Masahiro Takahashi 髙橋 政宏
composer, musician, producer
contact: [email protected]
Toronto-based Japanese composer-musician Masahiro Takahashi has been crafting gently spellbinding pieces that simultaneously embrace electronic abstraction and a palpable, even brittle, humanity. His delicate and evocative landscapes always seem to be illuminated in vibrant magic hour tones as golden synth lines emanate from between soft flickers of acoustic instrumentation. He has released music on an array of labels, such as Telephone Explosion Records, Not Not Fun , Jj Funhouse, and Slow Editions. He also composes for films and installations.Born in Sendai, Japan
Based in Toronto, Canada
Discography
| Year | Title | Medium | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | In Another | LP | Telephone Explosion |
| 2023 | Humid Sun | LP | Telephone Explosion |
| 2022 | Flowering Tree, Distant Moon | LP | Telephone Explosion |
| 2022 | Flowering Tree, Distant Moon | CS | Not Not Fun |
| 2018 | Omnipresent Windows | CS | Jj funhouse |
| 2018 | Metron mixtape 57 | Digi | Metron |
| 2017 | Music of inside the snail's shell | CS | Slow Editions |
| 2014 | Retreat | CD | Jeunesse Cosmique |
| 2014 | Before Gender, Language, and Definitions | 7" | Kingfisher Bluez |
| V.A | |||
| 2026 | Sounds Of The Blue Greens | LP | Blue Green |
| 2026 | Touchtheplants Presents: Love Letters | Digital | touchtheplants |
| 2025 | Emerald | CD&CS | Moon Glyph |
| 2024 | Music for Resorts | LP | Kankyo Record |
| 2022 | Calliope | Digital | Hotham Sound |
| 2021 | The Same River Twice | Digital | Hotham Sound |
| 2021 | Time Capsule 2 | CS | Everyday Ago |
| 2020 | Spring Is Here | Digital | Seasonal Signals |
| 2020 | Elevate | Digital | Dig That Treasure |
| 2018 | Christmas Compilation Vol. 3 'Icicle' | CS | Jj funhouse |
Commissioned Works
| Year | Title | Medium | Client | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Significant Others | Film | Milena Salazar | |
| 2026 | Milan Design Week | Installation | Poliform | Milan, Italy |
| 2026 | Qu'est-ce qui pousse ici ? | Installation | Phyllis Ma | Switzerland |
| 2026 | Linear Agent Demos | Movie | Linear | |
| 2026 | caught in the stream | Film | Adela Kwok | |
| 2025 | Aruku | Film | Shiho Kataoka | |
| 2024 | The Chef & The Daruma (2024 VIFF audience award) | Film | Mads K. Baekkevold | |
| 2022 | There, There | Film | Jeremy Gumener | |
| 2020 | Big Crush | Film | Sophia Bennett Holmes | |
| 2018 | On Some Faraway Beach at Vancouver Art Book Fair | Installation | Alicia Nauta & Eunice Luk | Emily Carr University, Vancouver |
| 2016 | Inside the snail's shell | Installation | Eunice Luk | Vacant, Tokyo |
Upcoming shows
| Dates | Event | Venue | Place | co-bills | collaborators |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 9/26 | POP Montreal | Le Ministère | Montreal | Lucrecia Dalt | Marc-Antoine Barbier |
| 2026 9/18 | Masahiro Takahashi Presents Chanoyu | Tranzac Club | Toronto | TBA | TBA |
| 2026 9/16 | Green-House Canada Tour | Baby G | Toronto | Green-House | Brodie West |
| 2026 9/13 | Green-House Canada Tour | Mills Hardware | Green-House | Hamilton | |
| 2026 8/21 | Masahiro Takahashi Presents Chanoyu | Tranzac Club | Toronto | Trustfall | Nick Storring |
Selected Performances
| Year | Event | Venue | Place | Co-bills | Collaborators |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Suoni Per Il Popolo Festival | La Sotterenea | Montreal | Li Alin | Naomi McCarroll-Butler |
