Japan Sound Portrait: Recent Episodes

Neil Cantwell | Nick Luscombe

The Japan Sound Portrait podcast is a regular series by Nick Luscombe and Neil Cantwell dedicated to the sharing of the many and varied sounds from Japan - from field recordings of the countryside and the city, to music and interviews from well-known and emerging Japanese artists, as well as international artists with an interest in the subject.

For more info about Japan Sound Portrait please visit http://japansoundportrait.tumblr.com/

We are pleased to temporarily return from hiatus to bring you this podcast marking the recent release of a trailer for the Sound of Kyoto project, by Marios Joannou Elia. Sharing Marios' intrigue with the question "Does each city have its own sound?", it was a pleasure to be able to talk to him about how he has sought to 'musicalise' the city of Kyoto, interspersed with sections of music that will make up part of the final composition. The final film will blend performances from over 560 musicians, set in dozens of indoor and outdoor locations across the city, and including Japanese traditional instruments, an electronic matryomin ensemble, choirs, symphonic and mandolin orchestras.

###### Following on from the “Sound of Vladivostok”, Sound of Kyoto promises to be a unique conceptual and musical interpretation of the city. Please enjoy the trailer and this podcast as a precursor to the release of the full film later in the year. During the ongoing Japan Sound Portrait podcast hiatus, you can catch up with some of Nick's broadcasts from Tokyo for CIC-Live or keep up to date with the activities of MSCTY.SPACE. Production has also recently completed on the film Ghost Amber, co-produced by Neil, with further details of screenings due later in the year.

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!

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.

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.

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)

You can read about Okuda here: http://wsf2018.com/people/okuda-atsuya - Shizuka ni naru toki is played by Tanabe Shozan (who is coming to London) You can read about him here: http://wsf2018.com/people/tanabe-shozan

Three Treasures: Columns and Webs III (1996) for shakuhachi with live electronics, 4 kotos, and percussion (studio recording, all instruments: Jim Franklin, a co-organiser of the festival)

Nick discusses the film CODA with its subject Ryuichi Sakamoto and its Director Stephen Nomura Schible.

One of the most important artists of our era, Ryuichi Sakamoto has had a prolific career spanning over four decades, from techno-pop stardom to Oscar-winning film composer. The evolution of his music has coincided with his life journeys. Following Fukushima, Sakamoto became an iconic figure in Japan’s social movement against nuclear power. As Sakamoto returns to music following cancer, his haunting awareness of life crises leads to a resounding new masterpiece. RYUICHI SAKAMOTO: CODA is an intimate portrait of both the artist and the man.

CODA had its world premiere at the Venice Film Film Festival, Out of Competition, and is set for a worldwide theatrical release during 2018 - in the UK from June 29th.

Nick meets Haruomi Hosono ahead of his forthcoming UK performances in London

https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2018/event/light-in-the-attic-haruomi-hosono-acetone

and Brighton

http://theoldmarket.com/shows/haruomi-hosono/

to discuss the release of The Haruomi Hosono Archival Series by Light In The Attic Records

https://lightintheattic.net/artists/2475-haruomi-hosono

and a few other things...

Translation and interpretation by Ken Nishikawa.

http://kendajapkid.blogspot.com/

One of the most revered figures within Japanese popular music, Hosono-san has played a key role in not one but two of the most influential bands the country has ever produced. Debuting as part of Apryl Fool in 1969, he went on to form Happy End in 1970 - notable for being one of the first Japanese rock bands to sing in their own language. This was followed by establishing the electronic music trio Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) with Yukihiro Takahashi and Ryuichi Nakamoto in 1978.

In addition to achieving Beatles-esque levels of success within Japan, YMO were a pioneering influence on the development of electronic music genres such as hip-hop and techno around the world. This hallmark of innovation continued within Hosono-san’s solo career, where he became a pioneer in the development of game music and the genre of ambient music.

Featured music:

Fuku ha Uchi Oni ha Soto, from the album Hosono House
Madam Consul General Of Madras, from the album Cochin Moon
LIVING-DINING-KITCHEN, from the album Philharmony
Aiaigasa, from the album Hosono House
In Limbo, from the album Philharmony

Here is a special edition of the Japan Sound Portrait podcast to celebrate a special week-long season on BBC Radio 3 called Night Blossoms, which will explore the mysterious, counter-cultural and unexpected side of Japanese music and arts across the station’s evening programmes, running from 21st to the 27th April.

