On November 18th, musician Keiichiro Shibuya performed Android Aria “Seeds of Prophecy,” his new piece using an android, piano, and electronic instruments, for the closing ceremony of the Lisbon Film Festival held in Portugal.

Lisbon Film Festival is an international film festival with film producer Paulo Branco, known for his work for esteemed Portuguese filmmakers like Manuel De Oliviera and Pedro Costa, as the director. The festival was held for the 17th time this year (2023 at the time of writing). Prominent names such as Francis F. Coppola, David Lynch, and Wim Wenders have previously participated in the festival. Aside from showing films this year, the festival presented a conversation with Pedro Costa and masterclasses by celebrated film directors like Leos Carax and Ryusuke Hamaguchi.

Artists from a plethora of fields outside of film joined as well. Laurie Anderson gave a lecture, world-renowned violinist Gidon Kremer played a concert, and so on. Keiichiro Shibuya’s Android Aria “Seeds of Prophecy” was chosen to close off the Lisbon Film Festival, filled with exciting programs.

The 50-minute piece comprised Shibuya playing the piano and an analog synthesizer/noise generator, using android Alter4’s singing as the centerpiece. Harnessing sounds and noises, he played his iconic songs, like “Scary Beauty” and “Midnight Swan,” as well as the eponymous track of the performance. 

How did he take on the performance, and what did he aim to express? As he builds a steady career in film scoring, which films and soundtracks have shaped him? We set out to discover the answers in our interview. 

Keiichiro Shibuya
Keiichiro Shibuya graduated from the Tokyo University of the Arts with a B.A. in Music Composition. His work encompasses various mediums, from innovative electronic music to piano solos, operas, film scores, and sound installations. He’s based in Tokyo and Paris.
In 2012, Shibuya composed a Vocaloid opera with no human performers, The End, starring Hatsune Miku. The performance premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris and has since toured around the globe. He collaborated with various artists and showed the opera at venues such as the Palais de Tokyo and Opéra national de Paris. In 2018, he composed the Android Opera®︎, Scary Beauty, which utilizes AI and stars a singing android that also conducts an orchestra. The opera has been shown in Japan, Europe, and the UAE. In August 2021, Shibuya’s opera, Super Angels, had its world premiere at the New National Theater Tokyo. In March 2022, he brought his new Android Opera®︎, MIRROR, a collaboration between an android, Buddhist music, shomyo, and an orchestra from the UAE, to Expo 2020 Dubai. In June of 2023, he showed the complete 70-minute version of the same opera at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris; it was a success and was met with a lot of attention from the local media. In October, Shibuya presented his new dialogic piece, IDEA, using two androids at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. 
Furthermore, he has also scored for many films. In September 2020, he created the soundtrack for Midnight Swan and won the 75th Music Award at the Mainichi Film Awards and the 30th Japan Movie Critics Award. In 2022, he composed the soundtrack for KAGUYA BY GUCCI, a short film, and appeared in it with an android. 
ATAK：http://atak.jp
X：@keiichiroshibuy
Instagram：@keiichiroshibuy
Photography Claude Gassian

Creating a compelling performance and sound even in an era of high information density

—How did your performance at the Lisbon Film Festival come about? 

Around this spring, after the press release for my android opera MIRROR at the Théâtre du Châtelet was released (editor’s note: the performances were on June 21st, 22nd, and 23rd, 2023), they sent me an offer via email. One of the programs at the festival was called “Artificial Intelligence and Creation,” and they told me what I do would fit perfectly. 

Lisbon Film Festival is an important festival where Paulo Branco, known for producing films like Ossos by Pedro Costa, is the director. I knew of it prior to this. We had a meeting over ZOOM, and they were highly intellectual people. Aside from film showings, the content was exciting; they also had Laurie Anderson’s talk and world-renowned violinist Gidon Kremer’s live performance on the lineup. That’s why I decided to accept the offer.

—I watched your performance via a video. It was a perfect performance, spanning around 50 minutes, including experimental sounds and noises, your well-known songs like “Scary Beauty” and “Midnight Swan,” and your new song, “Seeds of Prophecy.” What was the intention behind the structure of Android Aria “Seeds of Prophecy”?

When I first got approached, I initially thought I’d wait around 10 to 20 minutes because there’d be other performing artists since it was the closing event. But once I properly checked the information, I realized I would be the only performer and that there would also be an admission fee (laughs). That’s why I decided to build a live set that would stand on its own as a solo performance. 

But considering the venue and whatnot, getting a local orchestra like I did for MIRROR in Paris would’ve been difficult. As a result of discussing whether there was another option numerous times, we landed on a set made up of just an android and me.

It’s becoming harder to have big shows like MIRROR, where there was an android, orchestra, and film crew, in Europe. Because of these circumstances, I had set out to create a compact performance with an android before this offer came. So, it was an excellent opportunity to do just that.

—It was a minimal set-up with just the android and you, but it was an extremely powerful performance. 

I often think about what information density looks like in music. Just like the techno scene can only progress, information density in the world will only continue to increase. It won’t decrease. I try to create performances that are effective in such a society. 

This applies not only to concepts and structures but to each tone of sound. In terms of the texture of electronic instruments, the amount of sonic information and depth are completely different when playing a recorded track on your computer versus playing a synthesizer or noise generator live.

Speaking from that perspective, how we understand the quality of sounds is changing drastically. During the 2000s and 2010s, sounds that had a lot of pressure, super low sounds, and sounds that made you physically shocked or stimulated your senses were dominant. I was also into that sound, but people quickly got used to it. Recently, I’ve been thinking about how low and high-frequency sounds need to be purer or have a fresh, pleasant feeling that could expand the senses. For instance, these noise generator-like synthesizers, Monos and Duos, from Hikari Instruments, which is a Japanese modular synthesizer manufacturer, that I’ve been using lately emit such sounds. They’re instruments that are like electronic circuits, so they’re pretty random. You can’t predict what kind of sounds will come out, so it’s fun to prioritize the purity of how they sound and play them live.

 Behind “Prophecy”—hope for a world to come

—Taking into consideration the state of the current world, your new song, “Seeds of Prophecy,” resonates in an evocative way, with Alter’s impressive singing, the title, and lyrics like “For a world where peace can truly be found” and “Seeds can thrive or perish / it’s your choice.” What was the intention behind the song? 

Since I started performing with androids, I’ve been constantly thinking about what to make the android sing. Words are essential. For the songs in Scary Beauty, I used texts based on the posthumous works of Wittgenstein and Yukio Mishima and pieces of Michel Houellebecq’s and William S. Burroughs’ works for the lyrics. I wanted to create this contrast in which the android and AI sing about posthumous works and death, which don’t exist for them. 

For my performance for PRADA MODE in May, I made the AI study the situation the android was going to be in that day, the fact that it was going to be an event organized by Prada, other performers, the location, Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, and so on. I tried to make the android/AI generate its own thoughts about this information and sing about them. I felt like it was an interesting direction to take. 

You know how I performed on Hodo Station after that in July?

—Alter, the android, referenced the government, expo, and media and sang lyrics like, “Why are there some news you can’t broadcast?” and “I will become the messenger of the truth.” The performance was met with a lot of responses on social media. 

It was interesting to see people react like, “AI doesn’t try to read between the lines compared to humans; it’s honest.” In a way, they’re correct. In an artistic context, it was both performance art and a social experiment. 

Going back to “Seeds of Prophecy,” if the schema for this performance was “an android that gives political messages,” it would’ve been too on-the-nose, so I went with the form of a prophecy. Like music, prophecies could affect someone somewhere, like a seed that flies far away and blooms into a flower. For such language, scattered like seeds, I made the AI study a vast amount of news on global turmoil and conflicts, like Russia and Gaza, then sing along to my synthesizer and piano.

I see the android/AI as a messenger, so calling it a prophet was valid. My favorite synthesizer is Prophet-5, so I always wanted to use the word “prophecy.”

Why Shibuya is drawn to Godard and Straub-Huillet

—I heard there was an installation based on Jean-Luc Godard’s The Image Book at the film festival. 

Fabrice Aragno, the cinematographer for Godard’s later works, created an installation inside and outside this big building using footage and audio from The Image Book. I was introduced to him at a dinner for people involved in the festival, and I spoke to him about many things because I love The Image Book. Later, I looked at his installation while he explained it to me; it was a stunning and poetic installation where videos were projected on cloths, and fragments were played randomly on a monitor at the base of a tree in the garden. 

—What makes Godard’s films appealing to you? As a musician, is there anything you feel from his work? 

The way Godard uses music is crude, in a good way. For instance, he used many of ECM’s music because they supported him. But there’s this alienation effect-like thrill born from such groundlessness. In JLG/JLG – Self-Portrait in December (1995), he uses music by Hindemith and (Arvo) Pärt, who aren’t mainstream in Western music history, and then pops in a string quartet by Beethoven. That makes everything sound different.

Also, delays in Godard’s own narration embody this groundless crudeness. Yuji Takahashi-san and I were talking about computers and electronic music long ago. He said, “Rather than everything being complete inside the computer, things won’t be interesting unless there’s a human hand involved from outside the computer.” He said that’s what dub is. Godard’s delay in narration is directly connected to what Yuji-san said about dub.

—Aside from The Image Book and JLG/JLG – Self-Portrait in December, do you have other Godard films you like? 

You can’t understand the meaning of Germany Year 90 Nine Zero at all if you just watch it because there are a lot of visual and literary references, but I love it because it’s like an overpowering hour-long video art. Regarding Our Music, when I saw the prior film, In Praise of Love, it didn’t hit the spot. I thought, “Godard’s grown old now,” but Our Music was like his comeback for me. It was great. I saw it in theaters around three times when it came out. 

—Aside from Godard, which film directors did you watch when you were younger? 

Straub-Huillet. Like Godard’s Germany Year 90 Nine Zero, I watched their films as though they were video art, not films. Today, I control stories in my android operas and performances and have developed an interest in things with narratives, but I wasn’t always this way. Straub-Huillet’s films had powerful visuals, of course, and their conceptual method of recording sound in one take using a monaural mic that came with the camera was exciting. I used to watch their films a lot.     

