Super busy couple of weeks.
A lot has been going on, and I do regret not finding the time to post stuff on here more often.
The common thread that seems to link most of what I've been doing recently is music.
I forget if it was Stockhausen, or Varèse or Cage or some other wonderful sound kook, who locked himself in a soundproof room for an extended period of time, trying to experience complete silence. Only to discover that he can hear his own neurones buzzing about inside his brain...
Music is all around us, it is in everything, and it is everywhere. Music is a psychological phenomenon, not a physical one.
One of my heroes, 敬二灰野 (Keiji Haino) taught me that. I'll get back to him later on.
Those of you who have been following the class, may remember my friend 友剛 (Tomotake, AKA Damon Shearer) whom I wanted to interview about his fantastic experiences here in Japan.
Well, the interview went through very well, and 友剛 was kind enough to perform one of his original songs on camera!
The song is called; 約束 (yakusoku, a promise), and is the closing track on 友剛 debut album; True to Me.
OK so, I am officially in love with Osaka.
This city has everything a video maker could ask for. It's big, bright, accessible, loud and happy, and most importantly, it surprises you on every turn. On my last visit there we ran into a public show of some sort, that was absolutely free and absolutely awesome! The highlight was a performance by a young group of musicians, showcasing traditional Japanese Taiko drumming.
Last weekend, me and my friends rented a car and we drove to Nagoya. A super cool and fashionable city, just a short drive, east of Kyoto.
This is what I've been looking for! Beautiful cityscapes, spaghetti interchanges, shining glass steel and cement as far as the camera can see.
Nagoya is also, apparently a very musical city, we ran into a number of free of charge public performances, just strolling down Sakae, the main commercial and cultural hub.
First there were the Capoeira (Brazilian dance/martial-art) peeps.
Needless to say, this is all useful material for future projects.
For the last piece I did at NSCAD, I used someone else's music, and manipulated it to fit my video work, this was the first time in awhile that I did something like that, but I thought the result worked well, and I feel like I want to use all of this new material, in a similar way.
From where I am standing, I think that all music, is burrowed and appropriated in some way or another. Youtube "nada so so" and you'll land across scores of interpretations, in many different styles and languages, these all stemmed from something that probably began as a nursery rhyme, on a tiny island, who knows how long ago.
Which brings us back to the dark master, Mr. Keiji Haino, whose sound has inspired and influenced me for years, yet I never know how to describe...
Keiji Haino's work is epic, and groundbreaking in the scope of its experimental element. It is relentless and painful and terrifying and beautiful and haunting and oh fuck it, I'll just let it speak for itself:
A lot has been going on, and I do regret not finding the time to post stuff on here more often.
The common thread that seems to link most of what I've been doing recently is music.
I forget if it was Stockhausen, or Varèse or Cage or some other wonderful sound kook, who locked himself in a soundproof room for an extended period of time, trying to experience complete silence. Only to discover that he can hear his own neurones buzzing about inside his brain...
Music is all around us, it is in everything, and it is everywhere. Music is a psychological phenomenon, not a physical one.
One of my heroes, 敬二灰野 (Keiji Haino) taught me that. I'll get back to him later on.
Those of you who have been following the class, may remember my friend 友剛 (Tomotake, AKA Damon Shearer) whom I wanted to interview about his fantastic experiences here in Japan.
Well, the interview went through very well, and 友剛 was kind enough to perform one of his original songs on camera!
The song is called; 約束 (yakusoku, a promise), and is the closing track on 友剛 debut album; True to Me.
友剛 - 約束, True to Me, 2009
OK so, I am officially in love with Osaka.
This city has everything a video maker could ask for. It's big, bright, accessible, loud and happy, and most importantly, it surprises you on every turn. On my last visit there we ran into a public show of some sort, that was absolutely free and absolutely awesome! The highlight was a performance by a young group of musicians, showcasing traditional Japanese Taiko drumming.
Last weekend, me and my friends rented a car and we drove to Nagoya. A super cool and fashionable city, just a short drive, east of Kyoto.
This is what I've been looking for! Beautiful cityscapes, spaghetti interchanges, shining glass steel and cement as far as the camera can see.
Nagoya is also, apparently a very musical city, we ran into a number of free of charge public performances, just strolling down Sakae, the main commercial and cultural hub.
