Mono is a Japanese post-rock group, founded in Tokyo, in 1999. Their songs are multilayered (even 10-minute) instrumental compositions, with prominently featured guitars, supported by percussions and pianos. Their music sounds emotional, soft and subdued, occasionally broken with more rock-like, stronger interjections.

The band is known for their powerful live shows, and complex instrumental work. Using classical rock instruments, they arrive at a peculiar mixture of minimalism, psychedelic rock and trance rock comparable to the sounds of Sonic Youth, Grateful Dead, Godspeed You Black Emperor or Mogwai.

Their music is full of simple beauty and surprisingly clear meaning. Rough and intensive on the one hand, lingering and lyrical on the other, it combines hypnotic, sad blots of sound with eruptions of impressive symphonic pulsations. Long instrumental build-ups unfold and evolve into the direction of ecstatic, if not ritual, noise.

“It’s very difficult for us to write a Tyree minute song” – says guitarist Takaakira Goto.

“We think of our songs like stories, and though some stories are short, most of them take longer to tell”, he adds. “We’re an instrumental band, and I think that’s why audiences often find our shows so emotional. When you take away the lyric, you take away a layer of meaning, which gives people more room to explore it for themselves. This is also the reason why we like to play with very low lighting, we’re trying to give people as much room as possible for their own maginations to explore the music.”

Members: Takaakira “Taka” Goto (guitar), Tamaki (bass), Yasunori, Takada (percussion), Yoda (guitar)