Electronic Music from Japan

Monday, Oct. 20, 2008
4PM
Berklee College of Music
921 Boylston St.
Boston, MA 02215
David Friend Recital Hall

On this upcoming Monday, three of the Japanese artists that I've had the honor to meet and interview during my travels to Japan will be coming to Berklee. I will be hosting them in a clinic setting in the David Friend Recital Hall. The Berklee internal "press" release follows...

From the fall of 2005 through the summer of 2007, percussion department Professor Steve Wilkes traveled to Japan, researching the Japanese underground electronic music scene. Berklee is now proud to bring to the college three of the preeminent artists that Steve met and interviewed during his travels: Keiichi Sugimoto (aka Fourcolor and Filfla), Sawako Kato (aka Sawako), and Sanae Yamasaki (aka Moskitoo). Hosted by Steve, these three laptop artists – who work in styles ranging from “microsound” to ambient to electronica - will be performing in an intimate clinic setting in the David Friend Recital Hall.

Keiichi Sugimoto founded the Cubic Music label in 1999 with Tetsuro Yasunaga and Namiko Sasamoto. Within the electronic music scene, Cubic Music became widely respected as a Tokyo-based label with a unique approach to sound production, as well as graphic design. FourColor is one of many musical projects led by Keiichi Sugimoto. In addition, he is a member of the electro-acoustic-music quartet Minamo (12K/apestaartje/Cubic Music). His latest project is as leader of the electro-pop music group called FilFla, whose recent CD release, “Frolicfon,” can be found on the eclectic Japanese label, Headz.

Sawako Kato is a sound sculptor, a timeline-based artist, and a signal alchemist of the urban environment. Sawako was born in Nagoya, Japan and she is a musician who understands the value of dynamics and the power of silence. As a child, she studied classical piano for more than 10 years and Japanese Nohgaku Theatre for 6 years. Once musical ideas are processed via Sawako’s unique approach, subtle fragments from everyday life float vividly in space with a digital, yet organic texture. She is interested in the soundscape and the mediascape of our digital era, and her goal is to create a bridge between public and private, virtual and actual space.

Sawako has released albums on respected electronic labels such as 12K (USA), and/OAR(USA), Anticipate (USA), and Schole (Japan). She has collaborated with Taylor Deupree, asuna, HYPO, Ryan Francesconi, Toshimaru Nakamura, Taku Sugimoto, Andrew Deutsch, Jacob Kirkegaard, Kenneth Kirschner, Daisuke Miyatani, Radiosonde, among others. Her unique sonic world has been called the "post romantic sound" by Boston's Weekly Dig.

Sanae Yamasaki, aka Moskitoo (b. 1978), is a sound-artist and graphic designer residing in Tokyo, Japan. She began writing music in 1997, while playing guitar and keyboards in various bands in Sapporo. In 2005 she began her career as a solo artist, composing, playing, and singing under the moniker Moskitoo. Her first full-length release, “Drape,” is on the influential, NYC-based electronic music label, 12K.

Filfla

I just received a package from Headz, a wonderful Japanese electronic label that has been mentioned previously in this blog. The package contained the new Filfla (AKA, Keiichi Sugimoto) CD, "Frolicfon." Keiichi, of course, has been one of my primary friends and facilitators during my recent trips to Japan. And, he's also a member of the Backyard Project. The new CD also features Tetsuro Yasunaga, Namiko Sasamoto, and Yuichiro Iwashita (from Minamo), as well as Moskitoo (12k label artist who was featured in posts from last August).

A full review of the CD will follow here, soon.

Japan Berklee Alumni Reception

Last night, Vanilla Mood - a cozy restaurant and nightclub in Roppongi owned by Berklee alumnus Norihiko Hibino - was the site of the 2008 Japan Berklee Alumni Reception. Ginny and I co-hosted the event and I believe I can safely say that everyone had a blast. All of Ginny's advance work paid off.

