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.