Japanese Noise Project

PSF Records, the record label overseen by Hideo Ikeezumi, is celebrating its 30th anniversary on September 25th with a show at Showboat in Koenji, Tokyo. Details as follow.

The Boredoms will stop by Tokyo for a now sold-out performance with the following collaborators. We're looking forward to being back in Tokyo, catching the show and talking closely with EYE and Hisham of Soft Circle. The line up is as follows: EYE, YOSHIMI, YOJIRO, Hisham Bharoocha (Soft Circle), Zach Hill (HELLA), Butchy Fuego (Pit Er Pat, NA FUEGO), Kid Millions (Oneida), Jeremy Hyman (Ponytail) and Shinji Masuko (DMBQ).

The Boredoms will also be playing this years Sense of Wonder Festival too.

Thanks to Jason Bergman for the photo of The Boredoms at Terminal 5.

Reservations are currently being accepted for a solo performance at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art. Ito will perform in The Hall, a uniquely shaped space rarely opened to performances to be followed by a talk by the artist. For those who may not know, Ito also makes time to work as a university professor of sound art, theory and approach; one of the many reasons why I always enjoy our interviews.

Information:
Sunday, September 13th in the Museum's Hall at 6:30 PM (doors at 6:00).
￥3000 for General Admission, ￥2,500 for Museum Members (with a guest).
Includes one drink and admission to the ongoing exhibition (so you can check it before the performance).
Reserve via telephone at 03-3445-0669 or info (at) haramuseum.co.jp

We're finally back in town and back on the beat. Just got through a few days of shooting with Atsuhiro Ito and Hiroshi Hasegawa, who's first time ever collaboration we were excited to catch. Now we're just in time to catch Hisham's jam with EYE tonight. The two perform under the name Gatax and are averaging about one performance every two years.

This is a super quick update so please check the link below for more info on the show tonight (yes, tonight- excuse the last minute post) as well as the exhibit which Hisham is curating featuring some of our friends and favorite artists like Zach Hill, Brian Degraw, Bjorn Copeland, EYE and the list goes on.

http://www.n0idea.com/vacant/menu.html

New videos and interviews to be posted soon, still getting through hours of footage.

Thanks.

Otomo Yoshihide's ongoing work Ensembles, a large-scale musical exhibition held last year at the YCAM InterLab in Eastern Japan, comes to Tokyo for a short string of performances. The credo of discovering and utilizing new, or 'found,' sounds in composition remains at the core as Yoshihide continues working to "create a variety of musical devices in all sorts of places."

I'll continue on by extracting a lengthy quote from the Ensembles Manifesto:

The life-changing fascination with music that came over me in my teens was rooted in the discovery that new and unfamiliar sounds could cause a reaction among a large number of people gathered in one place. All of the music I loved--free jazz, free improvisation, noise, alternative--had this kind of effect. The fascination was not only with the music itself, but also with the feeling of total unity that came from the aura and power of the space and the gravitational pull existing among the people who were there. I wanted to get away from the kind of music that leaves no distance between sound source and eardrums; I wanted to bring back space and noise. I wondered what would happen if I tried to make music not just for individual listening, but music that emerged as it passed through the ears, hands and bodies of many people. This is how ENSEMBLES got started.

Its entitled ENSEMBLES, in the plural form, for the reason that Yoshihide envisioned an aggregate of works that were intertwined both in implication and development- something multilayered. With intentions less aligned as a single event but rather more in the direction of being plural and integral; which for Yoshihide means sometimes happening simultaneously or sometimes unfolding at a more comfortable pace yet leaving room for inconsistency and contradiction.

Referring back to the Ensembles Manifesto, Yoshihide continues:

For now, the idea is that between July and October, in a variety of venues, we'll present a wide range of new and previously existing works, performances, etc.--from very small to medium-sized events and from nearly individual creations to works involving many people-- that unfold semi-improvisationally at times, guerrilla-style at others. The plan itself is not fixed; my intention is to develop something that will adapt flexibly to each situation, something that could not be realized in an established art museum or concert hall. What's more, based on the results this time, I'm hoping to continue ENSEMBLES next year, the year after that, and into the future. It will be a challenge, but I'm sure it will be interesting.

For now, here are details of the coming Tokyo performance:

Otomo Yoshihide ＋ Yasutomo Aoyama ＋ Takayuki Ito/YCAM InterLab ＋ Masayoshi Takada ＋α

Date:　7.4(Sat)-8.9(Sun)　13:00-20:00
Place:　Vacant　(3-20-13 Jingumae Shibuya-ku, Tokyo/ 03-6459-2962)
Admission:　￥500 / ￥1,000 (with DVD!)
Organized by:　N0 IDEA, ENSEMBLES Committee
Supported by:　Fostex Company, Shiseido Co., Ltd.
Cooperated by:　Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media[YCAM]
Technical Supported by:　YCAM InterLab

There are also a few events scheduled around so here is a rundown of more happenings:

Sunday July 5th brings the opening event with live sets by:
DJ トランキライザ (Tranquilizer), Aoyama Yasutomo+Otomo Yoshihide, Mori Yuko, Sachiko M and two others whose names I couldn't make out.

Sunday August 2nd features a talk event held with Otomo Yoshihide and Guest(s).

Sunday August 9th there is a closing event with a performance by Otomo Yoshihide and α which opens at 18:30 and starts at 19:00.

Last night, popped by the opening of a new space, Vacant, where film critic Masaya Nakahara aka Hair Stylistics (formerly Violent Onsen Geisha) was and will be screening selected films. Titled "Masaya Nakahara's Room," I believe its an on going series of screenings based on our brief conversation last night. I didn't get a chance to ask him what will be showing but we bookmarked an interview for the future and he was more than kind of enough to pass me a disc of some unreleased stuff from his previously finished subscription series of releases- can't wait to pop it in the player.