This year's event was a bit smaller than last year's lavish production at the Shinjuku Keio Plaza hotel. However, along with the smaller scale came a warm, intimate atmosphere and plenty of time to hang out and meet with everyone. In fact, the event was scheduled for 6pm - 9pm (in typical Japanese fashion, guests began arriving right at 6:00), but Ginny and I did not leave Vanilla Mood until almost 10:30! If we had stayed longer, I truly believe that some of the guests would stayed until midnight or beyond.

There were several highlights:
1. Famous J-dorama actress Ayako Sawada (seen in the top photo with Gin) attended the event and was a hit with everyone. People were so surprised to have such a famous TV celebrity in their midst. Ayako-san could not possibly have been more charming or gracious, talking at great length with everyone. Arigatoo Gozaimashta, Ayako!

2. Tako Muraise, from Koyo Conservatory, and Kazu Hashimoto, from the PAN school (seen in the second photo) were in attendance and stayed almost as long as Ginny and myself. My former student, Takeshi Ichikawa ('94), is the fourth member of the photo.

3. My good friend from the Japan Foundation, Miki Hotta, made a surprise visit. She later confessed to Ginny and I that she was only planning to stay for a few minutes but that the food and music were so good, she could not help but stay for the duration.

4. Jam Session! This was Norihiko's idea and it was a great call on his part. Various alumni, from Mike Price ('69), to Kiyotaka Takiyama ('89), to Norihiko himself ('97), to Taichi Minagawa ('06), took the stage, and played for well over an hour.

The success of this event is well worth Berklee's consideration. The atmosphere was truly that of a party, sans many of the traditional formalities. Two factors - the setting (a club ambience) and the opportunity for the guests to play music together - went a long way toward creating a nice intimacy and a high level of comfort among the attendees.

Ginny and I hope that we have the opportunity to do this again, next year...

Tetsuro, Minamo, and Birds of a Feather

Tetsuro Yasunaga is one of the four Japanese electronica artists who are part of the Backyard Project, a proposed US/Japan collaboration wherein the musicians will swap audio files/field recordings of everyday sounds (i.e., from one's backyard), and, using these sounds as the basis, create new compositions. For those folks who have been checking out this blog since the fall of 2005, you will remember that Keiichi Sugimoto, Toshimaru Nakamura and Sawako Kato are the other three artists from Japan. Along with a Berklee student, or two, I will represent the US part of the project. Ginny and I met Tetsuro at Shinagawa Station (seen in the background of the second photo) for lunch and a discussion about the project.

The big news regarding Tetsuro (and his partner in the band Minamo, Keiichi) is the release of their new CD, "Birds of a Feather." Last year at Berklee, I gave a presentation regarding the work and research behind the Backyard Project. The music of Minamo truly captured the imagination of many of the Berklee community members in the audience. This new CD is simply the best thing they have released thus far. It is a collaboration with the Swedish group, Tape. Tape are certainly brethren of Minamo in their usage of acoustic instruments with laptops. The combined work of these two groups on "Birds of a Feather" is breathtaking. Foregoing many of the electronics they have used in the past and instead focusing on primarily acoustic instruments, the music is a tapestry of delightful sounds and great compositions (this is particularly inspiring considering that much of the music seems to have been improvised).

While here in Tokyo last year, both Tetsuro and Keiichi told me of the recordings for this new CD. In fact, Keiichi told me that, at the time, he had a hard drive with over 40 gigabytes of audio information from which they were going to edit the material for the CD. Their work has certainly paid off and I encourage any of the Berklee community who expressed interest in Minamo to seek out the CD, which is being distributed on the Headz label (a fine Japanese electronic music label).

Tetsuro is also working on a CD for David Sylvian's Samadhi Sound label. This project is called Voima and Tetsuro says that about seven tracks have been written thus far. However, he mentioned that Sylvian is something of a perfectionist and therefore, not surprisingly, is making them work quite hard at "perfecting" the CD! Tetsuro's musical pursuits are always quite interesting to me, so I'm hoping that this CD will eventually reach fruition.

Currently, the Backyard Project artists are working toward a "Collaboration Week" at Berklee next year - perhaps next summer. As news of this develops, it will be reported here...

