His first recording as the Saxophonettes was L'Automne à Pékin (1983), a tribute to the Golden Age of Hollywood: classic soundtrack-flavored tunes rendered with a combination of lush yet minimal orchestration and layered electronic sounds laid over reggae bass and drums.

From 1985 through 1991 Shimizu divided his time between Paris and London, making his contribution to the multicultural and re-energized European music scene by recording, collaborating and performing with various international artists.

On his Cello Suites projects Shimizu utilized unconventional acoustic environments, which he selected for their high degree of reverberation—an underground quarry, a mine in Japan, a palazzo in Italy—in order to “play the space” as a resonating instrument.

This approach is also reflected in his "Bach-Saxophone-Space" concert series performed at such locations as Kodaiji Temple in Kyoto in 1996 (Osaka Shinbun 6 Dec 1996), the Niitsu, Genichiro-Inokuma and Mito art museums between 2000 and 2003, and an underground car park in Shibuya (Mainichi Daily Sept 1997), Tokyo (1997).

[4] In 2006, Shimizu made his playful one-man-band concept of the Saxophonettes into a real-life quintet, featuring Ryoko Egawa, Hirokazu Hayashida, Ryota Higashi and Hiroshi Suzuki in an ensemble of three tenor and two baritone saxophones.

Featuring new compositions as well as arrangements of Ethiopian traditional music, it displays Shimizu's individuality: from his choice of recording locations and painstaking approach to sound production, to the immediacy of live performance conveyed through the interplay between musicians.

A major event in 2008 saw Shimizu compose music for a one-off screening of the newly restored 1925 silent film Orochi, a samurai “chambara” sword-fighting drama.

[14] In 2012 Shimizu collaborated with media artist Masaki Fujihata on his project Voices of Aliveness,[15] a multimedia public recording, installation and performance for the Estuaire Biennale in Nantes, France.

As a composer-producer-arranger, he has collaborated with artists as diverse as Japanese enka balladeer Saburo Kitajima, composers Ryuichi Sakamoto and Koji Ueno, jazz vocalists Helen Merrill and Karin Krog, guitarist Kazumi Watanabe, French pop singer Pierre Barouh, and DJ Towa Tei.

Live collaborations include appearances with Bill Laswell,[16] Elvin Jones, Yosuke Yamashita, Van Dyke Parks, Urban Sax, Manu Dibango, David Cunningham[17] and Carl Stone.