The season will start on Saturday with a special edition of Between the Ears in which Nick will explore the essay In Praise of Shadows - a classic in the field of Japanese aesthetics by Junichiro Tanizaki.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09zmqhd

This podcast collects together some echoes from Japan Sound Portrait to accompany some sound-related quotes from the essay, fuller versions of which are available below.

Featured music:

Nick Luscombe: Monomachi Theme
amoeba: Kanzeon Xap Mo Xnok Dub
Nick Luscombe & Robin The Fog: Monomachi Theme Remix
shinekosei: No

Many thanks to the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation for supporting research into this project.

Elsewhere in the Night Blossoms Season, Nick will be busy on Late Junction, with the week's programmes dedicated entirely to music from Japan, coupled with Nick's immersive recordings of the diverse and often unexpected soundscapes of Tokyo late at night. Our recent event at Spiritland will be broadcast on the Exposure programme on Thursday 26th April, and there will be special Japanese editions of all other evening programming throughout the week.

Sound-related extracts from Junichi Tanizaki's In Praise of Shadows:

“……in a Nara or Kyoto temple…as I have said there are certain prerequisites: a degree of dimness, absolute cleanliness, and quiet so complete one can hear the hum of a mosquito. I love to listen from such a toilet to the sound of softly falling rain, especially if it is a toilet of the Kanto region, with its long, narrow windows at floor level; there one can listen with such a sense of intimacy to the raindrops falling from the eaves and the trees, seeping into the earth as they wash over the base of a stone lantern and freshen the moss about the stepping stones. And the toilet is the perfect place to listen to the chirping of insects or the song of the birds, to view the moon, or to enjoy any of those poignant moments that mark the change of the seasons. Here, I suspect, is where haiku poets over the ages have come by a great many of their ideas.

“…had we invented the phonograph and the radio, how much more faithfully they would reproduce the special character of our voices and our music. Japanese music is above all a music of reticence, of atmosphere. When recorded, or amplified by a loudspeaker, the greater part of its charm is lost. In conversation, too, we prefer the soft voice, the understatement. Most important of all are the pauses. Yet the phonograph and radio render these moments of silence utterly lifeless. And so we distort the arts themselves to curry favour for them with the machines. “

“Western paper turns away the light, while our paper seems to take it in, to envelop it gently, like the soft surface of a first snowfall. It gives off no sound when it is crumpled or folded, it is quiet and pliant to the touch as the leaf of a tree.”

“Whenever I sit with a bowl of soup before me, listening to the murmur that penetrates like the far-off shrill of an insect, lost in contemplation of flavours to come, I feel as if I were being drawn into a trance. The experience must be something like that of the tea master who, at the sound of the kettle, is taken from himself as if upon the sigh of the wind in the legendary pines of Onoe (Hirakawa, Aomori).”

“The mysterious Orient of which Westerners speak probably refers to the uncanny silence of these dark places.”

Podcast image from Wikimedia Commons: ストリングのれん by Takashi Tomooka

Ahead of next week's BBC Radio 3 Exposure / Japan Sound Portrait event at Spiritland

http://spiritland.com/events/bbc-radio-3-exposure-japan-sound-portrait-live/

we have a special podcast including interviews with two of the featured artists who will be performing - Hatis Noit and Midori Hirano/MimiCof.

Hatis Noit is a vocal performer inspired by Japanese classical music, opera, chanting and avant-garde and pop vocalists. Her debut EP is released on Erased Tapes on March 23rd.

https://www.erasedtapes.com/artist/hatis-noit

Midori Hirano is a Berlin-based musician, composer and producer. She started learning the piano as a child, and this triggered what was to later see her study classical piano at university. Therefore her productions are based on the use of acoustic instruments such as the piano, strings or guitars, but yet experimental and an eclectic mixture of modern digital sounds with subtle electronic processing and field recordings.

http://midorihirano.com/

Featured music:

Hatis Noit - Illogical Lullaby
MimiCof - N57_A2_Burning Lights

Our previous podcast with the other artist who will be performing at this event, Tomoko Sauvage, is available here

http://japansoundportrait.libsyn.com/japan-sound-portrait-podcast-30

Another Kyushu Special, featuring field recordings by Thomas Martin Nutt

https://www.thomasmartinnutt.com/

of

New Years Day prayers at Yasaka Shrine in Kokura.
A summer meadow in Mt. Kujyu.
Part of the Tagawa River Festival.
Frogs in some rice paddies around Nogata.

plus two tracks from TA2MI's recently released new HeadCleaner album

https://ta2mi.bandcamp.com/album/headcleaner

from over in Yatsushiro

and then also a remix by japanetehq in Saga

https://www.youtube.com/user/remixn88

of a previously podcast Japan Sound Portrait track made with Takeshi Nishimoto, who is from Fukuoka...