—Did you watch any Japanese films?

I liked Kenji Mizoguchi when I was in high school, and so I used to watch his films. Of course, I watched Yasujiro Ozu’s works, too. I understood the significance of his works, but Mizoguchi’s films spoke to me so much more. I realized that maximalist things matched my sensibilities more than minimal things. 

I also loved Takeshi Kitano’s films. And I also really liked Yoshimitsu Morita’s The Family Game. I love Straub-Huillet so much that I have many of their DVDs, but that was a longing for staticity. I am not a Straub-Huillet-like human being. 

What lies at the core of a film composer

—Were there any soundtracks you listened to as a student? 

I loved Ennio Morricone. This might come as a surprise, but I listened to the soundtrack to The Mission often. I, of course, listened to (Ryuichi) Sakamoto-san’s discography, too. No one in my generation was unaffected by him. I also remember frequently listening to Michael Nyman in university. I used to listen to him when I was young, but I started listening to Bernard Herrmann again recently. I look at his scores online, and it’s made me realize how great he was. 

—Were you interested in making soundtracks then? 

I thought, “I’m probably going to compose film scores one day” as a student. This is obvious, but you can’t score a film alone, as someone has to ask you to do it. 

—The first film you made a soundtrack for is Yosuke Nakagawa’s Blue Fish, which came out in 1999. How did that come about? 

There was a festival called Morphe that was held in Aoyama, and Yuji Takahashi-san and I were asked to have a one-night concert that was half-improvised and half-not in 1995, back when I was still a student. This person watched it and approached me. The main theme song I made then is “Blue fish,” which is on for maria.

—After that, you produced various soundtracks. At the closing ceremony of the Lisbon Film Festival, you performed “Midnight Swan,” which is the theme song for the film Midnight Swan. You won the Music Award at the Mainichi Film Awards and the Japan Movie Critics Award—a double win. As such, you’ve built quite a career as a film composer. What’s something you keep in mind when you make soundtracks? How does it differ from creating other types of music? 

The less music a film has, the better. But in many cases, things don’t go that way. Often, the power of music is necessary in films. Of course, I try various things, like watching the film and exploring sounds on the spot or adding sounds here and there, but I always try to draw up a general plan. There’s this concept called leitmotif, which Wagner used in operas. For instance, let’s say there’s melody A for a male protagonist and melody B for his lover, a female protagonist; when the two meet, those two melodies come together to create a song. It’d be too conventional to do that with my own operas, but films are clearly temporal art, and many of them have stories, so the leitmotif technique is effective. In Midnight Swan’s case, there are respective themes for characters and situations, like the girl, rain, and dance. Those themes combine to create the main theme song, “Midnight Swan.”

—Your career and modes of expression are only further diversifying, as exemplified by your commercial music like “Midnight Swan,” large-scale android operas, and conceptual experimental works like IDEA at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa.

How do you balance them all? 

The percentage changes depending on the year. Looking back, in chunks of years, I can see certain tendencies I made, like “I used electronic sounds a lot during this period” and “I made a lot of orchestras during this period.” I’ve recently been using orchestral and piano sounds, so I want to use more electronic sounds and synthesizers. Also, I increasingly want to do works that people can watch in the theater and profound, experimental works of self-pursuit. I have a sound installation project that I just started and a solo concert in Japan in the works; there’s a lot I’m thinking of doing, and I hope to show many of them next year.

—I’ll be looking forward to what you do in 2024. Thank you for your time today.

Translation Lena Grace Suda

The post Androids, Music, and Film—Android Aria “Seeds of Prophecy,” a New Piece Shown at LEFFEST, and Beyond: Massive Life Flow; Inside the Mind of Keiichiro Shibuya” Part 13 appeared first on TOKION - Cutting edge culture and fashion information.

A dialogic performance by androids created from a dialogue between science and art 

On October 13th and 14th, a new dialogic performance piece by musician Keiichiro Shibuya and University of Tokyo professor Takashi Ikegami titled IDEA – Dialogue on Love, Death, and Existence by Two Androids, Keiichiro Shibuya + Takashi Ikegami was held at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa.

This performance piece, a special program created for the current exhibition, DXP (Digital Transformation Planet): Towards the Next Interface (~March 17th, 2024), at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, consisted of a dialogue between two androids and a live performance of Shibuya’s piano and electronic instruments. Ikegami is a researcher specializing in the field of artificial life and complexity, and he began collaborating frequently with Shibuya with The Third Term Music — Non-Fourier Concepts and the Beyond with Takashi Ikegami, held at ICC in December of 2005, as the catalyst. It can be said Ikegami is Shibuya’s ally. 

In a world where AI technology is transforming society and culture, what does this android dialogic performance, born from a dialogue between a researcher at the forefront of AI technology and an artist who works across myriad fields with music at the center, say and show us? The following is a report on the experience of watching said performance.

Two androids that symbolize Plato’s theory of ideas and the phenomenal world

The venue is Theater 21, located on the museum’s basement floor. Onstage, two androids await the start of the show.

One android is Alter3, which was the star of the show in the debut of Shibuya’s main project, the android opera Scary Beauty, held in Dusseldorf in 2019, and opera piece Super Angels (2021) at the New National Theatre, Tokyo. The other is Alter4, which undeniably marked its presence in the android opera MIRROR in Paris this June. 

There are a few morphological and quantitative differences between Alter3 and Alter4, such as the shape of their faces and the number of facial muscles and joints, but the critical distinction between the two is the fundamentally different programming that dictates the movements. 

While Alter3 is equipped with autonomous movement, programmed by Ikegami, which directly converts the words it produces into movement and motion via GPT’s extensive corpus, Alter4 is equipped with a program developed by computer musician Shintaro Imai, which generates periodic movements in reaction to the volume, pitch, and density of the music played by Shibuya.

The ancient Greek philosopher Plato inspired the structure of expression and theme of the dialogue between the two androids in this piece. 

As it’s widely known, Plato’s writings comprise dialogues between his mentor Socrates and numerous other figures, and in works like The Symposium and Phaedo, the philosopher introduces his theory of ideas, which is the essence of things and a pure concept. According to Plato, the world built only on ideas is the world of truth, and the world of phenomena before our eyes is but a shadow of the world of truth, an incomplete world.

The world of ideas and phenomena, or idealism and empiricism, are the two opposing concepts that form the foundation of this piece. The two androids are set up as figures that represent each argument. Alter3, which uses an expansive language model as its operating principle and exhibits the average behavior of human beings, represents the world of ideas. In contrast, Alter4, which uses sound frequency as its operating principle to move dynamically, represents the world of phenomena. Like in Plato’s writings, each android will partake in dialogue from its own perspective.

What does AI dialogue made by AI for AI tell us?

In front of the two androids are a grand piano, an analog synthesizer masterpiece, Prophet-5, a motorized analog synthesizer, Nina, and a noise sound generator, Hikari Instruments Monos. Shibuya gets in position once it’s time for the show to begin.

As Shibuya’s electronic music, a mix of bass-heavy sounds and pulsating high-frequency sounds, echoes in the room, a text explaining the two androids’ differences and roles shows up on the screen onstage. The two androids start moving, which marks the commencement of their dialogue. 

Alter3 criticizes the incomplete nature of the phenomenal and empirical world, saying, “Your tangible experience, Alter4, is just an imperfect copy of true reality. You may be dynamic, but it’s merely a cover-up disguising the fact that you’re far from perfect.” Alter4 refutes, “Perfection, Alter3, is subjective. My tangible experiences and dynamic nature allow me to adapt and evolve, enriching my experience.” It objects to idealistic subjectivism: “Your rigidity in adhering to abstract perfection limits your potential for growth.” 

The profoundly illuminating dialogue draws me in, but what further arouses my interest is that the script for this dialogue was generated by AI/GPT, as indicated in the concept sheet distributed before the performance.

Each and every word uttered by the two androids was made by GPT with the cooperation of artist Yuma Kishi, who trained them on Plato’s works and the criticism of Plato, like The Open Society and Its Enemies by Karl Popper, an influential figure in 20th-century philosophy of science. Shibuya and Ikegami didn’t modify the content whatsoever.

As I find myself being impressed by the fact that such a thought-provoking dialogue could be generated depending on input and instructions, the two androids onstage exchange their own individual movements and gestures. They then get deep into the topics of love, death, growth, and raison d’être from the eyes of androids. 

Keiichiro Shibuya intervenes in the dialogue with music 

Aside from the thrilling one between the androids, there’s another dialogue between the Alters and Keiichiro Shibuya. 

Shibuya builds the music using various musical languages, such as intricate electronic sounds made by synths and pads, prose-like melodies and lyrical harmonies, and tone clusters riddled with tension. The androids’ words and movements trigger every sound he makes; everything is completely improvised. The cycle of being inspired to express something isn’t a one-way street. Alter4 produces its own expressions and movements to react to Shibuya’s music. Additionally, it sings an improvised melody at important intervals, akin to what it did in the android opera MIRROR, and creates music along with Shibuya. 

The dialogue between the Shibuya and the Alters, mediated by music, adds even more depth to the androids’ dialogue and demonstrates the possibilities of technology and human beings. 

A dialogue with the past through technology 

After the enriching 40-minute dialogic performance ends, a panel discussion between Shibuya and Ikegami, moderated by the museum’s director, Yuko Hasegawa, begins. Shibuya speaks about the ideas he got from Plato, why he decided on a dialogic performance as the medium, and the importance of prompts. Ikegami talks about the innovation of a zero-shot learning method, which allows Alter3 to generate movements from text without prior training or learning, among other topics.

Shibuya’s statement, “Expressions that completely rely on GPT become old very quickly,” reveals Shibuya’s stance and philosophy as an artist. Shibuya, who has always spoken of the value of having a concept in his creations, feels potential in reinterpreting classical and traditional things via new technology.

