09/16 @ 8:00pm - Minor Musics Japan: Radu Malfatti/Taku Sugimoto + Takahiro Kawaguchi + Annette Krebs/Taku Unami

Do you think that the mysterious relationship between sounds and silence could possibly give us a new scope for the imperceptible world? – Taku Sugimoto

On September 16 & 17, ISSUE Project Room will present Taku Sugimoto, Taku Unami, Takahiro Kawaguchi, and Moe Kamura, collaborating with Annette Krebs and Radu Malfatti. It will be the US debut of the Annette Krebs/Taku Sugimoto duo as well as Takahiro Kawaguchi.

These musicians, associated with the Onkyo group in Tokyo, explore the role of silence in shaping and subverting the musical event. Along with the international composer collective Wandelweiser, of which Malfatti is a member, the Onkyo group and its descendents work in the vein of John Cage, particularly Cage’s late “number pieces,” where long silences are interspersed with sparse musical events, and many choices are left to the performer.

Onkyo’s origin is often traced to improvised performances at the Tokyo venue Off-Site, where Sugimoto was a driving force. After Onkyo became somewhat established, other musicians followed in their wake: Taku Unami, and later Kawaguchi and Kamura. The original concert series, “Meeting at Off-Site,” was known for the performers’ subtle and quiet playing and the incorporation of prolonged silences into electro-acoustic improvisations.

Their use of silence as foreground, and their sparse, minimal playing deconstructs the traditional correlations between intended sound and its absence, creating a seamless flow of sounds and silences. It is not only music becoming porous—the silence allowing environmental sounds to enter into the composition—but also a confrontation of the most elemental musical assumption: the difference between sound and silence.

Minor Musics: Japan is made possible, in part, by generous support from Japan Foundation NY.

Radu Malfatti has been a major presence in the European free improv scene since the early seventies. He’s been a member of such stellar bands as the Brotherhood of Breath, the London Jazz Composers’ Orchestra, and the King Ubu Orchestra, as well as countless small groups. Malfatti’s recent focus on developing a unique style of superspare, tranquil music led him to join the Wandelweiser collective, a group of like-minded composers, in 1994. Since 2006, Malfatti has been releasing recordings spanning the past 12 years of his compositions on his own b-boim label, which cumulatively are one of the important bodies of work of recent times. Φ is his third release for Erstwhile, following 2001′s groundbreaking dach and 2009′s gorgeous imaoto (recorded at Amann Studios like Φ).”

Taku Sugimoto (Tokyo, Japan) is a guitarist and cellist who plays improvisational music.  He has been involved in a number of bands, including the improvisational psychedelic rock group Piero Manzoni, which he co-founded in 1985 with Masaki Bato on bass, Henkyo Gakudan with alto sax player Hiroshi Itsui and guitarist Michio Kurihara, and Tetuzi Akiyama’s Hikyo String Quartet.  His earlier projects were influenced by the characteristically loud and heavy sounds of the Velvet Underground and MC5, but his later work has evolved to acquire a more subdued and silent aesthetic.  In 1991, Sugimoto began playing the cello in the improvised chamber group, Henkyo Gakudan.  He released his only solo CD on cello entitled Slub in 1994.  Also in the same year, Sugimoto formed the guitar duo Akiyama-Sugimoto with Tetuzi Aikyama and in 1999 launched the monthly concert series, The Improvisation Meeting at Bar Aoyama (aka. The Experimental Meeting at Bar Aoyama) and Meeting at Off Site).  The series lasted until February of 2001.   Currently, Sugimoto organizes the monthly Chamber Music Conert at Loop-Line with Taku Unami and Masahiko Okura, the Taku Sugimoto Composition Series at Kid Ailack Art Hall, and manages the Slub music label.

Takahiro Kawaguchi (Osaka, Japan) is a multifaceted musician who is interested in exploring the configuration of sound in a specific space.  He creates field recordings with the readymade sounds of everyday objects, plays improvised music, and presents art installations.  Kawaguchi has performed solo and has collaborated with musicians Shinjiro Yamaguchi, Satoshi Kanda, Seiijiro Murayama, Taku Unami, and Utah Kawaski.  He plays with Shinjiro Yamaguchi and Satoshi Kenda in the group Hello, with Seiijiro Murayam in Off Cells, and the Akibin Orchestra.  He has played during the Arts Aporia Festival in Osaka Japan (2005), participated in the Japan Media Arts Festival (2006), and at the Ftarri Festival (2009).  Additionally, he was a resident at the Slade Research Center in London (2006), and has given lectures and performances at the Kay Won School of Art and Design.

Taku Unami (Tokyo, Japan) is a musician and composer who work with a variety of instruments including, the guitar, laptop, bandoli, contraguitar, and vibrating objects, from which he amplifies the inaudible vibrations.  He is part of the group HOSE and has active collaborations with Mattin, Taku Sugimoto and Masahiko Okura. In the past he has worked with Radu Malfatti, Jean-Luc Guionnet, Klaus Filip, Masafumi Ezaki, Burkhard Stangl, Rhodri Davies e Nikos Veliotis, among others. Unami has also composed for film, including destacam Lost My Way (directed by Takeshi Furusawa) and In 10000 years (directed by Isao Okishima). He has released more than 30 records, solo and in other groups and collaborations. He runs the influential label Hibari Music and co-organizes the Tokyo concert series Chamber Music Concerts with Taku Sugimoto and Masahiko Okura.

Annette Krebs is a classically trained German guitarist who is known for her tabletop guitar playing technique.  She studied music and concert guitar in Frankfurt/Main, but has been living in Berlin since 1993.  Krebs is interested in the intersection between improvisation and composition, exploring the possibilities of the prepared guitar with regard to sound, structure, noise, material, and space.  She uses various preparation methods to paradoxically capture the happenstance sounds that are created from her unique musical technique.  By amplifying the hums, buzzes, and electronic resonances of her instrument, she designates mixing boards, tapes, radios, and various objects as her musical materials.  Krebs has experimented with electro-acoustic composition, destructing and reconstructing selected noises and fragments of spoken language to evoke a surreal and abstract soundscape.  She has collaborated with Chris Abrahams, Natasha Anderson, Alessandro Bosetti, Burkhard Beins, Sandra Becker, Lucio Capece, Peter Cusack, Chris Dahlgren, Rhodri Davies, Jim Denley, Robin Hayward, Marcus Heesch, Charlotte Hug, Sven-Ake Johansson, Christoph Kurzmann, Kaffe Matthews, Wade Matthews, Chico Mello, Toshimaru Nakamura, Andrea Neumann, Bhob Rainey, Michael Renkel, Ana Maria Rodriguez, Keith Rowe, Taku Sugimoto, Luca Venitucci, and Michael Vorfeld among many others,  She has been featured in numerous concerts and festivals in Europe, North America, Australia and Japan and has released a number of CDs and compilations.