Japan Sound Portrait

Concluding our series of podcasts focusing on Akinobu Tatsumi's visit to the UK, we are happy to bring you a section from his performance at The Rose Hill in Brighton on Sunday 24th February - it's a rather special journey through a range of both traditional and modern sounds. Please enjoy!

And with many thanks to Yolanda Liou for the picture, which was taken on the very first day of Tatsumi's visit.



   

Although beginning and ending somewhere in the vicinity of Japan, this podcast travels beyond our normal geographical boundaries in order to preview some of the artists who'll be performing alongside TA2MI on his forthcoming UK tour.

The mix is inspired sequentially from the line-up for our Sound Portraits event at The Rose Hill in Brighton on Sunday 24th February

http://www.therosehill.co.uk/events/2019/2/24/japan-sound-portrait

https://www.facebook.com/events/1998259136955218/

thereby featuring:

Nick Luscombe/Japan Sound Portrait - Monomachi Theme
Simon James - OCT Meditation Bonus D/L track from Musicity 003 Shenzhen/Shanghai
Moulay Ahmed Elhassani - Mi Hanna Dada, from Atlas Electric, forthcoming on Hivemind Records
F.Ampism - Om Shandy
khimera - Rise and Fall
Sophie Brown - Live at The Bleeding Hearts Club All-Dayer
You&TH - Te Voglio Bene Assaije
Unknown, from Chii Poppins Nihon mix
TA2MI - Mysterious Hi-Tempo
amoeba - KanZeOn Xap Mo Xnok Dub

before then previewing a little of our 'Thus Have I Heard: Sound and Japanese Buddhism' event at SOAS, on Saturday 2nd March

https://www.soas.ac.uk/buddhiststudies/events/buddhisminsideout/02mar2019-thus-have-i-heard-sound-and-buddhism-in-japan.html

https://www.facebook.com/events/307645966747046/

which will include Clive Bell talking about Buddhist aspects of the shakuhachi, as he does here.

We are delighted to confirm the full details for Akinobu Tatsumi / TA2MI's forthcoming visit to the UK, which will include:

Wednesday 20th February
The Arts Institute, Plymouth - KanZeOn screening, Q&A, DJ set

https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/whats-on/ta2mi-tour-uk-2019-kanzeon-and-the-hip-hop-monk

https://www.facebook.com/events/522540438237169/

Friday 22nd February
Falmouth Academy of Music and Theatre Arts - Live Performance, Q&A

https://www.facebook.com/events/280977739248868/

Sunday 24th February
Sound Portraits at The Rose Hill, Brighton - Live Performance/DJ set

http://www.therosehill.co.uk/events/2019/2/24/japan-sound-portrait

https://www.facebook.com/events/1998259136955218/

Saturday 2nd March
Thus Have I Heard: Sound and Japanese Buddhism event at SOAS, London - Live Performance/Presentation

https://www.soas.ac.uk/buddhiststudies/events/buddhisminsideout/02mar2019-thus-have-i-heard-sound-and-buddhism-in-japan.html

https://www.facebook.com/events/307645966747046/

Please tell any friends you may know in any of those vicinities!

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We will be releasing a collection of 3 CDs of TA2MI's music that will be available at these events - his first two albums, Travel Through Worlds and TA2MIST, plus a Japan Sound Portrait compilation of his single releases to date. This podcast is a preview mix of tracks from that compilation - all are available to listen to in full at

https://ta2mi.bandcamp.com/

Also celebrating Tatsumi's forthcoming visit to the UK, we are making the film KanZeOn available to watch online for free for the first time - Tatsumi is one of three main characters in the film, which is part documentary and part a sensory exploration of sound, so anyone wanting to find out more about his fascinating double-life as a Buddhist priest and DJ/producer can do so via the following link.

https://vimeo.com/103341775

This podcast provides an introduction to the sonic character of the film, consisting of selections from remixes of the film's soundtrack by the following artists:

woob
dj tatsuki
kidkanevil
manone
shinekosei
TA2MI
escalade

as part of KanZeOn ReIndications, which is available via the following link.

https://kanzeonreindications.bandcamp.com/album/kanzeon-reindications

Following the announcement of our forthcoming event 'Thus Have I Heard: Sound and Buddhism in Japan'

http://thushaveiheard.eventbrite.co.uk/

which features the Buddhist priest and producer/DJ Akinobu Tatsumi, this podcast features a selection of Tatsumi's music. Two selections are taken from this mix of some of his more dancefloor oriented tracks by Yoshie Takahashi

https://www.mixcloud.com/TA2MI/all-ta2mi-music-mix-by-yoshie-takahashi/

interspersed with an experimental entirely new track called 'Contact is Universe'.

Further details will be announced shortly for other events that Tatsumi will be doing whilst he's in the UK

http://ta2mi.com/

In this podcast we are happy to share some of the great music that we've been sent/given during the year...