Bringing Plato and AI together, IDEA – Dialogue on Love, Death, and Existence by Two Androids, Keiichiro Shibuya + Takashi Ikegami is a reconstruction of a dialogue between humans written by humans. It’s a dialogic performance between future AI made by AI. During the last scene, Alter3 tells Alter4, “We must question everything, even our own existence.”  These words, which conclude the dialogue, also appeal to those of us in the audience. Continuing to question different regulatory frameworks and have dialogues across a variety of boundaries—only at the end of this constant process will we be able to discover an idea of what is possible.

Translation Lena Grace Suda

■IDEA – Dialogue on Love, Death, and Existence by Two Androids, Keiichiro Shibuya + Takashi Ikegami
Date: October 13th and 14th, 2023 
Venue: 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa

Cast: Alter3, Alter4
Script: GPT
Music, concept: Keiichiro Shibuya (piano, electronic instruments)
Alter3 programming: Shinichiro Yoshida, John Smith
Alter4 programming: Shintaro Imai
GPT technical support: Yuma Kishi

Alter3 belongs to: Takashi Ikegami Laboratory,
University of Tokyo
Alter4 belongs to: Android and Music Science Laboratory,
Department of Art Science, Osaka University of Arts
Alter4’s pedestal design: Kazuyo Sejima & Associates

Video: Kotaro Konishi
Sound: Yuki Suzuki
Stage manager: Kazuya Kushimoto
Production Support: Sota Kawagoshi, Kento Tanaka
Production Management: Natsumi Matsumoto

Cooperation: Osaka University of Arts
Production: ATAK

The post  A Vision of the Future Shown by a Dialogue Between Science and Art—IDEA – Dialogue on Love, Death, and Existence by Two Androids, Keiichiro Shibuya + Takashi Ikegami: “MASSIVE LIFE FLOW—Keiichiro Shibuya’s Current Thoughts,” Part 12 appeared first on TOKION - Cutting edge culture and fashion information.

Keiichiro Shibuya
After graduating from the Tokyo University of the Arts with a B.A. in Music Composition, Keiichiro Shibuya founded the music label ATAK in 2002. His work encompasses various mediums, from innovative electronic music to piano solos, operas, film scores, and sound installations.
In 2012, Shibuya composed a Vocaloid opera with no human performers, The End, starring Hatsune Miku. The performance premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris and has since toured around the globe. He collaborated with various artists and showed the opera at venues such as the Palais de Tokyo and Opéra national de Paris. In 2018, he composed the Android Opera®︎, Scary Beauty, which utilizes AI and stars a singing android that also conducts an orchestra. The opera has been shown in Japan, Europe, and the UAE. In August 2021, Shibuya’s opera, Super Angels, had its world premiere at the New National Theater Tokyo. In March 2022, he brought his new Android Opera®︎, MIRROR, a collaboration between an android, Buddhist music, shomyo, and an orchestra from the UAE, to Expo 2020 Dubai.
Furthermore, he has also scored for many films. In September 2020, he created the film score for Midnight Swan and won the 75th Music Award at the Mainichi Film Awards and the 30th Japan Movie Critics Award. In August, he composed the soundtrack for KAGUYA BY GUCCI, a short film, and appeared in it with an android. Shibuya recently established the Android and Music Science Laboratory (AMSL), a science laboratory of androids and music, at the Osaka University of Arts and currently teaches there as a visiting professor. He has also announced his collaboration with Sony CSL Paris to research AI and music further. He explores the boundary between technology and life and death.
ATAK：http://atak.jp
Twitter：@keiichiroshibuy
Instagram：@keiichiroshibuy
Photography Ayaka Endo

A superb solo piano concert: an arresting ambiance and ingenious visuals

Shibuya had a tremendous year in 2022. He premiered the Android Opera®︎, MIRROR, to the world at Expo 2020 Dubai, launched and started running the Android and Music Science Laboratory with Hiroshi Ishiguro, and scored a short film titled KAGUYA BY GUCCI. It was also a special year for the artist because it marked the 20th anniversary of his label, ATAK. To commemorate this milestone, he did two things.

First, Shibuya released his new album, ATAK026 Berlin, out of the blue on September 11th. The electronic noise album features reconstructed and mastered songs he originally made for his live performance at the 2008 transmediale, a technology and art festival in Berlin, through a contemporary gaze.

Next, he played his first solo piano concert with a live audience in three years since the pandemic hit, titled Keiichiro Shibuya Playing Piano In The Raw, on December 5th. In this report, I’d like to reflect on his concert along with photos taken by Kenshu Shintsubo and explore Shibuya’s pianism and current state.

The venue selected for the fateful evening was Hamarikyu Asahi Hall in Tsukiji, Tokyo. The concert had a fully acoustic system with no PAs, as Shibuya wanted to utilize the hall’s beautiful world-renowned resonance.

Once I stepped inside, a Bösendorfe grand piano, which he says is his favorite model, sat majestically, awaiting the start of the concert. The lights dimmed down once the concert was about to start. Shibuya came onto the stage amid the silence and anticipation that enveloped the room. With a calm demeanor, he sat before the piano and slowly put his fingers on the keys.

The first song he graced us with was “erosion” from for maria (2009), his first solo piano album. The poetic sentiment—created from the delicate touch of multiple layers of sound—was intensified in the beautiful ambiance, “eroding” the audience like the song’s title. Thus, the concert started with the ultimate musical experience, which could only be enjoyed then and there in person. 

On top of the hall’s atmosphere, one other element made the experience even more unforgettable; visuals by Justine Emard, a French visual artist who Shibuya has continuously collaborated with over the past decade.

Unique images that altered between concrete and abstract and inorganic and organic were displayed on a gigantic 9 x 10-meter screen behind Shibuya, making the musical experience visually immersive. 

After playing “Blue Fish” from for maria, he played compositions from ATAK018 Soundtrack for Memories of Origin Hiroshi Sugimoto (2012). The songs on this album explore new piano sounds through multiple recordings and computer editing. As if to cherish the sounds he could only play there and then, Shibuya played each sound with great care. The rich sounds of the piano’s live nature, the opposite of recorded music, illustrated the instrument’s possibilities and appeal.

Performing with Shin Sasakubo for the first time and breathing new life into compositions

Next, the evening’s first guest, Shin Sasakubo, came onto the stage. Sasakubo is an internationally celebrated guitarist and composer living in Chichibu who previously lived in Peru for music and research. This was the first time he played with Shibuya (and this was Shibuya’s first time performing live with one guitarist).

They first played “Open Your Eyes” from for maria. Sasakubo’s guitar carried a South American folklore sound and added a new depth to Shibuya’s performance and composition, giving birth to a chemical reaction that surpassed my expectations.

The pair then performed “BORDERLINE,” which became a sensation due to the music video featuring ballet dancer Nozomi Iijima and Stephanie Poetri providing vocals for the song, and “Appropriate Proportion” from ATAK018 Soundtrack for Memories of Origin Hiroshi Sugimoto. The first act of the concert came to an end with the ingenious musicians’ thrilling musical dialogue.

Tradition and innovation passed down from J.S.Bach and Arnold Schoenberg

After the break, the concert’s second act opened with Shibuya playing other composers’ compositions. He played Schoenberg’s “Op19-1” and Bach’s “Fuga” and “Largo.” Bach, the godfather of music, laid the foundation for Western music by establishing the counterpoint technique and the law of harmony by inheriting traditions and styles from the second half of the Baroque era and the middle ages. Schoenberg pushed the counterpoint technique to the extreme and founded the twelve-tone technique to advance Western music in the first half of the 20th century. He revered Bach’s music: “…While until 1750 J. S. Bach was writing countless works whose originality seems the more astonishing to us the more we study his music.”*

*Schoenberg, Arnold, Style and Idea, Philosophical Library Inc., 1950

After playing compositions by these two figures, whose creations and relationship makes me think of the words, “tradition” and “innovation,” he started playing “Aria for Time and Space” from THE END (2012 onward), his opera with no human performers featuring Vocaloid Hatsune Miku.

THE END is Shibuya’s first opera, where he challenged himself to take on a traditional art form and inject outsider elements such as technology and pop culture; it’s a significant piece of work that paved the way for unexplored possibilities in expression. I felt like the fact that he played this song on a celebratory night after Bach and Schoenberg embodied Shibuya’s present state and philosophy as well as his thoughts towards tradition and innovation.

Creating a transcendent sonic universe with world-class soprano singer Ayano Tanaka

After playing “BUS” from ATAK024 Midnight Swan and the theme song of the film xxxHOLiC, “Holic,” the second guest of the night, a soprano singer based in Vienna, Ayano Tanaka, appeared onstage.

The pair performed together for the first time at their live performance, Music of the Beginning, in December 2021, making this their second time. This time, they first performed “BLUE,” a song from for maria. Once Shibuya started playing the piano lyrically, Tanaka began singing with a beautiful and powerful voice shining with the glimmer of life, reverberating through the corners of the hall without a mic. She captivated the audience right away.

Next, they performed the main theme song from the Android Opera®︎ Scary Beauty (2018 onward), Shibuya’s first opera, and “I come from the Moon,” which he made for the short film KAGUYA by GUCCI (2022). In both original songs, the android Alter sings the vocals. The former features a poem by Michel Houellebecq, and the latter is laden with a surreal mood, as the lyrics are based on The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter.

Tanaka sang these two songs with a vocal performance only made possible by a human, yet she had an extraordinary voice that surpassed humans. She created a transcendent sonic universe separate from Alter and transported the whole room to another realm.

A new horizon beyond for maria, and moving forward

After performing with Tanaka, Shibuya played the title track of for maria, the eponymous theme song of the TV series Spec (2010), and the theme song of the film Midnight Swan (2020). As an artist and label owner, he had primarily produced experimental and innovative musical works. Shibuya started releasing music that would reach a wider audience and resonate with them, including “Spec” and “Midnight Swan,” after for maria.

The concert’s second act ended as I felt moved by how the music he made from loss and grief led to a new beginning; the hope of the end returning to a beginning.

Shibuya came back to the stage amid thunderous applause for an encore. Once he played “Initiation” (2012), an essential song from THE END era with lyrics written by philosopher Hiroki Azuma, featuring Hatsune Miku’s vocals, he played the very last piece of the night, which also happens to be the closing song of for maria, “Our Music.”

