Japan Sound Portrait

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 tr

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 sty

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.

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/