- starting with a remix by our friend Koichi Yuasa/japanetehq of a Japan Sound Portrait track made with Takeshi Nishimoto at last year's nowJapan Festival.

- followed by a track called City (Lm version) by GOOD LUCK HEIWA, from their album Lm released at the end of 2017.

http://goodluckheiwa.jp/lm/

GOOD LUCK HEIWA are Takuji Nomura on Keyboards and Daichi Ito on Drums and Whistling, and they are also part of Haruomi Hosono's touring band - we were grateful to receive their CD as everyone was saying their goodbyes following their concert at The Old Market in Brighton earlier in the year.

- next is the track Doujiri by Ken Sugai.

https://sugaiken.bandcamp.com/track/doujiri

The image accompanying this podcast is of Ken-san, and is a fantastic modern re-creation of an important religious statue of the itinerant monk Kuya.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%ABya

Where in the original image/statue there are six small statues of the Buddhist deity Amida coming from Kuya's mouth, representing the power of devotionally chanting the syllables 'na-mu-a-mi-da-butsu', Ken-san has replaced these figures with diodes, perhaps playfully suggesting the revelatory potency of experimental electronic music. 

- this is followed by a track called Otomi, by Chihiro Ono. This was drawn to our attention by Neil Luck as part of a release called New Vocal Solutions on his label squib-box

https://squib-box.bandcamp.com/album/new-vocal-solutions-sampler

a compilation of experimental music artists working with Vocaloid technology (most famous for powering digital avatar popstar Hatsune Miku). This track hinges around a field recording of the fermentation process of  ko-ji - a natural fungus used in the process of making Sake, Miso and Soy sauce.

- and finally we have some selections from a new collection of tracks we have received from TA2MI,

https://ta2mi.bandcamp.com/

made in collaboration with ZUMBO. We are also delighted to announce that TA2MI will be visiting the UK for a series of performances/events in late February/early March 2019, so please watch this space for further announcements...

Nick meets DJ Sinta and UKD from the Tokyo Grime production duo Double Clapperz, and ONJUICY, a Grime MC also from Tokyo, during their visit to London earlier this summer.

https://soundcloud.com/doubleclapperz

https://onjuicy.localinfo.jp/

We already started to explore the story of Grime music in Japan in a previous interview with Elijah, Director of the UK label Butterz

http://japansoundportrait.libsyn.com/japan-sound-portrait-23

and 6 weeks from now sees what promises to be a landmark event taking place in Tokyo, where Butterz will celebrate their 8th birthday alongside an Allstar line-up of artists from the Japanese grime scene and beyond

https://www.facebook.com/events/247661915882943/?active_tab=about

Featured tracks:

Double Clapperz - Sha Ni Kamaeru - Obscure VIP - 02 Obscure (EGL VIP)

Sha Ni Kamaeru - Obscure VIP - 01 EGL - Sha Ni Kamaeru feat. Ralph (Double Clapperz VIP)

Thanks to Hayato Takahashi for help with arranging the interview and translation.

Nick meets Tomoko Hojo and Rahel Kraft - two sound artists who are exploring intimate, hidden sounds in different regions through a joint project. During their two months residency at Nairs in 2017, they investigated the specific acoustics of the Lower Engadine, in collaboration with the local community with special regard to the interaction of 'inner sounds' between people, language, space and nature. Their previous work Reborn Homes Through My Voice, seven site-specific sound works in a traditional Japanese house with performances and events, was exhibited at the Denchu Hiraksuhi House, Tokyo, 2017. Currently a German edition of this work is exhibited in the group show SPOT ON, Nairs.

We are delighted to interview Kiku Day, (http://www.kikuday.com/) one of the organisers of the World Shakuhachi Festival, which is taking place this week in London. Following discussion of the festival, Kiku-san gives some in-depth background about the history of the instrument, and discloses elements of the experience of playing the instrument, whereby the techniques of breathing and improvisation can make for a transformative meditation.

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More information about the World Shakuhachi Festival 2018 in London.

As you can read on the website www.wsf2018.com it is the 7th time a WSF is held. It is the first time in Europe. 

Dates and times:

30.07: There will be an academic conference just on the subject of the shakuhachi. Scholars from various fields such as ethnomusicology, Japanology, history, sociology, art history, science of acoustics will present their research.

31.07, 20:00: Opening Gala Concert mix programme - Union Chapel

1 - 4 August at Goldsmiths, University of London (either in Deptford Town Hall or Great Hall) 2 concerts at 13:00, 1 concert at 17:00 and 20:00. All mixed programmes. 

More information on each concert on the website.

There are also lectures on shakuhachi and japanese music in general that are open for the general public at 13:00 and 17:00.

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Featured music:

- Vintertraner is a piece called Night Flying Winter Cranes composed for Kiku Day by Danish composer Mogens Christensen. Shakuhachi and electronics.

- Tamuke is played by Kiku Day's teacher Okuda Atsuya, who is coming to London. This is a honkyoku (pieces played by komuso monks during the Edo period)