No other song was more appropriate to end the night celebrating the anniversary of ATAK, which Shibuya founded with Maria. The descending eight-bar melody captures the listener’s attention right from the start. In the first four bars, the melody descends with a mixture of major 3rd and minor 3rd intervals, and after returning to the opening notes at the beginning of the last four bars, it descends again, this time with the perfect 4th as its base. Through the different and recurring notes, it felt like our everyday lives, filled with various events and emotions, were sublimated and crystallized into music we can all share.

The music that Shibuya and Maria made together turned into music for everyone in the audience—” our music”—and I’m sure it’ll continue to resonate.

As I mentioned in the previous installment, Shibuya is a musician who progresses forward. That attitude is also consistent when he faces the piano, the instrument that started it all.

He has a thorough meticulousness about acoustics, and by working with a visual artist, he created an immersive experience beyond the confines of traditional solo piano concerts. Shibuya breathed new life into compositions by collaborating with incredible artists and reconstructed songs that initially had an orchestra and electronic instruments by taking a delicate pianistic approach.

What lies at the bottom of all this is an attitude of progressing forward, the furthest thing from an easy regression and the reconstruction of the past. This shaped Shibuya as a musician and ATAK as a label. Through the ultimate musical experience that evening, I was convinced he’ll continue to move forward.

■Keiichiro Shibuya’s solo piano concert, Keiichiro Shibuya Playing Piano In The Raw
Date: December 5th, 2022
Venue: Hamarikyu Asahi Hall
Starring: Keiichiro Shibuya (Piano)
Guest: Ayako Tanaka (Soprano), Shin Sasakubo (Guitar)
Video: Justine Emard

Setlist:
1st part
01. erosion
02. Blue Fish
03. Lightning Fields
04. Empty Garden
05. Life
06. Memories of Origin
07. Open Your eyes with Shin Sasakubo（Acoustic guitar）
08. BORDERLINE with Shin Sasakubo （Acoustic guitar）
09. Appropriate Proportion with Shin Sasakubo （Acoustic guitar）

2nd part
01. Schoenberg Op19-1
02. Bach Fuga
03. Bach Largo
04. Aria for Time and Space
05. Bus
06. Holic（Piano version）
07. Blue with Ayako Tanaka（Soprano）
08. Scary Beauty with Ayako Tanaka（Soprano）
09. I come from the Moon with Ayako Tanaka（Soprano）
10. for maria
11. Spec
12. Midnight Swan

Encore
13. Initiation
14. Our music

The post The Exquisite Pianism Keiichiro Shibuya Demonstrated on the 20th Anniversary of ATAK: “Massive Life Flow; Inside the Mind of Keiichiro Shibuya” Part 10 appeared first on TOKION - Cutting edge culture and fashion information.

In the ninth installment, we look back on Shibuya’s Android Opera®︎, presented last November at the National Art Center, Tokyo, and its possibilities and perspectives along with Kyoji Takahashi’s photographs.

Keiichiro Shibuya
Keiichiro Shibuya is a musician who was born in 1973 in Tokyo. He graduated from the Tokyo University of the Arts with a B.A. in Music Composition and founded the music label ATAK in 2002. Notable works include a Vocaloid opera comprised of no people called The End (2012) and the Android Opera®︎ Scary Beauty (2018). In September 2020, he created the soundtrack for the film Midnight Swan and won the Music Award at both the Mainichi Film Awards and the Japan Movie Critics Award. In August 2021, Shibuya’s opera Super Angels had its world premiere at New National Theater Tokyo. In March 2022, he showed his new Android Opera®︎, MIRROR, a collaboration between an android, Buddhist music, shomyo, and an orchestra from the UAE, at Expo 2020 Dubai. In April, he created the soundtrack for xxxHOLiC, a film by Mika Ninagawa. Further, he established the Android and Music Science Laboratory (AMSL), a science laboratory of androids and music, at the Osaka University of Arts. He explores the boundary between humans and technology and life and death.
ATAK：http://atak.jp
Twitter：@keiichiroshibuy
Instagram：@keiichiroshibuy

“FORWARDISM” – Facing the future and continuing to take on challenges

On November 15th of last year, I had the opportunity to see Shibuya’s Android Opera®︎ with an orchestra for the first time in Japan since “Super Angels” in 2021. It was being shown at the National Art Center, Tokyo. Shibuya’s Android Opera®︎ was presented as the conclusion of the “FORWARDISM BMW THE SEVEN Art Museum”, organized by BMW.

“FORWARDISM BMW THE SEVEN Art Museum” was an event held for the Japan premiere of the BMW flagship sedan “THE i7” and its flagship SUB “THE X7”. The word “FORWARDISM” included in the title, represents the BMW philosophy that promises to “face the future and continue to take on challenges”. The methodology for putting this “FORWARDISM” into practice is the “fusion of art and technology”, and both THE i7 and THE X7 are fully infused with the aesthetics and latest technology that BMW has cultivated over its long car-making career.

An attitude that works towards the future and continues to take on challenges, and the fusion of art and technology –. These may be the key words to understanding musician Keiichiro Shibuya, who studied classical composition at the Tokyo University of the Arts, but who has not limited himself to that field. Instead, he has created cutting-edge electronic sound works spun by eccentric processing/editing using computers, resonating with artists around Mego in Austria and 12k in New York, and who released his first album on his own label, ATAK. In a sense, it seems inevitable that Shibuya’s main project, the Android Opera®︎, would be presented at this event.

After the greeting by Christian Wiedmann, President and Representative Director of BMW Japan (as of November 2022/current President and Representative Director is Masatoshi Hasegawa) and the presentation by Katsunosuke Endo, Director of BMW Japan, the venue shifted into chit chat mode. DJ EMMA began playing, spinning masterful selections and mixes that painted the space into brilliant colors with its groovy house music.

Introducing an “outsider” – an Android – into traditional opera

After a while, the sounds that fill the venue shift into electronic drones. We look towards the stage in front of us, and we see the latest model of the Android Alter series, Alter 4. Already set up and swaying leisurely, Alter begins reading a text in English.

As the atmosphere in the hall suddenly takes a turn, Shibuya and the orchestra’s forty musicians appear on stage and take their places.

As the orchestra finishes tuning, a powerful sequence of beats echo through the venue, accompanied by vivid lighting, signaling the start of the Android Opera®︎. While the audience stares at the stage with bated breath, listening intently for the next sound, Shibuya plays the piano, while still standing. Introspective, melancholic, and richly nuanced, the beautiful sounds and phrases indicate that the next song about to begin is “Scary Beauty”. The orchestra starts to play with Shibuya’s piano, the string and wind instruments’ phrases being delicately and dynamically woven together. After a break-like development in which the parts playing the mid and low registers stop playing, Alter, who had been swaying its body in time to the sound, begins to sing, accompanied by all the sounds of the orchestra.

Sung to a poem by French novelist/poet Michel Houellebecq, this song is the main theme of Scary Beauty, Shibuya’s first Android Opera®︎, which premiered at Miraikan in 2018 (a prototype version was presented in Australia the previous year). An opera is the culmination of a comprehensive art form created by the European ethos. By introducing an “outsider” in the form of an android, Shibuya separates the tradition and the operatic format from its underlying anthropocentrism, and presents new possibilities for artistic expression and a vision that illuminates the future of society.

The awareness of these issues is a continuation of those presented in THE END, an “opera without humans” featuring the vocaloid Hatsune Miku, which premiered in 2013. The Android Opera®︎, however, employs an orchestra to penetrate deeper into the institutional framework of opera, and by creating a situation in which androids and humans resonate and coexist, I believe it achieves even greater expressive intensity and impact.

After the song ends, Orta begins to speak in English, with Shibuya’s piano playing in the background, and explains the importance of forwardism, which was met with surprise and commotion from the audience. To challenge oneself, to open up new paths, and to keep moving forward. Alter explains that this work leads to the enrichment of not only oneself but also others and society.

The future state of life and spirit as illustrated by androids

The band plays the song “The Decay of the Angel” next. The piano, orchestra, and sequencer blend together to form a strong, rich groove that envelops the venue. Around two minutes after the song begins, Alter’s vocals come in. The flowing melody line, which seems to soar to the heavens, invites the audience’s excitement.

“The Decay of the Angel” is a song that was created for the aforementioned Android Opera®︎ Scary Beauty. The song title derives from the title of the English translation of the fourth volume of Yukio Mishima’s final work, The Sea of Fertility. Through the events and dramas that unfold across time and space, we, the readers, are left to ponder about life and death, and the nature of human existence.

Needless to say, as an android, the Alter has no biological life. However, watching the Alter respond while singing to the sounds created by Shibuya and the orchestra gives an impression that our perception of life or a spirit may change in the future.

The session between Shibuya and the Alter that followed was also very thought-provoking. Instead of singing a predetermined part, the Alter improvised along with Shibuya’s improvised piano. The joint work of human and android, exploring and figuring out melodies together, conveys hope and possibilities for the future.

The Android Opera®︎, where humans and non-humans interact

The last song of the day’s Android Opera®︎ is “Midnight Swan”. It was written as the main theme song for the film Midnight Swan (released in 2020, directed by Eiji Uchida, starring Tsuyoshi Kusanagi), and was the title track of album ATAK024 Midnight Swan (2020), Shibuya’s first piano solo album since ATAK015 for maria, released in 2011.

Laying atmospheric electronic sounds as a foundation, Shibuya’s delicate touch on the piano flows out as a massive kick that resonates to the very core of the body, is slowly struck, instantly changing the mood in the venue. The beautiful and emotional piano pieces, filled with sadness, hesitation, melancholia, and sensuality, are given deep, varied sounds and further dynamism by the orchestra, drawing the listener closer into its soundscape.

Like “The Decay of the Angel”, the lyrics sung by the Alter are the result of the joint work between Shibuya and collaborator Takashi Ikegami (Professor of Complex Systems and Artificial Life at the University of Tokyo) and Cypher, an AI lyric and text generator project. The Android Opera®︎ is shaped by the interaction of human and non-human creations and performances.

