With four giant reel-to-reel audio tape recorders behind it on stage, Open Reel Ensemble could almost be mistaken for a Japanese version of Kraftwerk.

The five members of the group want to expand the instrumental possibilities of the recorders, which are only really meant to record sound and play it back.

"I was fascinated by how cool these machines look. I knew about cassettes, but to me these were like the boss of all recorders," says project mastermind Ei Wada.