Headz:
http://www.faderbyheadz.com/

Minamo:
http://www.cubicmusic.com/english/artist/minamo.html

Tape:
http://www.tape.se/

Nagoya Photos

We're back in Tokyo. It's good to be (in our second) home! And I, for one, am completely knackered.

The group of students at the Nagoya clinics were great - maybe a little looser than their Kobe counterparts. There were some hilarious moments during the closing jam session, including a couple of very funny vocal performances by some students who were not, in fact, vocalists.

Ginny and I have a lot planned over the next few days here in Tokyo. Just wish that we had another week, or two, to enjoy this city. Having said that, this has been the hottest month that I have experienced in my adult life. Growing up (sans air conditioning) in the Washington D. C. area, I have many memories of hot summers. But, man! - this one takes the cake! I've even cut back a bit on my morning runs due to the fact that making it through an entire day in this heat is so taxing.

Mark White, Berklee guitar faculty, put it best: one evening in Kobe, we told him that we were going out for a walk and asked him if he wanted to join us; he replied, "No thanks - I've had enough steam for today!"

Kobe Photos

Ginny and I are in Nagoya, today. We finish up the last phase of the Berklee clinics, then hop on a bullet train (Shinkansen) to Tokyo. The photos posted here are from the Kobe portion of the clinics tour. Ginny took these photos at the closing jam session on Tuesday.

In the middle photo, Gin captured one of my moments of "inspiration." Near the end of the jam, I thought it might be nice if every drummer grabbed a stick and, collectively, played a swing groove on a cymbal. I know this might sound strange coming from the person who leads a group called Six Drumsets, but NEVER DO THIS WITHOUT HEARING PROTECTION! I made the mistake of doing this without my earplugs. Don't try this at home!

More to come...

Professor Tomiko Kojima

On Saturday, Ginny and I attended a concert at the famous Meiji Jingu (shrine) in the Harajuku district of Tokyo. We were there at the invitation of Tomiko Kojima, Professor Emeritus of the National Museum of Japanese History.

Our meeting with Professor Kojima had been arranged by my friends Shizuo Harada and Kazuko Nakao. Kazuko had learned of my electronic music project in Japan and, as Professor Kojima is her aunt, suggested that we meet. Prof. Kojima's area of expertise is traditional folk music of Japan and, wow, does she know her stuff!

With the assistance of Harada-san's translation and drawings, she gave Ginny and I a virtual lecture on the history of Gagaku (Japanese Imperial Court music), which provided a nice preview to the concert we were about to attend. I have always enjoyed the musical fabric - or texture - of Gagaku. It was through this music that I was introduced to the Sho, a Japanese wind instrument that features 17 pipes, like a pipe organ. However, Professor Kojima took us deep - through Gagaku's origins (this music came to Japan from China and Korea about 1400 years ago), to its near extinction in the 8th century, to its contemporary status as a respected Japanese musical tradition.

The highlight of our meeting came when I asked Professor Kojima to listen to a bit of the electronic music I've been researching. I pulled out the headphones and iPod and decided to scroll to a track from Opitope's new CD, "Hau," which has been a favorite of mine on this current trip to Japan. She happily obliged.

Her response was a bit surprising. She said that it reminded her of "Healing" music. ("Healing" music is a very popular musical style here in Japan. It is really an umbella term that covers some modern acoustic folk styles, some world music styles, and even a few holdouts from the New Age era.)

Later, Ginny and I discussed this response. To be fair, Professor Kojima was listening in less than ideal conditions (she heard a 2 minute track while sitting inside a noisy cafeteria). Nonetheless, her response was valuable: she reminded me that it is going to be very important to educate listeners about Japanese electronica - particularly as the Backyard Project moves forward. Prof. Kojima gave Ginny and I some great musical insights into Gagaku. And, this truly enhanced our enjoyment of the concert that followed. Considering that Berklee is hoping to host a collaboration week for the Backyard Project artists next year, it will be important to provide musical context and background for our audience. For this reminder alone, I would like to say, "Arigatoo gozaimashita, Professor Kojima!"

This week, Ginny and I are part of the Berklee Clinics team in Kobe. We are heading northeast to Nagoya later this afternoon. In the next post, I will include some photos from this week's clinics...