Nick interviews Masaaki Yoshida, otherwise known as Anchorsong, talking about the development of his music, how he creates his unique live show, and his plans for a new record in 2018.

http://anchorsong.com/

An interview with Takeshi Nishimoto, combined with recordings from a recent improvised live collaborative Japan Sound Portrait performance at the nowJapan Festival in Vlinus, Lithuania.

Born in Fukuoka, Takeshi is a classically trained guitarist and composer who is conversant with European, Northern Indian, and American jazz classical traditions. In addition to collaborations with diverse artists , from sitar master Rahul Sakyaputra to I'm Not a Gun associate John Tejada, Nishimoto has also performed extensively as a solo artist.

In this interview, Takeshi talks about his development as a musician, how to approach using tools for creating electronic music (informed by his position as a specialist adviser to Ableton) and the process of discovering what you want to hear.

Tomoko Sauvage, Japanese musician and artist active since mid 2000’s, investigates the sculpturality of sound and improvisation in relation to the environment. Mainly known for a musical / visual research about ‘natural synthesizer’ of her invention, composed with diverse fluid, bowls, ceramic, light and underwater amplification, Sauvage’s approach is attached to questions of alchemy, meditation and balance between hazard and mastery. Under the form of performances, installations and musical compositions, her work is regularly presented in Europe, Asia and America.

https://o-o-o-o.org/

https://tomokosauvage.bandcamp.com/

“to me the world is sound.

Sound penetrates me,

linking me to the world.

I give sounds active meaning.

By doing this I am assured of being in the sounds,

becoming one with them.

To me this is the greatest reality.

It is not that I shape anything,

but rather that I desire to merge with the world.”

Toru Takemitsu, Confronting Silence, p.13

We leave you with the rhythmical motions and gently deep popping that is the sound of green tea leaves being dried in a large metal bowl over a fire. This traditional technique was recorded at a co-operative drying house in a valley of the tea-growing region of Ureshino in Kyushu - apparently one of the few left still using the technique, and the Emperor and Empress were due to visit the following week for a very special cup of tea. Big thanks to Koichi Yuasa for arranging what was a very special visit.

The Japan Sound Portrait Podcast will be back in September, as long as there aren't any especially urgent sounds we need to share in the meantime. Thanks for listening and check out our Kyushu Sound Map webpage if you'd like to be creating your own podcasts while we're away...

https://www.japansoundportrait.com/sound-map

A first selection from recent sound gatherings in Kyushu, featuring:

a quartet of Tatami mat weaving machines, made from the igusa grass that is a speciality of the Yatsushiro region.
a performance of Hidakagawa-Iriai-Zakura at the Seiwa Bunrakukan Puppetry Theatre

https://kumanago.jp/en/libraries/detail/101

an extract from TA2MI's forthcoming 'Dragon Water' release, which will be on vinyl with a woven tatami record sleeve.

Nick Luscombe speaks to Midori Komachi live at the Japanese Playback event in Spiritland.
You'll hear excerpts from Midori's performance on the night. Her new album, Warp and Weft, is out now on EM Records. https://www.midorikomachi.com/home/discography/2nd-album-warp-and-weft-2017/

Neil talks to kidkanevil about 'nemui pj' - a new duo he's made with Japanese musician Noah. Named after the group's mutual appreciation for making music in pyjamas, they have a debut pumpkin ep out on flau records from July

http://flau.jp/releases/r29.html

https://flau.bandcamp.com/album/pumpkin-ep

Other Featured music: doll (kidkanevil remix) from Flaw by Noah

https://flau.bandcamp.com/track/doll-kidkanevil-remix

Also check out kidkanevil's new Otaku event

https://www.facebook.com/events/1370826442965531/

coming to London from July 15th.