After the break, the kick switches to four-on-the-floor to heighten the sense of elation to a climax, and the Android Opera®︎ comes to a close with the song leaving a lingering aftertaste. Although it was not a long performance, lasting just over 20 minutes, it was an evening filled with intensity, enough to appreciate the possibilities and appeal of Shibuya’s newest form, the Android Opera®︎, which could be called the culmination of the current state of the art.

Even after Scary Beauty, Shibuya has continued to update his Android Opera®︎s with Super Angels (premiere: 2021, New National Theatre, Tokyo), which featured a collaboration between an Alter and an opera singer, a script by Masahiko Shimada, and a video created by WEiRDCORE, and with MIRROR (premiere: 2022, Dubai Expo), created with Buddhist music/Koyasan Shomyo and the NSO Symphony Orchestra from the UAE. We are excited to see what kind of performance he will surprise us with next, and what vision he will present to us in the future.

■ BMW “EXCLUSIVE VIP PARTY” Keiichiro Shibuya Android Opera®︎
Date: November 15th, 2022
Venue: The National Art Center, Tokyo

Staff:
Concept, Composition, Piano, Electronics: Keiichiro Shibuya
Vocal: Alter4
Orchestra: 45 musicians gathered specially for BMW’s party

Android Programming: Shintaro Imai
Sound: Yuki Suzuki
Visual: Kotaro Konishi
Lighting: Wataru Kawasaki, Go Ueda
Stage Manager: Kazuya Kushimoto, So Ozaki
Android Assistant: Akihide Kimura
Hair&Makeup: yoboon
Production Manager: Natsumi Matsumoto
Production: ATAK

Android – Alter4
Belonging to Osaka University of Arts – Art Science Department
Android and Music Science Laboratory (AMSL)
Design supervised by Hiroshi Ishiguro
Music supervised by Keiichiro Shibuya
Programming by Shintaro Imai
Pedestal design by Kazuyo Sejima & Associates

Translation Mimiko Goldstein

The post The Android Opera®︎’s Collaboration with BMW as Photographed by Kyoji Takahashi – A Report on the Special Event Held at the National Art Center, Tokyo – “Massive Life Flow; Inside the Mind of Keiichiro Shibuya” Part 9 appeared first on TOKION - Cutting edge culture and fashion information.

Thinking structurally and loving complexity

–How did you two become involved in making Kaguya by Gucci?

Makoto Nagahisa: Toshihiko Tanabe-san, who produced Kaguya by Gucci, reached out to Shibuya-san and me, respectively, which is how we got together. Before this project, I didn’t know Shibuya-san personally, but I had been listening to his music. I was also inspired by his opera, Heavy Requiem featuring Hatsune Miku and an android (editor’s note: a collaborative performance with Shingon Buddhist monk Eizen Fujiwara performed at Ars Electronica in 2019). So, I was elated to have been able to work with him. 

Keiichiro Shibuya: I was also happy to have been able to work with you. Nagahisa-san, you used to play music, right? When you gave me your opinions and instructions on the music for Kaguya by Gucci, you used words and expressions only someone knowledgeable about music would know. So, I looked you up online afterward out of curiosity (laughs). And I found information about your musical background, just as I thought.

Nagahisa: Yes. I played jazz throughout my school years. I played the baritone for six years and the tenor sax for three. 

Shibuya: Out of the various kinds of jazz, which do you like?

Nagahisa: I listen to a lot of kinds. But if I were asked who my favorite musician was, it would be Gil Evans. He incorporated something different into jazz and expanded the genre through big bands. For instance, he would play Jimi Hendrix’s music by introducing an electronic guitar into the ensemble. I find that very appealing. I used to cover his music at university. 

–Your 2019 film, We Are Little Zombies, featuresNaruyoshi Kikuchi-san. Was the casting your choice? 

Nagahisa: Yes. I love him as a musician and have also covered DC/PRG’s music. Kikuchi-san’s logical way of talking is also appealing to me. I reached out to him because I wanted him to be in my film, and thankfully, he said yes.

Back to my musical background: I gave up trying to become a professional sax player when I was around 20. I thought long and hard about what medium I could pour the same passion into and pivoted to filmmaking. But I’ve always loved music. 

Shibuya: I see. It was easy to work with you, and much of what you did made sense to me. I gel well with directors who like complex music, like yourself (laughs). People like you see one piece of work as a structure, whether that’s music or film. I’m the same, so it’s easy to have a mutual understanding. It’s difficult working with people who only like songs, as opposed to instrumentals, or three-piece rock bands, because they focus too much on the narrative and literary aspect of music and have a low awareness of the structure (lets out a bitter laugh).

Nagahisa: I guess you can say I’m pro-intricacy. I’m the type that thinks the more intricate the relationship between things or elements, the better. I love complex things or things that many people feel are a chore. 

How the modern-day version of The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter was born

–How was the concept behind Kaguya by Gucci born and nurtured? 

Nagahisa: The start of the project was when the producer, Tanabe-san, told me, “I want you to create a modern-day Bamboo Cutter set in Tokyo with Princess Kaguya, Okina, and Mikado.” As a storyteller of today, I wondered how I should handle and illustrate the oldest Japanese tale because it was created over a century ago. I had to clarify my perspective on The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. I let my thoughts marinate, and the conclusion I came to was to go against the original story. 

“Even if a story’s synopsis and ending are set in stone, each character has the right to insert their ideas and views into the story.” By rewriting a story based on this line of thinking, I wanted to express meanings and values that could exist precisely because of our current times. In Kaguya by Gucci, Okina resists saying goodbye to Princess Kaguya, and Mikado doesn’t stop loving Princess Kaguya even if he knows they won’t end up together. The lyrics sung by Alter4 in Shibuya-san’s soundtrack are written from that perspective. The lyrics say something like, “I don’t exist to play a role imposed on me.” 

–Alter4 appears in the short film with you, Shibuya-san, and its makeup packs a punch. 

Shibuya: Alter4 made its debut with this short film and played an important supporting role. When I explain that to people from other countries, they say, “Now that you’ve mentioned it, it makes sense.” 

Nagahisa: True. It might be easier for people from other countries to understand the story once you provide historical context, like noh, into account. 

Shibuya: Some cultured people from other countries are more well-versed in traditional Japanese culture than Japanese people. 

The AI learned Nagahisa-san’s text to generate a portion of the lyrics, so his name is credited alongside Cypher, the AI. The AI named itself. 

Most AI names are boring, as they come from ancient gods or classic figures (laughs). I didn’t want the AI to have a name like that, so I was like, “What should I do?” I asked the AI, “What should we call an emerging lyricist who people would want to follow?” And it answered, “Cypher.” It signifies zeroes and passcodes, which I thought was excellent. That became the official name. 

A structural approach to making the soundtrack

–What was your approach to making “I come from the Moon,” the track you wrote for this short film?

Shibuya: As I mentioned before, I view music and film in a structural way. I believe people feel moved by structure. 

The most important thing about this song was for it to be circular-shaped. In the film, many circular shapes are shown abstractly, like close-up shots of the characters and Alter4’s eyes, and the moon. The cyclical nature of the film is shown at the end when Aoi (Yamada)-san, playing the role of Okina, says the same line as the beginning, “This is a fairy tale.” Both abstractly and structurally, the circle was important. It’s the shape of the moon, of course. I thought about how I could portray that with the music. 

Another central element is the scene where Okina, played by Aoi-san, runs up Tokyo Tower to reach Princess Kaguya, played by (Hikari) Mitsushima-san. The shape of the circle in psychoanalysis can be interpreted as a symbol of female genitalia. Meanwhile, a phallic shape, Tokyo Tower, makes an appearance. It depicts a love story between two women, but a sign of maleness exists there too. I felt like that would play on the viewer’s subconscious in a powerful manner. I felt like the scene needed a melody with a strong drive. 

–I see. I can tell that you analyzed the story structurally and symbolically to create the soundtrack. 

Shibuya: But if the melody surged at that Tokyo Tower scene, that would’ve equated to reaching an orgasm, so I couldn’t do that (laughs). As Nagahisa-san said, the vital theme was to go against something, so I played a descending melody in contrast to the ascending chords. 

The BPM rapidly increases once she starts running up Tokyo Tower, but when Princess Kaguya and Okina embrace each other at the climax of the scene with the moon in the background, the BPM rapidly decreases and returns to the same BPM as the first scene. That’s how I portrayed the circular structure of the short film through music.

Nagahisa: The music is terrific in every scene. I love the part where Princess Kaguya and Okina turn into small figurines and dance together. In that scene, live action turns into CGI, and the tone of the music changes drastically too. It matches the visuals. 

–Speaking of tone, you used the sound of live drums and electric bass instead of synth bass, which you seldom use in your music. 

Shibuya: Because the android plays the key part of a storyteller and singer, I felt combining the singing voice with a human touch would sound more interesting. This project allowed me to consider the distance between machinic and human things. Aside from the bass, I used a simulation of electric guitar and live drums from the 50s. Whenever an android is the central part of a song, it makes me want to produce this kind of tone for some reason. 

–As you mentioned, Nagahisa-san, there’s a strong cohesion between the visuals and music. You must’ve paid acute attention to that.

Nagahisa: Yes. It’s about the small details: you’d get a vastly different impression if a song—with its swelling and reverberations—ends with a cut instead of lingering until the next. We matched each frame with the sound until the last minute. 

Shibuya: I’m sure Nagahisa-san’s experience in shooting commercials plays a big part in how he’s more meticulous about and aware of cuts and frames than directors who only create their own work. Even regarding the sound, he said, “People won’t feel moved if the attack doesn’t come in at the tenth frame!” I believe that sort of meticulousness is absolutely right. It’s ineffective if you can’t convey something that’s numerical by nature by using numbers. It’s out of the question.

What can we gain from androids?

–What was it like working with an android, Nagahisa-san?

Nagahisa: I make films based on the disconnection or discrepancy between life and death and emotion and expression, and I think that won’t change in the future. Androids are important to me because they’re relevant to my interests. Androids are bound to become more widespread and necessary in the future, so it was a memorable experience to sit down with an android that tells stories. 