A few details of whats going this Golden week at Vacant:

May 4th -- Live
Yoshihide Otomo x Seiichi Yamamoto
Open 18:30/ Start 19:00 (schedule may change)
Fee: ¥2500 (advance), ¥3000 (same-day) + 1 drink

May 5th -- Live & DJ
Oorutaichi with YTAMO (from Urichipangoon), Takuma Watanabe x Muneomi Senju x Special Guest, Eiko Ishibashi with Muneomi Senju, Mao Yamasaki (Akichi Records)
Open 15:30/ Starrt 16:00
Fee: ¥2500 (advance), ¥3000 (same-day) + 1 drink

May 6th -- Live & Performance
Hasro & Bokka, Jun Takahashi x Kan Takagi x Fuyuki Yamakawa x Atsuhiro Ito
Open 17:30/ Start 18:00
Fee: ¥3500 (advance), ¥4000 (same-day) + 1 drink

Full info at Tokyo Art Beat:
Vacant Opening Event "Wrong Dance, Right Steps"
Venue: Vacant
Schedule: From 2009-05-01 To 2009-05-06

A little over two weeks ago, we made it out to this show but running late, missed Muddy World's set although timely enough to catch Tetragrammaton (Myspace)- a quieter guitar and percussion based trio of Cal Lyall, TOMO and Nobunaga Ken.  While TOMO mostly relied on a soprano sax, a hurdy-gurdy gave the opening a Mediterranean-folk aesthetic, and along with Lyall applying a bow to his fretboard, set a brooding scene of orchestral drone. Eventual pick slides up distortion-charged strings began to pierce like a steel stringed violin and as the distant toms grew louder, riffs briefly appeared among the more short lived rhythmic episodes and premature build ups.



What brought the sense of centrality and cohesion to the unit was the eventual swelling from a series of cues-TOMO's monk-like chants, Nobunaga's tempered drum line and Lyall's bouts of frenetic guitar and nomadic fingerings.  In full measure, these appropriate cues summed to an abrupt and resonant end to Tetragrammaton’s performance.

This tour was centered around Campbell Kneale’s (formerly Birchville Cat Motel new project, Our Love Will Destroy the World. What marked Kneale’s performance was depth- the initial shimmering notes subsequently layered upon, the vocals set at a distance along with body movements which worked to contextualize the scope of the sounds produced.



That the vocals seemed low-level tracked wasn’t weakening but rather provided a platform for Kneale to expel his deepest screams. At one point well into the set, with arms out as wide as a pastor, staggering and belting out to the crowd, Kneale appeared euphorically enthralled- ebbing, flowing and swaying his limbs, at one point gripping the sides of the table and putting the microphone fully into his mouth. The over 40 minute set wound down with a bagpipe flute run through layers of delay before reaching ears. Well into those lighter notes, Kneale faded off into the distance, trailing off with his own monkish chanting until the only thing we could hear were heavy breaths.



Back when we interviewed Yamataka EYE, EYE referenced Merzbow as an earlier influence not so much musically but more so artistically.  EYE asked if I had ever seen Akita play drums and I briefly hesitated before answering because I didn’t even know Merzbow had a background in percussion.  After that, it became a distant anecdote and so towards the end of Kikuri, after Haino had played to a drum loop he programmed minutes before, Merzbow wandered back to the drum set and gave the performance a bit of an unexpected and rather folkloric turn.  While Merzbow largely improvised on the drum kit, an eventual and steady concreté build up sprouted as the most cohesive part of Kikuri’s set. Although, with full measures of power electronics and guitar, their performance was not limited to the facade their main instruments would suggest and as we saw, both musicians had an impressive number of tricks up their sleeves.





The familiarity with either member of Kikuri still fails to prevent my expectations from dissolving. With Haino eschewing pre-gig rehearsal with collaborators, one can never know what to expect. On this evening, the duo were more coherent and complimentary than one of those cataclysmic juxtapositions. From the start, Merzbow revved subtler bass tones that seemed elasticity tests while in the usual cross-legged pose, Haino reached for a 12 string guitar, abruptly entering with iron-wrangling notes over the digital hum. These surging drones became a launching pad for Haino’s lunar-bound adventures but soon enough, Merzbow’s motorcycle accelerations turned into heavier swirls that upped the tempo.  Haino momentarily abandoned his strumming for pick slides all the way up the neck in addition to harsh pulls and palm-massages of strings. Seated convulsion followed and Haino’s strum hand began to blur the naked eye.  Through an output of introverted howls and winds via Merzbow, the time eventually came for Haino to extend his arm to the mic for some stern syllabic yelping and heavy breathing.



While Haino synched up rhythmically, it was in that lull when Merzbow stood up and reached for his strumming apparatus- a rectangular halogen light casing with tightly coiled springs in the place of a bulb which he strums like a guitar. Just that there isn’t much strumming going on, rather scratching and rubbing with a hand held metallic puck.  Occasionally varied with wah and distortion pedals, it was in that treble storm that Haino stood up and went berzerk fighting some gravitational pull on his guitar.



Moving on to use his digital theremins, zipping and revving his hands to produce a new variety sounds and warped tones, Haino actually looked like a wizard casting a spell the way his hands locked. Haino then wandered back to the amp and pulled out a metallic disc of a small bag.



The contact mics picked up everything as he played it with a mini hammer, a bow as well as lettting it jangle and scrape against the floor. In the dark, dents from earlier bouts were visible. With Akita behind the drum set, Haino returned to his guitar, where things seemed to coalesce only to be brought to an end.



Ok, thats all for now.

Photos: Cameron McKean (B/W) and John Chandler (Color)
More on our Flickr set.