Hello, and nice to meet you.
My name is Sonoda, and I play in a band with the strange name maya ongaku. Starting today, I’ve been given a small corner here at NiEW to write a short series. I don’t yet know how many entries there will be, or how often they’ll appear—but I’ll be here for a while. I hope you’ll keep me company.
For those who’ve never heard of us, let me share a bit about who we are—just a little. maya ongaku is a small band, the kind that quietly makes music in our corner of the world. We press records, play in front of people when we can, and somehow, this has become our livelihood. So yes, I suppose you could say we’re full-time musicians—though the phrase always feels a bit too loud for what we do. Still, we take this seriously. Or at least, we try to.
The band is made up of three friends, all the same age, all from around Enoshima in Kanagawa. Takano (bass) and I were classmates in junior high. Takano and Ikeda (sax and keys) were high school buddies. I sing and play guitar.
We started the band during college—those vague, floating years between adolescence and adulthood. We didn’t really know what we were doing. We picked up instruments we couldn’t play, fiddled around, got lost—and somehow, without realizing it, found ourselves on a path that became… life.
It’s been nearly two years since our first record came out, and I still don’t quite understand what’s happening. Maybe that’s fine. Maybe you don’t have to understand everything. Sometimes, you just follow the current and see where it takes you.
This diary—this little series—is about one particular journey: our second overseas tour. Of all the things we do as a band, touring abroad is the most exhausting, the most chaotic, the most joyful, and the most alive.
We’ve performed overseas before, but this was only the second time we’ve done a full tour outside Japan.
The first was in the fall of 2023, shortly after our debut—thirteen cities across Europe and the UK, crammed into a bandwagon. I carry those memories like old Polaroids—blurry, warm, full of sounds I can still almost hear. That first tour was never written down. I wish I had.
This time, it is the United States. A place that, in the world of indie tours, is both a dream and a caution sign. There are many reasons for that—but before I get into it, I think I need to talk a little about what “touring abroad” really means. Because it’s probably different from what most people imagine.
What kind of picture comes to mind when you hear the phrase “overseas tour”?
Before I ever stepped into this world—before music became my work—I had a very specific image. It looked something like this:
The venue or your manager books you a direct business class flight. Your Japanese manager comes with you. When you land, a translator and driver are waiting, along with a few fans. Your instruments have already been shipped. You carry only a sleek RIMOWA suitcase.
At the venue, everything is already set up. There’s a bottle of wine in the green room. You toast with the band before playing to a packed crowd. The show is a success. Afterward, you go to a fancy afterparty with “industry people,” return to your hotel at dawn, then spend a few quiet days exploring the city before flying off to the next one. After a few more stops, you come home to Japan, and your bank account smiles.
Overseas tour. Thank you, music.
Yeah… sounds nice, doesn’t it?
But of course, that’s not how it works. Not for us. Not for most people.
So from here on out, I’d like to take that dream—the soft-focus fantasy—and, piece by piece, hold it up to the light of reality.
Let’s see what’s really there.
maya ongaku US TOUR dates 2025
Apr 08 Seattle, WA, US/Neumos
Apr 09 Bellingham, WA, US
Apr 10 Victoria, BC, Canada｜Wicket Hall
Apr 11 Vancouver, BC, Canada｜The Pearl
Apr 12 Portland, OR, US
Apr 14 Chico, CA, US/Argus Bar Patio
Apr 15 Oakland, CA, US/The New Parish
Apr 17 San Luis Obispo, CA, US/SLO Brew Rock
Apr 18 Jacumba Hot Springs CA, US
Apr 19 Los Angeles (LA), CA, US/Teragram Ballroom
Apr 20 Flagstaff, AZ, US/Coconino Center for the Arts
Apr 22 Santa Fe, NM, US/Tumbleroot Brewery & Distillery
Apr 23 Oklahoma City, OK, US/Resonant Head
Apr 24 Austin, TX, US｜APF 25: Kickoff Party
maya ongaku
maya ongaku is a three-piece band formed in 2021 by Tsutomu Sonoda, Ryota Takano, and Shoei Ikeda, hailing from a coastal village near Enoshima, Japan. Rooted in an organic, psychedelic sound that feels both grounded and untethered, their music draws from collective improvisation and the atmosphere of their local music scene.
The band’s name—maya ongaku—is a coined term, not taken from ancient history, but imagined as a landscape beyond the visible frame, hinting at the spiritual and the unseen. The group sees their beginning as a kind of spontaneous emergence—like life arising from non-life—something that simply happened, without pretense or planning.
In May 2023, they released their debut album ‘Approach to Anima’ via Guruguru Brain and Bayon Production, followed by a successful EU/UK tour in November and a domestic tour across Japan in December.
Their latest EP ‘Electronic Phantoms’ was released in August 2024. That same month, they hosted “rhythm echo noise” in collaboration with WWW, inviting Dutch artist Felbm to Tokyo. The band was also named Best Breakthrough Artists at the inaugural TOKYO ALTER MUSIC AWARD 2024, a new platform highlighting emerging voices from Tokyo’s independent scene.
maya ongaku has performed at major Japanese festivals such as Mori, Michi, Ichiba, FFKT, FUJI ROCK, Asagiri JAM, and FUJI & SUN. Internationally, they have appeared at festivals in Korea and China, steadily expanding their presence in Asia and beyond.
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