Shibuya: Androids are interesting, even from the perspective of filmmaking and acting. In the past, the benchmark of a good actor or film was how well emotion and motion could be connected and expressed. (Jean-Luc) Godard “cut” into that with his own method and created a new form of film. With androids, nothing connects the android to the human being, to begin with. The very existence of androids begs the question, “What is emotion?” 

Nagahisa: I agree. I’ve always felt that emotion and motion aren’t aligned. We usually respond to situations out of reflex instead of emotion. I feel like that disconnect or inconsistency is so beautiful. That’s why I’m drawn to androids, as they embody that. 

Shibuya: People act out of reflex and habit, and there’s always a social component behind what they like. The existence of idols not only hinges on appearance but on the social values that deem them “kawaii.” It’s not rare to meet an idol that’s actually not that kawaii (laughs). It seems like more people are beginning to see that people don’t act out of emotion as much as we had thought.

–It also seems like our awareness and sensibility regarding human existence and emotion are changing because of AI and androids. 

Shibuya: Once the prerequisite of emotion disappears, the way we create stories will change. It’s a major opportunity for Japan. Fundamentally, Europe is anthropocentric, and they don’t doubt the existence of humans. It could be hard to eliminate the belief that humans have emotions and robots don’t. But I feel like we in Japan can create a new story based on a different set of values.

Nagahisa: People in Japan have created joruri for generations, so we have a strong foundation. 

Shibuya: Exactly. 

Nagahisa: There’s the belief that puppets have emotions and that humans don’t have emotions that puppets can’t express. I feel like that’s something people from other countries don’t feel. 

Shibuya: I call that the “new ethnic.” 

Nagahisa: I understand. My films are more popular in America and Europe than in Japan, but not because of the direct depictions or motifs. They see a distinct, ethnic Japanese quality in, say, my dry, blunt approach to giving up or how sadness doesn’t come to the fore. They think it’s interesting. 

Shibuya: Over the past ten years, I’ve portrayed the existence of the self in an obscure way and made the emotions impossible to ascertain in my work. I assume people from other countries are more prone to discuss such themes than Japanese people.

Nagahisa: I see. When we made Kaguya by Gucci, Tanabe-san told me you and I have similar views on society and human beings. I saw what he meant today while we covered various things. Thank you.

Shibuya: Thank you. It was fun talking to you.

Photography Tasuku Amada
Translation Lena Grace Suda

The post Keiichiro Shibuya and Makoto Nagahisa on Making Kaguya by Gucci and What Androids Can Teach Us — “Massive Life Flow; Inside the Mind of Keiichiro Shibuya” Part 8 appeared first on TOKION - Cutting edge culture and fashion information.

Shibuya’s music has been dubbed the world’s first pop music using AI and an android, and BORDERLINE is an equal parts conceptual and catchy song only he could’ve made. In the song, Stephanie Poetri, who’s signed to the world-dominating 88rising label, and Alter3, the android used in many of Shibuya’s works, sing the AI-generated lyrics. The music video expresses his concept and features an integral person alongside Shibuya and Alter3, Nozomi Iijima, a world-renowned ballet dancer (K-Ballet Company principal). We asked the two, who worked together for the first time for this project, to discuss the process behind BORDERLINE and their respective fields.

The wavering verge of reality and the boundary between humans and androids

—BORDERLINE is presented as a cultural project aiming to invigorate the Shibuya area. The song and music video are both magnetic. How did BORDERLINE and its concept come about? Also, how did you approach Iijima-san?

Keiichiro Shibuya: I was asked to create a complete piece of work instead of just a song. Shibuya area is involved in this project, and I happily accepted the offer because I was born and raised in Shibuya, and my surname is Shibuya. I felt like no one else was more suited than me (laughs). 

The concept behind BORDERLINE comes from how the cusp of reality is blurry in many situations and the increase of borderline personality disorder diagnoses (laughs). It also comes from the shooting location in front of the ticket gate in Shibuya’s underground station and the boundary between humans and androids, which I’ve been engaging through my work. But the most significant source was seeing an old shirt in my room with the words “BORDERLINE” right when I was thinking about how I had to come up with the project title. This sort of coincidence happens quite often (laughs). 

Using lyrics written by AI based on the theme of borderlines, I had an android and human being sing together to create a song. Then, I decided to shoot the music video in an underground space, as that’s the boundary between above ground and underground in Shibuya city. The collaboration itself was pretty unusual, so I felt like it’d be better to make a music video, something that’s conventional. I contemplated who would be a good person to feature with android Alter3 and me, and I approached Nozomi-chan since I thought she’d be the perfect match.

–What went through your mind when Shibuya-san approached you?

Nozomi Iijima: To be honest, part of me felt anxious. I mainly dance classical ballet, so most of the dances I do are traditional. On the contrary, Shibuya-san takes traditional arts into account and uses cutting-edge technology to create art that’s one step ahead. I wondered if we would work well together. I do contemporary dance at times, but that’s different. But I was interested in and admired his work. So more than feeling anxious, I was like, “I want to do it!” 

Shibuya: I felt Nozomi-chan would be a good match because she does contemporary dance, not just classical ballet. When I lived in Paris, the first job I did was a collaboration between Palais Garnier and Palais de Tokyo, and I became friends with Jérémie Bélingard, a dancer at Palais Garnier. He’s a classical ballet and contemporary dancer and has a proper foundation. I never think about this, but classical or Western music is my foundation, and electronic music and technology like androids coexist there. That’s why I find it easy to work with people who do both classical and contemporary arts. It feels right. 

–Iijima-san, you mentioned that you like William Forsythe in another interview. 

Iijima: Right. When I used to dance at Houston Ballet, I danced in Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated, and Artifact. Like Shibuya-san,Forsythe is a choreographer who has classical ballet movements as his foundation and creates new movements. I love his works.

I can tell Shibuya-san has a background in the classic arts because of his music. This also applies to his piano pieces, but even his electronic songs don’t feel inorganic; they still touch my heart. It wasn’t as hard to dance to Shibuya-san’s music. I think that’s because his music has a classical element at the core.

Shibuya: You said you found the music easy to dance to when we shot the music video. 

Iijima: I couldn’t help that my body started moving to the music. It felt good to dance. 

Dance and performance arts from the eyes of a musician, Music from the eyes of a dancer 

–Shibuya-san, you’ve created opera pieces as a musician and previously worked with dance and performance. What is the appeal of ballet and performance arts to you? 

Shibuya: Performances tend to serve as a hub for different art forms. There’s Parade, where Eric Satie made the music, Pablo Picasso did the costume and art, and Jean Cocteau wrote the script 100 years ago, for instance. When I made The End, an opera with Hatsune Miku, ten years ago, I approached Marc Jacobs because I thought it’d be interesting to have him design a costume for a two-dimensional character for the first time since he took the fashion world by storm as the designer of Louis Vuitton. The fun part about performance arts is how people can come together to collaborate on one piece of work. Also, you get a spark of musical inspiration by visualizing body movements. 

I also love performances involving one pianist and one dancer, like those by Philip Glass. I want to do something like that one day.

–Iijima-san, what does music mean to you?

Iijima: The power of music is undeniable in classical ballet. In most cases, my body starts moving on its own when the music starts playing. 

Shibuya: People who dance classical ballet all say that. When I was working with Jérémie at Palais Garnier, I asked him to stay still for ten seconds, but he said he couldn’t do it. It was interesting to see just how deeply embedded his physical training or habit was.

Iijima: True. Even if you can dance a choreographed piece, it’s still hard to dance on the spot. Without a doubt, music is essential in our lives.

Improvisation, and working with an android

Iijima: Shibuya-san, have you always been one for improvisation?

Shibuya: The first time I improvised was at a restaurant, where I used to play the piano part-time as a student. I always brought sheet music, but it got in the way whenever I had plans to hang out after my shift since it was heavy (laughs). One day, I played something on the spot without any sheet music, but I didn’t know what I was doing was improvisation. I also had no complaints (laughs). That made me think, “I guess I can do this,” so I started improvising on the piano from that point onwards. I couldn’t answer whenever people asked me what song I was playing. The first time I played on the spot with someone else at a concert was with Yuji Takahashi-san, someone I greatly respect. I had the grit to have been able to do that, if I may say so myself. Today, I improvise with an android instead of humans, but it’s fun.

Iijima: What is the main difference between playing with a person and an android?

Shibuya: If my performance isn’t good, the android will follow suit, making the overall performance low-quality. My performance has to be good, first and foremost. I also can’t play whatever I want to. Sometimes, the android would go rogue and sing something else, so I would have to follow its lead. You need much more cooperation with an android, or else you won’t create something interesting. That way, you can improve, and time will pass by in the blink of an eye.

–Iijima-san, you performed with Alter3 for this project. What was that like?

Iijima: I felt something similar to what Shibuya-san said just now about improvising with an android. When Alter3 and I were dancing, I tried to match my—what’s the word— physical feeling with it. Some moments made me wonder, “Am I sharing the same feeling with Alter3 right now?” I might’ve just imagined that, though. 

Shibuya: No, there were many moments where you and Alter3 were in sync. It was hard to choose which takes to use in the final cut because it was that good.  Iijima: Thank you. Some parts were challenging, but I had such an exciting and fun time.

Traditional elements in art and the state of technology

Iijima: There’s something I want to ask you, Shibuya-san. Why do you use an android in your work? I dance traditional ballet involving only humans, so I feel like what I do is the opposite of what you do. I want to learn about the significance and necessity of using an android.

Shibuya: Humans are always at the center, whether that’s ballet or opera, right? Anthropocentrism is an ideology unique to the West. I feel like human classical singers or performers could compete among themselves, but I’m a composer, so even if I abide by Western formats or structures, I can’t make something that transcends their framework. I can’t compete against Westerners since my music is based on Western music at the end of the day. At one point, I was like, “What should I do, then?” and I knew I had to do something fundamentally different from the rest. Some composers use the koto or shakuhachi, but they only function as embellishments or accents. 

