Asa-Chang & Junray

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Based in Tokyo, self-taught tabla guru Asa-Chang spends his professional life touring with multi-million-selling J-pop acts - groups that make S Club 7 sound like Joy Division. Regarded as Japan's premier session percussionist, in his spare time this loveable eccentric makes music that might just blow your head off.

Asa-Chang & Junray is the name of the Asa-Chang experience, and comes from the 'Jun-Ray Tronics' soundsystem he uses. The word also means 'pilgrimage' - Asa-Chang is on a mission to take music to places it's never been.

(Biography Last updated 5 April 2002)

‘Delivery Room’ by various artists [The Leaf Label]

BAY37CD Budget Priced CD Sampler coverimage

Release date 4 May 2004
CD In Stock £3.00 buy || MP3 £3.00 buy

A full-length compilation album for the price of a CD single, Delivery Room follows on from 2002’s Lost For Words and the Osmosis sampler from 1999.

The release of the compilation coincides with the long-awaited launch of The Leaf Label’s new website ( www.theleaflabel.com ). Both CD and website follow ... [more]

‘Tsu Gi Ne Pu’ by Asa-Chang & Junray

Release date 10 February 2003
LP Limited Stock £1.25 buy || CD In Stock £5.00 buy || MP3 £5.00 buy
( play all tracks )

Something utterly unique; a breath of fresh air and a welcome wake-up call to those who want more than the same tired old sounds and styles recycled ad infinitum.

Following the acclaimed debut album, Jun Ray Song Chang (Number 4 album of 2002 in The Wire, Top 40 album of 2002 ... [more]

‘Lost For Words’ by various artists [The Leaf Label]

Release date 2 September 2002
CD Limited Stock £5.00 buy || MP3 £3.00 buy

A full-length label compilation for the price of a CD single? You may well find yourself Lost For Words at the prospect of such bounty.

Lost For Words is the successor to the enormously popular Osmosis budget-priced sampler from 1999 which ushered in The Leaf Label's second wave of artists, ... [more]

‘Jun Ray Song Chang’ by Asa-Chang & Junray

Release date 17 June 2002
CD In Stock £10.00 buy || LP In Stock £15.00 buy || MP3 £7.00 buy
( play all tracks )

Asa-Chang's music is wildly exotic, playful and lovingly crafted by human hands, and should be approached with an open mind. We doubt you've ever heard anything quite like this before...

A heady brew of Eastern percussion, babelogues of spoken word, horns, toys, flute, mandolin and an analogue synthesiser drum, which together ... [more]

‘Hana’ by Asa-Chang & Junray

Release date 20 May 2002
12 Limited Stock £1.25 buy

You ain't heard nothin' 'til you've heard this. An irresistibly fruity concentration of eastern percussion, toys, horns and obsolete analogue equipment, there's something breathtakingly 21st Century about the whole enterprise, as it oscillates wildly between urban contemporary and timeless spiritual, real and manipulated, serious and playful, pop and the avant ... [more]

Latest News

ASA-CHANG & JUNRAY new mini-album

21 November 2002

Asa-Chang & Junray's 'Tsuginepu' EP will be released in early February 2003, but will be available through mail order shortly at this site. The mini-album follows the remarkable success of 'Jun Ray Song Chang' in 2002. It will be available on CD and vinyl, for a limited period.

It is hoped that the group will perform live in Europe during 2003.

You can read an interview with Asa-Chang in the current issue of The Wire, which also ... [read full article]

Asa-Chang & Junray Japanese Tour

28 August 2002

Asa-Chang & Junray have announced the following Japanese dates, taking in some unusual venues, including a sake brewery!

9/1 (sun) nakamura wonderland, kichijoji
9/6 (fri) hair salon sapna, kagoshima
9/7 (sat) cafe gallery toujaku, kumamoto
9/8 (sun) rei2 kaigandori-ten, nagasaki
9/9 (mon) hyakunengura, fukuoka, hakata
9/11 (wed) one love, hiroshima
9/12 (thu) one love, hiroshima
9/17 (tue) shinsaibashi quatro, osaka
9/18 (wed) shuyukan, shiga
9/19 (thu) imaike tokuzo, nagoya
9/22 (sun) space lab bubble, mito
9/23 (mon) sonic, iwaki
9/24 (tue) sonic, iwaki
9/26 (thu) soso cafe, ... [read full article]

ASA-CHANG & JUNRAY - new Leaf signing

4 March 2002

The Leaf Label's new signing from Japan, Asa-Chang & Junray, are to release their first 12" for the label on May 6 2002. 'Hana', which the more observant of you may have caught in one of Tony Morley's DJ sets over the last 6 months (it was also played on the Radio 1 'One World' special last year), will be the lead track, with 'Jippun' on side 2. The single will be followed by an ... [read full article]