Masayoshi Fujita

Masayoshi Fujita produces distinctive sonic landscapes by combining vibraphone, marimba, and electronic elements. Early on, he issued glitch-infused, dub-tinged tracks under the El Fog moniker before attracting notice through his initial joint project with the experimental electronic musician Jan Jelinek, the 2010 release Bird, Lake, Objects. With his debut solo album under his given name, 2013's Stories, Fujita delved into post-minimalist and contemporary classical realms. Additional joint works with Jelinek, along with Guy Andrews, followed, as did further solo recordings drawing from natural surroundings and personal events, such as 2021's Bird Ambience and 2024's Migratory.

Hailing originally from Japan, Masayoshi Fujita passed a significant portion of his initial professional period in Berlin, residing there across 13 years. His first outputs came as El Fog—an abbreviation for "electronic fog"—blending the vibraphone's echoing resonances with digital manipulation and fine-grained beats. The project's inaugural full-length, Reverberate Slowly, came out via Moteer in 2007, while the rhythm-oriented Rebuilding Vibes arrived on flau in 2009, a label that subsequently put out an extended version of the debut. A partnership with experimental techno creator Jan Jelinek yielded Bird, Lake, Objects on Jelinek's Faitiche label in 2010. In 2012, Home Normal put forth Tesseract, a group effort involving Simon Harris, Derek Shirley, Jan Thoben, and Kassian Troyer. Fujita shifted toward acoustic compositions for Stories in 2013, a solo outing on flau featuring cello contributions from Arturo Martínez Steele and violin work by Hoshiko Yamane of Tangerine Dream. That same year saw the appearance of the EP Do You Know Otahiti?, which contained two live joint pieces with Jelinek plus individual tracks from Jelinek.

Erased Tapes Records became his new home, where he issued the more broadly arranged solo album Apologues in 2015. The next year included joint releases with techno producer Guy Andrews on Needle Six and another with Jelinek titled Schaum. Evocative Book of Life emerged in 2018, joined by a re-release of Stories. Following Fujita's move with his family to a countryside mountain settlement in Japan, he put out the more exploratory Bird Ambience in 2021, which wove in rougher sonic elements compared to his classical-leaning material. He created the score for the movie Smoking Tigers, which had its debut screening at the Tribeca Festival during 2023. The 2024 solo album Migratory incorporated guest spots from Moor Mother and Hatis Noit.