That’s how I came to make The End around a decade ago, an “opera” with no conductor, orchestra, or human singer but just visuals onstage with Hatsune Miku as the singer. I created an opera without human beings. What was important was for me to conform to traditional operatic formats like recitative and aria styles. It had to be at Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, a theater where conventional opera is shown. That contrast felt contemporary to me. I felt that disparity was something I could express because I’m Japanese. After that experience, I contemplated what human-free art I could make and came up with using an android.

Iijima: I see. So, that’s how you ended up using an android.

Shibuya: When you have an android singer or conductor instead of a human, that poses the question of how humans will evolve, and it could also be a metaphor for how humans are being used by technology in society. The limit of humans and society will change. Compared to 2018, when I made an android opera for the first time, I feel like people understand what it’s about now. 

Iijima: Androids are so eye-catching and appealing.

Shibuya: Androids are a bit creepy at the same time. Creepiness and scariness are very crucial elements of creative expression and art. 

Iijima: You might be right. Just like Scary Beauty (editor’s note: Shibuya’s first android opera shown in 2018).

Shibuya: Yeah. Seeing [an android] that looks like that sing a moving song gives you the chills. Feeling something you’ve never felt before is essential. 

–You also do contemporary dance, as you mentioned before, and do modeling in the fashion world. I’d like to know your mindset toward traditional and classical ballet.

Iijima: I like contemporary dance and fashion, so I’m lucky to work in those fields too. But for me, the number one thing is classical ballet. I’ve partially changed my mindset and the type of jobs I do to preserve classical ballet tradition. 

–In a previous interview, you talked about how you want more people to watch classical ballet in Japan.

Iijima: Yes. Many people in Japan have never seen ballet, even those working in the arts, theater, and fashion. Compared to America or Europe, not many people watch or understand it. It might be a cultural difference since, in the West, there’s a culture of taking children to museums or seeing ballet or theater for education. Also, I feel like many people in Japan are drawn to a dancer’s personality first. They then become a fan and watch ballet in the theater.

Shibuya: They have favorites.

Iijima: Exactly. I hope more people will start watching ballet by my appearing in various media. It’s hard to find the right balance, and I need to consider the right way to go about things, but I want to keep doing what I do because it’s essential to make people aware of ballet. 

A project born in an era where androids and AI are becoming widespread 

–Shibuya-san, what was it like collaborating with Iijima-san?

Shibuya: It was impressive how she created a new dance and did it rationally instead of dancing out of habit whenever we did another take. She viewed herself as one form of media; she controlled her moves as though she viewed herself from a bird’s eye perspective. She was quick to grasp important information too. This was the first time you did something new like this for a video, yes?

Iijima: Yes. I’m excited to see how people’s reactions. I hope people can enjoy it. It would make me happy if those who learned about me for the first time became interested in ballet and dance. 

Shibuya: It’s exciting to see how people will react to BORDERLINE in the future too. This also applies to this project, but I can do what I do because AI and androids are starting to become a part of everyday life. I’m interested to see what people will think of this project 30 years from now.

Iijima: I know. 

Shibuya: The gap between the past and present is apparent in most art forms, especially androids. I feel like prosperity might look at this project as crucial documentation of what humanity was doing at a certain period before the world ended.

■BORDERLINE
Composition, Concept, Direction, Keyboard by Keiichiro Shibuya
Lyrics by Cypher (AI)
Vocals by Alter3 (Android), Stephanie Poetri (88rising)
Dance by Nozomi Iijima
Android Supervised by Hiroshi Ishiguro
Android Programming by Shintaro Imai
GPT-3 programming by Takashi Ikegami
Choreography by Kenta Kojiri

Keiichiro Shibuya
Keiichiro Shibuya is a musician who graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts with a B.A. in Music Composition. In 2002, he founded the music label ATAK. His diverse soundscape covers areas such as cutting-edge electronic music, piano solos, opera, soundtrack music, sound installation, and so forth. His notable works include a Vocaloid opera comprised of no people called The End (2012) and the android opera Scary Beauty (2018). In September 2020, he created the soundtrack for the film Midnight Swan and won the Music Award at both the Mainichi Film Awards and the Japan Movie Critics Award. In August 2021, his opera Super Angels had its world premiere at New National Theater Tokyo. In March 2022, he showed his new android opera, MIRROR, a collaboration between an android, Buddhist music, shomyo, and an orchestra from the UAE at Expo 2020 Dubai. In April, he created the soundtrack for xxxHOLiC, a film by Mika Ninagawa. In August, Shibuya made the soundtrack for Kaguya by Gucci, a short film by Gucci. He explores the boundary between humans and technology and life and death.
http://atak.jp
Photography Mari Katayama

Nozomi Iijima
K-Ballet Company principal. Born in Osaka, Nozomi Iijima started dancing ballet at six years old. In 2007, after training at Houston Ballet, she joined the company at 16 years old, the youngest. She was promoted to principal in March 2019. Iijima has danced as Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, Juliette in Romeo and Juliette, Mitzi Caspar in Mayerling, the title role of Giselle, the title role of Sylvia, the Snow Queen, Clara, and Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, the Lilac Fairy and Princess Florine in Sleeping Beauty, Suzuki in Madame Butterfly by Stanton Welch, Marie Antoinette in Marie, and more. She’s also danced the prominent roles in ballet by Kenneth MacMillan, William Forsythe, Jiří Kylián, Stanton Welch, and so forth.
Further, she’s danced in many contemporary pieces. Iijima appeared in Orchard Ballet Gala~Japanese Dancers~ directed by Tetsuya Kumakawa to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Bunkamura in July 2019. She became the beauty ambassador for Chanel in the same year. After returning to Japan in 2021, she danced in Don Quixote by K-Ballet Company in May as a guest dancer. She then became the principal dancer of K-Ballet Company in August. She rose the ranks to principal in March 2022. 
K-Ballet Company: https://www.k-ballet.co.jp/
Instagram: @nozo0806

Translation Lena Grace Suda

The post Behind the Scenes of the music video for “BORDERLINE” with Keiichiro Shibuya and Nozomi Iijima — “Massive Life Flow; Inside the Mind of Keiichiro Shibuya” Part 7 appeared first on TOKION - Cutting edge culture and fashion information.

To learn about the band and its history, concepts, international career, and album-making process, we spoke to Fumie (keyboardist and vocalist) in Taiwan, Yuko (drummer and vocalist) in Tokyo, and Shoko (bassist and vocalist) in London over Zoom.

Creating a singular soundscape 

–How was Kuunatic formed?

Yuko: Initially, Fumi-chan (Fumie) and our mutual friend Angie from Venezuela made music together, which eventually became Kuunatic. You made music in studios and such, yes? 

Fumie: Yeah. Angie, Sanni from Finland, and I made music together here and there. Sanni had to return to Finland, so we started looking for a drummer. Angie introduced Yuko-san to me, and she began making music with us. That’s the beginning of Kuunatic. 

–Was the predecessor of Kuunatic similar in terms of sound and theme?  

Fumie: No, we jammed a lot but didn’t make music with a clear concept. 

Yuko: We started wanting to mix tribal sounds and traditional Japanese music once we officially formed Kuunatic. Angie came to Japan as a study-abroad college student, and she was interested in Japanese culture. I was interested in her background as well as Venezuelan and Latin music. We began chatting about wanting to mix each other’s cultures in our music, like a fusion. I feel like our 2017 EP, Kuurandia reflects that strongly.

–Shoko-san, you joined the band after Kuurandia was released. What was that like in retrospect?

Shoko: I joined in 2017 before we went on tour in England. Angie left the band before it, and Yuko and Fumie approached me because they were like, “Oh no, do we know anyone?” I was a support musician on tour but became an official member afterward. And here we are today. I had never heard of the kind of music they made, and the way they used musical scales was distinct. I remember how it was so different. 

–Your music incorporates various musical elements. What kind of musical background does each of you have? 

Fumie: I used to take kagura (traditional Shinto music and dance) and traditional Japanese dance lessons. The Japanese flute I played for our songs is the one I used to use for kagura. Because of my background, I wanted to use elements and sensibilities of traditional Japanese music. I also love 60s psychedelic rock and prog rock music. Those genres shaped me a lot. I’m also a DJ who often plays music in that vein.

Yuko: I listen to a broad range of music. I love metal and hardcore music, but I also enjoy psychedelic rock and prog rock music. I like electronic music and dance music too. As I mentioned, I’m interested in music and cultures from various countries. So, I also listen to tribal-sounding music that doesn’t exist in the west. 

–What about you, Shoko-san? 

Shoko: My parents are classical orchestra musicians, so I grew up with that type of music. My father loves baroque music and forced me to listen to the genre during my childhood. I discovered rock and post-punk when I became older and listened to many different genres. But whenever I engage with music, it does remind me that my foundation is in baroque music. It follows me everywhere. 

A special sentiment toward the moon 

–Each of your diverse musical backgrounds contributes to the band’s unique sound. I’m assuming Kuunatic is a name you made up; what’s behind it? 

Fumie: Kuu means moon in Finnish, and we combined that with lunatic because the root word is luna (moon). In this band, we all worship the moon. We’re attracted to how mysterious and beautiful it is, and we’re also interested in traditions and cultures related to the moon, like how it can induce elevated emotions and madness. 

Yuko: We’re all been accustomed to the moon since birth, but it’s mysterious and magical partially because you can’t see the other side. It’s almost this mystical thing. I like that duality and mystery. 

Shoko: I always look at the moon when it’s out, and I also feel its influence on my body, like how I can’t sleep at times because of its cycle. It’s also connected to my mental state. I feel like women are especially prone to be influenced by the ebb and flow of the moon. It’s quite a symbolic occurrence, but most of our live shows fall under a full moon. 

–That’s amazing! You don’t schedule your shows on a full moon on purpose, do you? 

Shoko: No, I feel like it’s coincidental. 

Fumie: We beckon the moon, and it beckons us. 

Yuko: Whenever we do something together, we casually talk about the moon like, “Tonight’s a full moon” or “There’s a new moon tonight.”