| 2026 | TONE Festival | Standard Time | Toronto | Rafael Toral, Eric Chenaux (with Ryan Driver) | Brodie West |
| 2026 | Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore tour | The Great Hall | Toronto | Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore | Brodie West, Thom Gill, Blake Howward |
| 2024 | Joëlle Léandre & Rémy Bélanger de Beauport tour | Allan Gardens | Toronto | Joëlle Léandre & Rémy Bélanger de Beauport | Joseph Shabason, Bram Gielen |
| 2024 | Ambient ETC | The Deli | Vancouver | Souns and more | Gal Gracen, Andromeda Monk |
| 2024 | Monthly residency, Cha-no-yu | Tranzac Southern Cross | Toronto | C.R Gillespie, New Chance, Emissive, Slow Attack Ensemble, Khora | Nick Storring, Brodie West, Blake Howard, Karen Ng, Sandro Perri, Ryan Driver, Grace Scheele, Joseph Shabason, Thom Gill, Bram Gielen, Michael Davidson, Dorothea Paas |
| 2024 | Pique Festival | Arts Court | Ottawa | Douglas Ewart and many more | Brodie West |
| 2024 | Tranzac Fundraiser | Tranzac Main Hall | Toronto | Sandro Perri, Anne Bourne | Ryan Driver, Kurt Newman, Michael Davidson |
| 2023 | Mary Lattimore tour | Longboat Hall | Toronto | Mary Lattimore, Stefana Fratila | |
| 2023 | Humid Sun Release show | Tranzac Main Hall | Toronto | Omar Bong, Tender Buttons | Joseph Shabason, Brodie West, Bram Gielen, Michael Davidson, Blake Horward |
| 2023 | LA Art Book Fair | The Geffen Contemporary at MOC | Los Angeles | Diatomi Deli, M.Sage, V.C.R, Nina Keith, T-Kay | |
| 2023 | TONE Festival | Nineteen Seventy Eight | Toronto | Badge Époque Ensemble, Ben LaMar Gay’s | |
| 2023 | Peter Zummo tour | Tranzac Main Hall | Toronto | Peter Zummo Octet, Dun-Dun Trio | |
| 2023 | CMC Presents | Canadian Music Centre | Toronto | Pursuit Grooves | Matthew Bailey, Carl Schilde |
| 2022 | Atoris Release Party | Ochiai Soup | Tokyo | Atoris, Adam Oko, Ko Umehara, Soshi Takeda | mangneng |
| 2022 | Zine Dream 13 Launch Event | Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada | Toronto | Phèdre, Man Made Hill | Matthew Bailey |
| 2020 | Corpi Sonori; Lithuanian Music Festival | Online | Online | ||
| 2019 | Work Holiday + De Achtergrond | Extrapool | Nijmegen, Netherlands | ||
| 2019 | Day of Radiance | Temple | Tokyo, Japan | Laraaji | Takao |
Education and Grants
| Year | Institution | Title | Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Toronto Arts Council | Music Creation & Audio Recording (supported the creation of In Another) | Toronto |
| 2024 | Toronto Arts Council | Newcomer and Refugee Artist Mentorship (mentored with Nick Storring) | Toronto |
| 2009 ~ 2010 | Bigakkou | Music theory course studied with Naruyoshi Kikuchi | Tokyo |
| 2005 | Waseda University | B.A. in Social Science | Tokyo |
Selected Press
| Year | Media | Works |
|---|---|---|
| WIP |
DJ MIxes
| Year | Program | Theme |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | KEXP Midnight In A Perfect World | Inspirations of In Another |
| 2024 | fst.live Neighbouring Sounds | collaboration between J Shea-Carter, Masahiro Takahashi, and Eunice Luk |
| 2024 | NTS Sendspace | With Slow Editions |
| 2023 | NTS Oto Nova | Inspirations of Humid Sun |
| 2023 | The Word Radio JJ Funhouse & Friends | For Jj funhouse |
| 2021 | Slow sounds | For Printed Matter's Virtual Art Book Fair |