Immanuel or Emmanuel is a Hebrew name that appears in the Book of Isaiah (7:14) as a sign that God will protect the House of David.
Yume Bitsu was an American post-rock band from Portland, Oregon, active from 1995 and 2002.
Chapter Music is one of Australia's longest-running independent record labels. Chapter Music has worked with a broad range of mostly Australian artists, in genres such as rock and roll, indie pop, post punk, country and western and folk. Between 1992 and 2013, the label released around 45 titles, including several compilation albums, such as Can't Stop It! Australian Post-Punk 1978-82 and Songs For Nao. The label's 2014 roster features bands such as Dick Diver, Beaches and Twerps.
Sufjan Stevens is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He has released ten solo studio albums and multiple collaborative albums with other artists. Stevens has received Grammy and Academy Award nominations.
Maher Shalal Hash Baz is a Japanese music ensemble based in Japan, and the artistic alter ego of Tori Kudo, a Japanese composer and musician.
Viva Voce was an American indie rock band from Portland, Oregon, formed by Kevin Robinson and Anita Robinson. Their music drew on several influences including psychedelic rock, classic rock, folk and R&B.
Half-handed Cloud is an American recording project, based in Helsinki, Finland since 2015. It was started in 1999 as a one-man band by John Ringhofer, who created the band name based on an occurrence in the Old Testament. The majority of Half-handed Cloud's albums have been released on Asthmatic Kitty Records. His previous band was Wookieback with Matthew Vollmer and Brandon Buckner. Ringhofer, a vegetarian, lived rent free in return for his custodial services at a church in Berkeley, CA for a decade. John Ringhofer has collaborated with Sufjan Stevens on Half-handed Cloud's What's The Remedy? 7-inch, among other works such as Thy Is A Word And Feet Need Lamps, and 2014's Flying Scroll Flight Control. Daniel Smith of Danielson and Sounds Familyre is credited for helping to establish Half-handed Cloud's early days, and has been a frequent collaborator with John Ringhofer.
Asthmatic Kitty Records is an American independent record label founded in 1999 by a community of musicians from Holland, Michigan led by Sufjan Stevens and his stepfather Lowell Brams. Some were Holland natives, and others had come to attend local colleges and universities. While the original Holland nucleus has dispersed across the country, the community has grown, with new artists and shared projects with other independent record labels. The Library Catalog Music Series, inaugurated in 2009, showcases instrumental music from a wide variety of musicians, with eighteen albums in print as of February 2013, and more scheduled for release. Asthmatic Kitty is now based in Lander, Wyoming, Atlanta, Georgia and Brooklyn, New York.
Bill Wells is a Scottish bassist, pianist, guitarist and composer.
Castanets was the musical project of Ray Raposa, who had been signed to Asthmatic Kitty Records from 2004 until his death in 2022. Castanets was influenced by country, folk, and experimental rock, and released seven albums, the latest being Decimation Blues in 2014. Additionally, songs by Castanets appear on a number of split 7-inch singles and EPs with other bands, including Shapes and Sizes and Dirty Projectors. While Raposa was the only constant member of the band, his records and live performances featured a rotating cast of musicians. A San Diego native, Raposa lived in Brooklyn and resided in Portland, Oregon.
Ikuro Takahashi is a Japanese drummer and percussionist based in Sapporo, also plays electronic and oscillators. He has been a central member of many groups from the Tokyo psychedelic underground from the early eighties. Some of the groups he has played with include Fushitsusha, High Rise, Kousokuya, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Ché-SHIZU, Nagisa ni te, LSD March, Gu-N, and Akebonoizu, Tetsuya Umeda and Fumio Kosakai of Incapacitants. He has performed under the name Anoyondekigoto since 2000, a unit project with a Butoh dancer Yoko Muronoi(1959- 2017). He runs his own label Galleria Zarigania since 2007.
Reiko Kudo (工藤礼子) is a Japanese musician. In the late seventies and early eighties, she fronted the band Noise under her maiden name, Reiko Omura. Noise released one album called Tenno and played in Tokyo underground venues like Minor. Reiko has collaborated with Maher Shalal Hash Baz, and released several solo albums. She is the partner of Tori Kudo, member of the Japanese band Maher Shalal Hash Baz
Nagisa Ni te (渚にて) is a Japanese psychedelic-folk rock duo. The group's name (渚にて) is translated as "on the beach". Shinji Shibayama, the group's founder — and a previous member of Idiot O'Clock and Hallelujahs — is also owner of Org Records, which has released albums from groups like Maher Shalal Hash Baz and Naoki Zushi. Tori Kudo, member of Maher Shalal Hash Baz, described the group as:
"Nagisa Ni te's naked Progressive rock-based worldly songs, which are sung not so much deliberately as seriously, on their love beach, now fill a blank somewhere between underground hi-fi and overground lo-fi."
Nedelle Torrisi is an American musician who lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Pepe Deluxé is a finnish electronic music oriented band, formed in 1996 by DJ Slow JA-Jazz and James Spectrum in Helsinki, Finland. They started to experiment with sounds of hip hop, big beat, breakbeat and downtempo. With the 2007 release Spare Time Machine the band gave up on sampling and concentrated on vintage music styles including psychedelia, baroque pop and surf rock. DJ Slow left the band in 2001 to pursue solo projects. JA-Jazz has been off-duty since 2008. Multi-instrumentalist Paul Malmström became an official member of the band in 2008.
Tenniscoats is a Japanese band with two members, Saya & Takashi Ueno, but they often have guest musicians playing and performing with them. The guest musicians are for example, Secai, LSD March, Eddie Marcon, Popo, Saibou Bungaku, Tetsuya Umeda, Kazumi Nikaido, etc. Saya and Takashi have also performed in many other underground bands, such as Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Cacoy, Puka Puka Brians, Yumbo and others. Saya and Takashi have also released solo works.
Cryptacize is a California pop band founded by Nedelle Torrisi and Chris Cohen in 2006. They released two records on the Asthmatic Kitty label.
Calamity is the fourth album by Californian pop band The Curtains, released in 2006 on Asthmatic Kitty. It was recorded directly after Deerhoof's "The Runners Four". The album is exclusively produced by Chris Cohen. It features guest performances by Nedelle Torrisi and Yasi Perera, as well as trombone by John Ringhofer.
Rafter is the performing name of the American musician and producer Rafter Roberts. He also owns his own studio, Singing Serpent, in San Diego, California, United States.
Chris Cohen is an American singer-songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist best known for his solo albums as well as for having been a member of the band Deerhoof between 2002 and 2006.
