Ruins is the brainchild of drummer Tatsuya Yoshida, one of Japan's most original and fiercely independent musicians. They have toured around the world numerous times, notably as part of the Japanese New Music Festival, a tour of Tatsuya's own invention. In the original two-man unit, Yoshida switched bassists whenever needed, but with the departure of fourth bassist Sasaki Hisashi, Yoshida has carried on as “RUINS alone”,

Drums and Electronics a one-man performance that has to be seen to be believed.

Yoshida has played and continues to play with many other groups such as Koenji Hyakkei, Zeni Geva, Painkiller, High Rise, Incapacitants and Acid Mothers Temple and has collaborated with a huge list of musicians from around the world including John Zorn, Keiji Haino, Richard Pinhas, Fred Frith, Bill Laswell, Otomo Yoshihide, Mani Neumeier, Derek Bailey and Charles Hayward, among others.

He formed Ruins in the summer of 1985, originally intending to be a power trio, but when the guitarist didn't show for their first rehearsal, he bumped Ruins down to a rhythm-section-only duo. Ruins produce a unique fusion of punk and progressive rock. Yoshida has stated that while he admires punk's energy, he has no desire to play pure punk, and in fact grew up on a steady diet of prog bands such as Genesis, ELP, and Gentle Giant. However, his true inspiration came from France's Magma. Magma's trademark odd-metered motives, faux operatic signing, and especially Christian Vander's extroverted drumming have certainly made their way into Yoshida's consciousness, although the jazzy undertones and relatively atmospheric group sound did not. From an early point, Ruins appealed to the avant-garde and punk listener more than the more traditional 'progger'. On their first recordings, they teamed up with NYC experimental sax-icon John Zorn (who praised Tatsuya as an "undisputed master drummer of the Japanese underground") and would later put out albums on his Tzadik label. The Ruins sound is dense mix of hardcore punk, prog theatrics, and free-improv. Some critics have used the term 'jazzcore', but that seems inadequate...

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