, not merely Japan’s best. The 1996 DJ album Mix-Up, Vol. 4 preceded his first artist album, 1997’s Unknown Possibility, Vol. 1. He also contributed production to the debut album by Takkyu Ishino of Denki Groove.
After several singles on Torema, Tanaka joined the German label Tresor, which released Unknown Possibility, Vol. 2 and the accompanying Drive EP in 2001. Following the 2002 double-CD DJ Mix 1/2 [Mix.Sound.Space], his output slowed, though he continued issuing downtempo work as Individual Orchestra. His solo career resumed in 2005 with the EP Unknown Possibility, Vol. 3 - 1 and two glitch-oriented collaborative EPs with Radiq (Yoshihiro Hanno) on op.disc. Two further mixes appeared on Torema in 2007—Mur Mur: Conversation Mix and the DVD/CD Via—alongside limited white-label singles on the short-lived Chaos Ltd.
Tanaka inaugurated the Sundance label in 2008 with his third full-length, Unknown 3. After relocating to Berlin in 2009 he collaborated with Ricardo Villalobos on the 12-inch Fumiyandric. Additional Sundance 12-inches followed, as did the 2012 Perlon release “I Can Tell You of Course I Know It Was.” Dark Pad, a double-EP, surfaced on Perlon in late 2013, coinciding with Torema’s twentieth-anniversary compilation. Two EPs arrived in 2015—Beautiful Town on Pluie/Noir Recordings and UFO Training on Minibar—while the Sundance release SND005 EP paired him again with Radiq. Perlon issued his fourth album, You Find the Key, in 2016. Three Beautiful Days EPs appeared on Sundance the following year and were later gathered on the mix-CD Beautiful Days 2010-2015. The 2018 Perlon singles AB and CD preceded the Sundance collaboration A Round About Route with Kuniyuki Takahashi. Sundance also released the 2019 EPs We Would Like to Do Song for the Step and Stinking Man, and the year ended with Tanaka’s second Perlon album, Right Moment.
Born in Kyoto, Tanaka performed in punk bands as a teenager before entering the dance-music world in 1990 through house, techno, and hip-hop. He began DJing soon afterward and launched Japan’s first electronic dance label, Torema Records, in 1993 to release his own pared-down productions.
In 1995 he issued his debut mix album, I Am Not a DJ, on Torema, which had secured major distribution via Sony. Later that year he founded Untitled Records, whose compilation Abstract, Set 1 opened doors for more experimental techno. International bookings followed, frequently alongside his heroes Jeff Mills, Derrick May, and Dave Clarke, prompting European techno insiders to recognize Tanaka as one of the world’s finest DJs, not merely Japan’s best. The 1996 DJ album Mix-Up, Vol. 4 preceded his first artist album, 1997’s Unknown Possibility, Vol. 1. He also contributed production to the debut album by Takkyu Ishino of Denki Groove.
After several singles on Torema, Tanaka joined the German label Tresor, which released Unknown Possibility, Vol. 2 and the accompanying Drive EP in 2001. Following the 2002 double-CD DJ Mix 1/2 [Mix.Sound.Space], his output slowed, though he continued issuing downtempo work as Individual Orchestra. His solo career resumed in 2005 with the EP Unknown Possibility, Vol. 3 - 1 and two glitch-oriented collaborative EPs with Radiq (Yoshihiro Hanno) on op.disc. Two further mixes appeared on Torema in 2007—Mur Mur: Conversation Mix and the DVD/CD Via—alongside limited white-label singles on the short-lived Chaos Ltd.
Tanaka inaugurated the Sundance label in 2008 with his third full-length, Unknown 3. After relocating to Berlin in 2009 he collaborated with Ricardo Villalobos on the 12-inch Fumiyandric. Additional Sundance 12-inches followed, as did the 2012 Perlon release “I Can Tell You of Course I Know It Was.” Dark Pad, a double-EP, surfaced on Perlon in late 2013, coinciding with Torema’s twentieth-anniversary compilation. Two EPs arrived in 2015—Beautiful Town on Pluie/Noir Recordings and UFO Training on Minibar—while the Sundance release SND005 EP paired him again with Radiq. Perlon issued his fourth album, You Find the Key, in 2016. Three Beautiful Days EPs appeared on Sundance the following year and were later gathered on the mix-CD Beautiful Days 2010-2015. The 2018 Perlon singles AB and CD preceded the Sundance collaboration A Round About Route with Kuniyuki Takahashi. Sundance also released the 2019 EPs We Would Like to Do Song for the Step and Stinking Man, and the year ended with Tanaka’s second Perlon album, Right Moment.
Albums
Singles