First there were the Capoeira (Brazilian dance/martial-art) peeps.
One of them explained that Capoeira is pretty big in Nagoya, due to the city's large population of Brazilian expat, factory workers. We sought these kids had a lot of heart, and their sound was solid, but their moves were sort of lame...
Anyways, literally the next block up, we found this local, swinging big-band, with an excellent brass section, doing a selection of crowd favourites.
And then the cream of the crop, a crossover visual/hardcore/metal/??? band named "Virbellwind" (yeah!) They played a full gig, on the street, for free.
Their technique is tight, but their style was a bit too... militant for me. I tracked down their Myspace page in case anyone is interested (the PR photos are hysterical):
http://www.myspace.com/virbellwind
The other night we went to an Okinawa themed isakaya (Japanese pub).
I learned three things about Okinawa which really makes me want to go there:
1. Excellent food.
2. Surprisingly good beer.
3. Super interesting musical tradition.
Okinawa music is rooted in very old, local folk traditions, and some of these songs date way way back to times and ways long forsaken.
The house band, whose name unfortunately escapes me now (I was pretty hammered), played an old staple called 涙そそ (nada so so, in Okinawa dialect - tears fill my eyes).
Also note the three-stringed, snake skin instrument, which is the original predecessor of the popular Shamisen, whose unique sound is so instinctually associated with Japan and all things Japanese.
This music reminds me a lot of Bossa-Nova. It's both happy and sad at the same time, and spiced with a salty tropical breeze of laid-back comfort. I don't know, I think it's amazing.
Their technique is tight, but their style was a bit too... militant for me. I tracked down their Myspace page in case anyone is interested (the PR photos are hysterical):
http://www.myspace.com/virbellwind
The other night we went to an Okinawa themed isakaya (Japanese pub).
I learned three things about Okinawa which really makes me want to go there:
1. Excellent food.
2. Surprisingly good beer.
3. Super interesting musical tradition.
Okinawa music is rooted in very old, local folk traditions, and some of these songs date way way back to times and ways long forsaken.
The house band, whose name unfortunately escapes me now (I was pretty hammered), played an old staple called 涙そそ (nada so so, in Okinawa dialect - tears fill my eyes).
Also note the three-stringed, snake skin instrument, which is the original predecessor of the popular Shamisen, whose unique sound is so instinctually associated with Japan and all things Japanese.
This music reminds me a lot of Bossa-Nova. It's both happy and sad at the same time, and spiced with a salty tropical breeze of laid-back comfort. I don't know, I think it's amazing.
Needless to say, this is all useful material for future projects.
For the last piece I did at NSCAD, I used someone else's music, and manipulated it to fit my video work, this was the first time in awhile that I did something like that, but I thought the result worked well, and I feel like I want to use all of this new material, in a similar way.
From where I am standing, I think that all music, is burrowed and appropriated in some way or another. Youtube "nada so so" and you'll land across scores of interpretations, in many different styles and languages, these all stemmed from something that probably began as a nursery rhyme, on a tiny island, who knows how long ago.
Which brings us back to the dark master, Mr. Keiji Haino, whose sound has inspired and influenced me for years, yet I never know how to describe...
Keiji Haino's work is epic, and groundbreaking in the scope of its experimental element. It is relentless and painful and terrifying and beautiful and haunting and oh fuck it, I'll just let it speak for itself:
灰野敬二 - I Said, This is the Son of Nihilism, 2002
It took me a long time to muster the courage to contact Mr. Haino, but I did, finally, and he responded.
I sent over a DVD with some of my recent work, it must've gotten to him by now.
Keiji Haino is touring this month (in Canada, ironically enough), and he generally is, a very busy man. However, he said that he'll watch my work, and I am cautiously hoping that he'll agree to meet me while I'm here in Japan. If that won't happen, I asked him to write back his thoughts and comments about my sound, and I am anxiously awaiting word from him or his assistant.
I'll keep you posted on any developments with that.
I'll close this very lengthy post, with a visit to a local club, right here in Kyoto.
For a friendly evening gathering of visual and performance artists, musicians and poets that went well into the early hours of the morning.
This was the opening act.
Thanks for reading.
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