Mono, Japan

Mono are a Japanese instrumental rock band formed in 1999 in Tokyo, Kantō, Honshū. The band consists of Takaakira Goto (electric guitar), Yoda (electric guitar), Tamaki Kunishi (bass guitar, electric guitar, piano, glockenspiel), and Yasunori Takada (drum kit, glockenspiel, synthesizer).

Mono have released five studio albums in their ten years of activity. They spent their early years, from 1999 to 2003, touring Asia, Europe, and America relentlessly, and released two studio albums, Under the Pipal Tree (2001) and One Step More and You Die (2002) on the Tzadik and Music Mine Inc. record labels, respectively. From 2004 to 2007, Mono signed to Temporary Residence Limited, released two more studio albums, Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered and the Sun Shined (2004) and You Are There (2006), and toured worldwide in their support. In 2008, the band took a break, and later returned the following year with a new studio album, Hymn to the Immortal Wind (2009).

The band’s style of instrumental rock music is influenced by the genres of experimental rock and shoegazing, as well as by both the classical and contemporary classical periods of classical music, and also by noise and minimalism. Mono’s sound is characterised by the lead and rhythm guitars of Goto and Yoda respectively, both of whom make use of reverb, distortion and delay effects. The band’s live performances are noted for their intensity, both in their playing and in their dynamics.