Tokyo, 3.11.2011
Thursday, 3 November, saw the last event of the Exploratory Music from Poland project. This time, Polish exploratory sound art was represented by Anna Zaradny, Robert Piotrowicz, Marek Chołoniewski, Lukasz Szalankiewicz and Tomasz Krakowiak, who lives and works in Toronto. They were accompanied by local artists: Atsuhiro Ito, Miclodiet, and Chihei Hatekayama.
The artists presented a broad spectrum of styles in experimental music, combining improvisation, electroacoustic music, reductionism, ambient, electronics and noise. The venue of the concert was the Tokyo club Superdeluxe, which celebrated its 9th birthday. Over the last couple of years, the club has grown to become the most dynamic place on the Tokyo map of avant-garde music, somewhat contrary to the popular opinion about the Roppongi district, according to which it is the epicentre of cheap entertainment.
The concert began with a mellow ambient set by Chihei Hatekayama, a Japanese artist. His performance was followed by Tomasz Krakowiak's intriguing and surprising short reductionist percussion set. The first part of the event ended with electroacoustic experiments from the Dizzy Kinetics duo, comprising Marek Choloniewski and Lukasz Szalankiewicz, who based their performance on induced sensory circuits and modulated magnetic fields generated by small electronic equipment. The second part of the night kicked off with a performance by the Japanese artists from Ultra Functor. Atsuhiro Ito created the optron - an instrument based on a fluorescent tube. The downtempo beats of dj Miclodiet gave structure to the fuzzy sounds produced by the fluorescent tube, making the performance most predictable part of the night. Calmness returned with an electronic set by Anna Zaradny, whose musical narration unfolded unhurriedly, gradually building up the tension. The whole event culminated with an intense performance by Robert Piotrowicz, who played using a modular synthesizer.
The local audience and journalists who attended the concert were particularly attracted by the Dizzy Kinetics duo. It was pointed out that the sound of Marek Choloniewski and Lukasz Szalankiewicz resembled "nothing you could hear in Japan." The artistic level of their concert was considered very high and the performance was praised for its diversity and dramatic tension which provided a necessary relief after a truly radical sonic experience.
On the following day (4 November), the O'Nest club hosted a concert by Robert Piotrowicz. He appeared before an audience of several hundred people as a special guest of Brutal Truth, a legendary New York grindcore group which is considered to be the leading band in this genre of music. Three days later, Lukasz Szalankiewicz conducted a workshop and performed together with the leader of the Tokyo-based group Betsuni Nanmo Klezmer.
Date: 3rd of November, 2011
Venue: Superdeluxe, B1F 3.1.25 Nishi Azabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Organizers: AudioTong, Adam Mickiewicz Institute
See also:
The event was organised as part of I, CULTURE - the International Cultural Programme of the Polish EU Presidency co-ordinated by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute. For more information on the Programme, see: culture.pl.