A bank holiday special of material from our recent Japanese Playback event held at Spiritland in London, featuring the one and only Clive Bell.

http://www.clivebell.co.uk/

CLIVE BELL is a musician, composer and writer with a specialist interest in the shakuhachi, khene and other Far Eastern wind instruments. He has travelled extensively in Japan (where he studied the shakuhachi or Japanese flute with the master Kohachiro Miyata), Thailand, Laos and Bali, researching music and meeting local practitioners. In 2011 he played with Jah Wobble at Ronnie Scott’s and the Glastonbury Festival, and toured the UK with Mugenkyo Taiko drummers (contemporary Japanese drumming). Clive is the shakuhachi player on Karl Jenkins’s album Requiem on EMI Classics, and the final two Harry Potter movies. His shakuhachi playing was featured in a live solo session on Radio 3’s Late Junction, and in 2013 on Radio 3’s In Tune. A musician who regularly joins David Ross, Sylvia Hallett and Peter Cusack in improvisation duos and trios, Clive Bell has a substantial recording history as both a solo artist (his solo album, Shakuhachi: The Japanese Flute was reissued in 2005 by ARC Records) and as a composer for film, TV and theatrical productions (Complicite, IOU, Whalley Range Allstars). Kazuko Hohki, Jah Wobble, Jaki Liebezeit, Harry Beckett, Robert Lippok, David Sylvian, David Toop, Jochen Irmler of Faust, Paul Schütze and Bill Laswell number among Clive Bell’s collaborators. As a record producer, his latest release is Taeko Kunishima’s Late Autumn on 33Jazz (2011). Based in London, he writes regularly for the music monthly The Wire.

This episode focuses on some recent developments in the field of electronic music in Japan, through hearing about the Japanese encounters of Elijah, Director of the UK Grime record label Butterz.

http://butterz.co.uk/

Starting with first online contacts whilst DJing on Rinse FM, his interest was further sparked by the Japanese War Dubs Tournament

(available to listen to here http://wardub.jp/),

before then visiting to play his own first show there in 2014.

Suddenly Grime was bIG iN jAPAN, but perhaps it is also just the latest interesting example of how electronic music genres move around the world. By the time of Elijah's return to the country in 2016, Japan had it's own grime style, perhaps not surprising given the depth of influence all grime producers share from Japanese computer game soundtrack composers.

The interview is interspersed with new music from Japan Sound Portrait supporter TA2MI

https://ta2mi.bandcamp.com/

a great example of how Japanese electronic music producers move across different styles and genres, as has happened again in the case of Japanese Grime.

This week we feature brand new recordings made in Yokote of the creaking flagpoles at Shinmei shrine, the spring childrens' parade and some heavy lifting of the Omikoshi...

Overture to Asuka by Iwazaki Daisuke and Fujimura Shinichi

Yamaha XS-1 from Big Bike Serenade CD Book

raindrops by jyurin

Kawasaki W1S from Big Bike Serenade CD Book

As part of our current trip to Japan, Nick meets Taro Tsunoda, the owner of Waltz, an incredible shop specializing in tapes and other vintage musical merchandise.

http://waltz-store.co.jp/

It's a place that is definitely worth a visit whenever passing through Tokyo.

Nick Luscombe speaks to legendary Japanese composer and percussionist Midori Takada ahead of her recent live performance at Cafe Oto. Recorded 11th April 2017

Further anticipating getting on a plane to Tokyo this time next week, this episode is a collection of music that we picked up on our last Japan Sound Portrait visit back in 2015.

Featuring:

Orion / Yasuyuki Funatsu
https://soundcloud.com/yasuyuki-funatsu

Dj Shark
https://djshark.bandcamp.com/

and
Escalade
https://escalade.bandcamp.com/

A collection of beats from shinekosei's Juel Suite, topped and tailed with recordings from Tokyo in anticipation of next month's trip to Japan. The first track in particular was inspired by experiencing the scale of the Tokyo metropolis...

Following a break last week for our event at Cafe Oto, the podcast returns with another trip through our Sound Map of Kyushu

https://www.japansoundportrait.com/sound-map

in anticipation of returning there next month. Featuring an array of field recordings from the shooting of KanZeOn

http://www.kanzeonthemovie.com/

and an unreleased track by TA2MI...

https://ta2mi.bandcamp.com/

The last preview podcast for our event at Cafe Oto next week

https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/japan-sound-portrait/

featuring an interview with abirdwhale / Masato Kakinoki, a London-based Japanese musician, audiovisual artist, film music composer, PhD in Music candidate at Canterbury Christ Church University.

His work varies from singer-songwriter style to audiovisual digital performance art, where he explores the fragile balance among experimental, visceral, emotion, chaos, noise, order and tradition.

