現代日本のオルタナティブ音楽シーンで最も先鋭的なドラマー/作曲家/インプロヴァイザーの一人。1961年 岩手県生れ。高校のブラスバンドでドラムを始める。80年代初頭から都内のライブハウスを拠点に演奏活動を開始。パワフルでポリリズミックでスピード感溢れる演奏スタイルで、パイディア、あぶらだこ(ヘルプ)、YBO2、ZENI-GEVA、ジョン・ゾーン・のトーチャー・ガーデン等々、数多のグループに参加して活躍。85年には自身とベーシストの2人だけによるバンド『RUINS』を結成。そのソリッドなリズム・セクションによるエネルギーの爆発に高音から低音までをカバーする吉田のオペラチックなヴォ-カルを乗せた革新的な音楽性とサウンドは、国内はもとより海外でも高く評価され、頻繁に海外ツアーもおこなっている。90年代はルインズ以外にも高円寺百景、大陸男対山脈女、是巨人、ズビズバ、赤天等つぎつぎと違うコンセプトに基づくバンドを立ち上げほとんどのレパートリーを作曲。セッション参加もふくめて国内外の様々なレーベルから100を超える作品を発表している。内外のミュージシャンとの共演も多数。近年では菊地雅章、藤井郷子等ジャズフィールドでの活動も目立つ。また国境を超えサムラママスマンナ、アシッドマザーズゴング、ペインキラーのメンバーとしても活動している。また、音楽活動のかたわら石仏、石像、巨石、石の山。石とあれば写真を撮り続ける写真家でもある。
主な共演者:John Zorn, Fred Frith, Bill Laswell, Derek Bailey, Charles Hayward, Lars Hollmer, David Moss, Billy Bang, Eugene Chadbourne, RonAnderson, 灰野敬二、大友良英、菊地雅章、坂田明、梅津和時、千野秀一、広瀬淳二、林栄一、藤井郷子、勝井裕二、沢田譲治、NULL、古館徹夫、天鼓、山本精一
A real octopus,
Tatsuya Yoshida began the drums at the beginning of the 1980s. Twenty five years later, he has become a truly polyrhythmic monster with syncopated respiration. An initiate in progressive music from his high-school days,
Tatsuya Yoshida listened to
Genesis, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Camel and
This Heat. Although he cites his main influence as
Christian Vander and
Magma‘s Kobaïan operatic choruses and interlaced phrasing,
Tatsuya Yoshida also mines other seams to create a new, complex and concentrated style, incorporating the expressiveness of prog rock, the freedom of jazz and the energy of punk.
The foundations of Japanese independent and alternative music were born in the eighties. Tatsuya Yoshida was already playing in the group YBO2 beside Masashi Kitamura and K.K. Null (Zeni Geva) when, in 1985, he formed a duo, Ruins, with just bass and drums. Four bass players came and went: Hideki Kawamoto, Kazuyoshi Kimoto, Ryuichi Masuda and Hisashi Sasaki. With the departure of his last bassist, Tatsuya Yoshida set out on a quest for a new member, but abandoned his mission, unable to find a candidate up to the job. The music Ruins was creating had become so complex that electronic machines were now Tatsuya Yoshida‘s ideal partner.
Ruins then became Ruins Alone. Like syrup or strong alcohol, Ruins makes music that makes you grimace. Ruins is a lab of Tatsuya Yoshida, a direct interface between his brain and his drumsticks. You could get fifteen rock records out of one Ruins album, just by adding a bit of fizzy water. Each composition could be developed in many different directions.Tatsuya Yoshida plays in numerous groups; he needs to, to sustain sufficient space for his overflowing creativity.
When not doing music, Yoshida compulsively photographs stones. He travels the world in search of the mineral beauty of monumental statues and the millennial energy of rocks.