They say that if you’re going to take nude photos of yourself, make sure to do it before you’re 30. Though the latest team effort from Japanese artists Tujiko Noriko and Aoki Takamasa isn’t quite as revealing as snaps of a drugged-out night in Terry Richardson’s apartment, 28 (Fat Cat) is no less a personal document. Three years in the making, 28 was recorded between Takamasa’s home in Osaka and Noriko’s Parisian outpost, and blends Noriko’s softly hewn Japanese vocals with rhythmic layers of found sounds and lush, sometimes-erratic beats. Photographic references aside–well, not entirely aside, as the audio-recording function on Takamasa’s camcorder played a role in putting certain sound sources to disk–the pair of 28-year-olds gave us a quick look into the tools that made their ‘cross-the-bandwidth collaboration possible.

Mac PowerBook G4 1Ghz Laptop
This is the main tool for me to create sounds and songs. Unfortunately, I can’t make music without it at the moment. Most PCs look awful so I don’t want to put them in my room, and I don’t feel like creating music with such a badly designed tool, so that’s why I chose the PowerBook–it’s much better to look at! And also, OSX looks much nicer than Windows. Aoki Takamasa

Neumann TLM 103 Microphone & MOTU 2408 Soundcard
I have this microphone in my flat so I can sing and record on my own at anytime. I record directly into my computer through a MOTU soundcard. That’s it. Tujiko Noriko

Taiyo Yuden CD-Rs
This is a Japanese company and the discs are quite reasonably priced. They sound much better than other cheap CD-Rs. Aside from CD-Rs, though, I also uploaded unfinished songs and files on my server and had Noriko download them. Aoki Takamasa

Korg Z1 Synthesizer
Most of the synth sounds on 28 came from this synthesizer. It’s my favorite. It’s also got a great look, and really fits my style. I especially love its bass sound. Aoki Takamasa

Logic Pro 6.4.1 and Max/MSP 4.2.1 Software
I edit most of the sound files with Logic Pro and do almost all of the mixing work with this, too. But I use Max/MSP software to create my favorite sounds. I also use it to create strange sequences for drum patterns and special sound effects. Aoki Takamasa