Performing his own digital music pieces, he has sought for another approach which is neither traditional DJ performance nor the reproduction with a live band. With his audiovisual performance, he experiments with certain factors which tend to be lessened in digital music performance, such as physical presence and fluidity.

http://abirdwhale.com/

Music from all of the artists appearing at our forthcoming Cafe Oto event:

https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/japan-sound-portrait/

Makoto Nomura - Fukuoka 5

Makoto Nomura and Kumiko Yabu - Welcome to Tsui Village

Midori Komachi - Toshio Hosokawa's 'Spell for Solo Violin'

abirdwhale - Singals

Verity Lane - As The Surface Of The Ocean Gently Breaks

nemui pj (kidkanevil & noah) - pumpkin

(kidkanevil will be performing a DJ set of Japanese beats between 4-7pm in the Cafe Oto Studio ahead of the evening's event, alongside Virtual Reality Soundscapes by Amoeba_VR.)

An interview with Makoto Nomura, who will be performing live at our forthcoming event at Cafe Oto.

https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/japan-sound-portrait/

Makoto Nomura is a Kyoto based composer/improviser. He mainly plays the piano, melodica, rooftiles and gamelan. His composition includes Japanese traditional instruments, Javanese gamelan, western orchestra, rock band, children’s toy, body percussions, daily found objects, environmental sounds, and whatever. He has collaborated not only with professional musicians but also children, amateurs, animals, dancers, visual artists, counselor, etc. His work has been performed in more than 20 countries. He is currently the director of community programme of Japan Century Symphony Orchestra.

http://www.makotonomura.net

The Japan Sound Portrait podcast returns with a trip through our newly released Kyushu Sound Map, available here on our new website:

https://www.japansoundportrait.com/sound-map

We will be back next week featuring an interview with Makoto Nomura, who will be playing at our forthcoming live event at Cafe Oto on March 16th

https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/japan-sound-portrait/

Check out these previous podcasts featuring other artists who will be taking part in the event:

Midori Komachi

http://japansoundportrait.libsyn.com/podcast/japan-sound-portrait-5

and Verity Lane

http://japansoundportrait.libsyn.com/podcast/japan-sound-portrait-10

who's piece 'As the Surface of the Ocean Gently Breaks' appears briefly at the start of this podcast.

For any regular listeners, just to let you know that the podcast will now be taking a little Winter Break - a few interviews may appear sporadically, but for now we will be focusing on preparing for our first upcoming live event in March

https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/japan-sound-portrait/

and a trip to Japan in April. Thanks for listening and we'll be back again with lots of new sounds in the New Year.

A special preview of material from a new Japan Sound Portrait USB Card release coming soon on Bleep.com

Featuring kidkanevil's KanZeOn ReIndication

http://kanzeonreindications.bandcamp.com/track/kanzeon-reindication-kidkanevil

and more pieces from shinekosei's Juel Suite

http://shinekosei.bandcamp.com/

stitched together with a few field recordings...

Nick Luscombe speaks to Tottenham born music-maker, sound artist and producer Verity Lane, who recently returned to the UK after spending 10 years in Japan.

She completed a BA Hons in Japanese and music at School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), and won an award by JASSO to study at Osaka University, Japan. She then went on to complete an MA in composition at Osaka College of Music.

https://soundcloud.com/verity-lane

This week's podcast is a special feature on the music of Koichi Yuasa - a former car mechanic turned tea farmer now living in the town of Ureshino, Saga prefecture.

His company make amazing tea oil products:

http://www.ryokumon.jp/

He taught me the meaning of the word 'shibui', probably my favourite Japanese word: a particular aesthetic of simple, subtle, and unobtrusive beauty.

https://intoroniq.bandcamp.com/releases

We make music together as shinekosei.

http://shinekosei.bandcamp.com/

Featuring

sounds collected on our Japan Sound Portrait tour of Kyushu in Spring 2015: a countryside level crossing; the engine of Kazuhisa-san's 1983 Jetta; a performance of Karma Chameleon by Michiko-san at the Lanka school in Kagoshima; Tomo-san's Affinity Lo-Pro bike.
recordings on the island of Yakushima sent to us by Andy Gilham of the band Echaskech

http://www.echaskech.co.uk/

recordings of the Shounai dialect, sent in by Yoshiharu Takui

https://cis-sound.blogspot.co.uk/

recordings of an afternoon in Akihabara, sent to us by Laurent Fintoni

http://www.laurentfintoni.com/

Interspersed with selections from the piece Juel Suite by shinekosei: Neil Cantwell & Koichi Yuasa

https://shinekosei.bandcamp.com/

A combination of Nick's field recordings in Japan this year

Firstly a busy afternoon of activities around a small Japanese town park in early Autumn. Local trains, dragonflies, building work and post office vans all playing their part in this very local sonic soap opera.

