Kishi Bashi's first EP,
Room For Dream, came out in May 2011 on Aerobic International.
Room For Dream features four songs, including a duet with
Kevin Barnes and can only be purchased from downloading platforms such as
iTunes or
Bandcamp. His live show is a solo performance based on live
violin and vocal
looping and
beat boxing. He has often been compared to
Andrew Bird and
Owen Pallett. Kishi Bashi's first full-length record,
151a, was released by
Joyful Noise Recordings on April 10, 2012, after receiving partial funding through
Kickstarter. The title '151a' refers to the Japanese term
一期一会 (pronounced the same way '151a' is in Japanese), which carries a meaning similar to "once in a lifetime". The three b-sides from the
Room For Dream EP ("Conversations at the End of the World," "Evalyn, Summer has Arrived," and "Unicorns Die When You Leave") are included on the Australian/NZ edition of '151a' as bonus tracks. The Australian/NZ edition also replaces "Intro / Pathos, Pathos" with an instrumental version of the same track. Kishi Bashi's second album,
Lighght (pronounced "light") was released on
Joyful Noise Recordings on May 13, 2014. The album's title is a one-word poem by
Aram Saroyan. His third studio album,
Sonderlust, was released on September 16, 2016, by
Joyful Noise Recordings. It was produced by
Chris Taylor of
Grizzly Bear. On December 7, 2017, Dill-Ishibashi started a
crowdfunding campaign on
Indiegogo for a documentary film titled
Omoiyari: A Songfilm by Kishi Bashi, which was acquired by MTV Documentaries and premiered on Paramount+ in 2023. The film details the struggles faced by
incarcerated Japanese Americans during
World War II. An album of songs created for the film was released by
Joyful Noise Recordings on May 31, 2019, marking it as his fourth studio album. ==References==