Followed by a combination of a trip round a supermarket, the sound of traffic in the countryside, a petrol pump and a tatemae ceremony marking the creation of a new building. These tracks are available to listen to separately here.

https://japansoundportrait.bandcamp.com/album/nick-luscombe-may-2016

This week's podcast is specially devoted to TA2MI - our friend Tatsumi Akinobu, a Jodo Shinshuu Buddhist monk from the countryside outside the city of Kumamoto in the South of Japan. This mix shows off the full range of his musical talents, taking in:

A track from a new release with Cheese N Pot-C for blocsonic

http://blocsonic.com/releases/bsmx0145

A preview of TA2MI's remix of Jalal Salaam's 'Ignorance is Bliss', from a forthcoming collaborative release

https://jalalsalaam.bandcamp.com/track/ignorance-is-bliss-prod-l

A new instrumental track, To look up at The Night Sky

https://ta2mi.bandcamp.com/track/to-look-up-into-the-night-sky

Blended with an array of field recordings that Tatsumi has shared with us...

Followed by Tatsumi beatboxing an old children's song from the Kumamoto region

https://japansoundportrait.bandcamp.com/album/antagata-dokosa-where-are-you-from

Finishing up with the audio of unreleased footage from the film KanZeOn, showing Tatsumi getting busy in his record room

https://vimeo.com/102877002

Lots more information about TA2MI here

https://www.facebook.com/ta2mitravelthroughworlds/

Nick talks to violinist Midori Komachi, discussing her career to date and her thoughts about the relationship between Western and Japanese music.

http://www.midorikomachi.com/

Following the interview is Midori's performance of Toshio Hosokawa's 'Spell for Solo Violin', recorded at Hosokawa's 60th Anniversary Concert in Tokyo in November 2015. In this piece, the sound of the violin becomes the voice of a shaman.

featuring:

Forest Whitaker reciting a quote from the Hagakure in Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai, discussing the central tenet of the Hannya Shingyo / Heart Sutra that form is emptiness and emptiness is form.

Field recordings from walking the 88 Temple Shikoku pilgrimage

One of my favourite tracks that I ever made with my friend Koichi Yuasa, a tea farmer, as shinekosei

Field recordings from Tom Swindell and Akinobu Tatsumi from the film they are
currently shooting about the aftermath of the earthquake in the Kumamoto region

A new track from TA2MI| Akinobu Tatsumi

A recording of the Buddhist Nenbutsu chant at Tatsumi's temple Shosanji, as appears in the film KanZeOn.

Part of the soundtrack for KanZeOn created out of field recordings by ManOne

A rapped hagiography of the 8th century Esoteric Buddhist polymath Kukai, by GMC, over a remix of the KanZeOn soundtrack by shinekosei, featuring Eri Fujii.

Finishing with a recording of shomyo chanting at Kongobuji temple on Mount Koya. Thanks to Elizabeth Tinsley on these last two tracks.

"Japanese people recognise that the sound of the cicada is the end of the summer, and we feel really melancholic."

For our first Japan Sound Portrait Podcast interview, Nick talks to Sayaka Botanic and Tommi Tokyo from groupA.

http://groupaband.com/

The second episode of the Japan Sound Portrait podcast, featuring sounds associated with an event we took part in at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge earlier this year - kotsuzumi performance by Akihiro Iitomi, taken from the film KanZeOn, and then sections of the soundtrack from our Virtual Reality Japanese Soundscapes.

The first in the weekly series of Japan Sound Portrait podcasts, featuring the first section of material contained on the project's first physical release - a bamboo USB card, now available for pre-order here

https://japansoundportrait.bandcamp.com/merch/japan-sound-portrait-bamboo-usb-card

The Japan Sound Portrait podcast is a regular series by Nick Luscombe and Neil Cantwell dedicated to the sharing of the many and varied sounds from Japan - from field recordings of the countryside and the city, to music and interviews from well-known and emerging Japanese artists, as well as international artists with an interest in the subject.

For more info about Japan Sound Portrait please visit http://japansoundportrait.tumblr.com/