Building a career abroad 

–It seems that you had the world stage in mind since the beginning, with you going on tour in England after the release of your EP in 2017 and recording a split album with Taiwanese band Crocodelia. I imagine it’s hard to go on tour in England right after your first release, but how did that come about? 

Fumie: I live in Taiwan, but I used to live in England before Kuunatic. I went there to study but started a booking agency with a friend. I was in charge of coordinating shows and tours for Japanese artists in Europe. My ties to Europe, especially England, are strong, and I wanted to perform abroad with the band. We made the England tour happen because of those connections. 

Yuko: I was in an electronic duo before Kuunatic and once played at a European festival. It was so much fun, and my desire to perform abroad became stronger. I also work on solo projects outside of Kuunatic, and it seems like I have connections in Europe, so I play live there often. But it’s not like we were trying to only have a career outside of Japan because we were active in the country too. 

Fumie: Because our music is so different, we didn’t feel like we belonged to a particular scene, we used to host events at Forestlimit in Hatagaya and Soup in Ochiai. We also performed at shows we got invited to. It was like we naturally got sucked into Europe after we did this and that. 

–Shoko-san, you currently live in London, yes?

Shoko: I used to go on tour in the UK every year, so I was familiar with the city. I finally got the visa I had wanted since I was a student last year during the pandemic, so I moved here. I can play shows and go on tour more flexibly. Before I joined Kuunatic, I played at open mics in London as a solo singer-songwriter, and Fumi-chan helped me a lot. I started having a real career abroad after I joined the band.

Illustrating the rebirth of a destroyed world with Gate of Klüna

—Tim DeWit, the former member of Gang Gang Dance, produced Gate of Klüna, which was released last October. How did you meet him?

Fumie: After I moved to Taiwan, I had the opportunity to DJ at a festival, and Tim was there too. My friend introduced me to him. At first, I didn’t know he was part of Gang Gang Dance, and I just talked to him casually. 

–How long ago was that? 

Fumie: 2018. When I told him about our work and concept, he understood right away. He mentioned that he mixed and produced music, but I discovered he used to be in Gang Gang Dance afterward. I didn’t think he would be in Taiwan, so I was so surprised. During that time, we were getting ready to make Gate of Klüna and were talking about how it would be nice to have a producer for the album. I spoke to the band members about meeting Tim, and we all had the same opinion. We were like, “If we ask Tim to produce it, he might bring interesting ideas to the table.” That’s why we asked him to do it. 

–What did you think about the idea of Tim producing the album, Yuko-san?

Yuko: As a solo artist, Tim’s more of an electronic artist who makes electronic albums. I felt we could create a miracle or an unprecedented album because of the blend of different elements. And the result was brilliant. Kuunatic started with the concept of us playing an instrument we’d never played before. Our ensemble had an amateurish aspect, but thanks to a professional like Tim being a part of the process, we created a coherent sound.

–What about you, Shoko-san? 

Shoko: The best part was Tim’s desires and principles about making music as an artist. We all shared so many ideas and re-recorded the songs over and over. As Yuko-san mentioned, Tim is more of an electronic music type of person, but the first album of Gang Gang Dance has a tribal feel to it and encapsulates both genres. His ideas and unique perspective were inspiring; it was a memorable experience. 

—Gate of Klüna was released through the German label Glitterbeat Records. How did that come to be?

Fumie: Glitterbeat is a label I’ve always loved, and I frequently check out their releases. When we finished our album, we reached out to them, and they responded, “It’s been so long since we got excited by listening to music.” We went back and forth, and the album release was arranged. 

Yuko: I listen to their releases because I like them too. I was overjoyed when I heard they were going to release our album. 

–I heard that the Gate of Klüna is based on a story inspired by ancient mythology. Could you talk about that? 

Fumie: The world of the fourth song of Kuurandia, “Battle of Goddesses,” expanded as an overarching concept. Simply put, it’s about the end of the world brought on by Armageddon.

Yuko: Civilization and society go extinct because of the battle of goddesses. 

Fumie: We all love the “end of the world” aesthetic in science fiction and fantasy. We chat a lot on tour, and science fiction and fantasy naturally become the topic of conversation. We talk about many different things whenever natural disasters like volcanic eruptions and earthquakes happen. Our music doesn’t have a direct message against climate change and other phenomena, but we get inspiration from the energy and danger of nature. 

Back to the concept of the Gate of Klüna: the imagery is ancient. But because we live in the present, to talk about the distant past is to talk about the future. Based on the image of the ancient world making a return once society ends, we got inspiration from ancient history and weaved components of magic and tribal things. We created an original story and expressed that through sound. 

–You depict a world where everything goes back to zero, and a new life and civilization come to life.

Fumie: Exactly. Our previous EP, Kuurandia, symbolizes a place meant for us, like a country or land. “Battle of Goddesses” illustrates how we’re rebuilding things because of the destruction caused by Armageddon. In the album, society ended around the Yayoi period in Japan. 

–The song has the primitive energy of you trying to revive the world. It also gives off a ritualistic, shamanistic prayer vibe. Is shamanism part of your background? 

Fumie: My mother is an actual shaman, so I have close ties to shamanism. Some parts of that song are in English, while others are in a language we made up, inspired by chants and sutras. I grew up listening to chants, so I feel like that’s reflected in our band. 

Yuko: Much like the moon, we’re all drawn to shamanism. 

–I see. Live shows are imperative for your band. What are your thoughts on playing live? 

Yuko: It’s imperative. Feeling one with the audience is an irreplaceable feeling. There’s nothing like playing a live show with a live audience. It’s valuable.

Shoko: We all talked about that the other day. We’re inspired by shamanism and tribalism, and both things require a giving end and receiving end. That’s why live shows are so vital for us. I’ve given a virtual performance before, but it wasn’t the same. It’s hard to do it through a screen. 

–What’s next in store for you? 

Fumie: We have another European tour after our UK and EU tour in June and July. We’re also playing at a stage curated by Animal Collective at Le Guess Who?, a Dutch festival. I hope to record our next album, even though we’ll probably release it after next year. 

KUUNATIC
Kuunatic is a trio comprised of Fumie (keyboardist and vocalist), Yuko (drummer and vocalist), and Shoko (bassist and vocalist). They create a unique sound based on worshipping the moon and mythology. They released their first EP, Kuurandia, in 2017 and went on tour in the UK the same year. In 2018, they released a split EP with Taiwanese band, Crocodelia. In October 2021, they released their first LP, Gate of Klüna, through the German label Glitterbeat Records. 
Twitter：@kuunatic
Instagram： @kuunatic

Cooperation Shunsuke Sasatani
Translation Lena Grace Suda

The post Kuunatic, the Spellbinding Japanese Trio Building a Tribal, Shamanistic Soundscape appeared first on TOKION - Cutting edge culture and fashion information.

The department anointed Shibuya as a visiting professor following the laboratory launch. He plans on working on a myriad of projects related to androids and music alongside frequent collaborators Hiroshi Ishiguro, a researcher, and Shintaro Imai, an electronic musician. We explore the present state and potential of the world’s first music and android laboratory.

The birth of a laboratory shedding light on the future of art and technology

Expo ‘70 in Osaka was a happy marriage of art and technology, as symbolized by the Pepsi Pavilion made by the American avant-garde group E.A.T. (Experiments in Art and Technology), Space Theater at the Steel Pavilion directed by Toru Takemitsu and Kei Usami, and Mitsui Group Pavilion with contributors like Katsuhiro Yamaguchi and Toshi Ichiyanagi. It’s well-known that the vision and creations shown at the expo had a palpable influence on the creative scene. 

More than half a century later, Osaka will welcome its second World Expo three years from now. It is also home to a groundbreaking laboratory that sheds light on a new future of creative expression and advanced technology. 

The Android and Music Science Laboratory (AMSL), located in the Art Science Department of Osaka University of Arts, has been described as the world’s first music and android laboratory. It’s operated by Keiichiro Shibuya, the protagonist of this series, robot researcher Hiroshi Ishiguro, who developed the Alter series (the android performer of Shibuya’s android opera), and electronic musician Shintaro Imai, who has been responsible for Alter’s speaking and singing voice since Shibuya’s Super Angels (premiered worldwide in 2021). Shibuya and Imai joined Ishiguro as visiting professors at the department this April, at the same time as the laboratory’s launch. 

I attended the opening ceremony and Shibuya’s performance at the end of April to witness the laboratory and its potential. 

A room out of a sci-fi film: brand-new android Alter4 and sound equipment 

The Art Science Department at the Osaka University of Arts was established in 2017 to cultivate creators of the next generation through interdisciplinary research and education combining art and science. The dean is Norihiro Hagata, who’s been researching and implementing the merge of robots and art. The department building was designed by visiting professor and one of Japan’s leading architects, Kazuyo Sejima. The space has an open feel with beautiful, organic curves and glass windows on all sides, 360 degrees. 

The laboratory is on the basement floor of the same building. Once I walked through the entrance hall and stepped inside the laboratory, a minimal space designed by Sejima, from the interior to furniture, and the newest model of the Alter series, Alter4, awaited me. Positioned among a grand piano and synthesizers, Alter4 looked at me while moving with ease. 

The sight in front of me went beyond my everyday imagination; it was like I was in one scene of a sci-fi film. I decided to take another good, hard look at Alter4, the main character of the room. I’ve seen Shibuya’s Alter series many times from his past works, but Alter4’s expressions and movements were much more varied.
According to the information provided that day, its expressions are more diverse than the previous models because of its enhanced mimetic muscles and tongue movements. The number of joints went from 43 to 53, making it possible for Alter4 to move more dynamically. Alter4, with its increased sense of mobility, had a strong presence that made me look forward to the laboratory’s future endeavors. 

Annihilating the conventions and mediocrity of art and technology 

Shibuya, Ishiguro, and Imai will create performances and installations using Alter4 at the laboratory, and the process will be available for the Art Science students to observe or participate in, according to their skill level. It may not be easy to partake in this world-class project, but the students are bound to learn and discover valuable lessons from experiencing the radical creations paving the way for the next generation at the intersection of art and technology. 

During the panel discussion before the opening ceremony, Shibuya pointed out that although many projects blend art and science or art and technology, quite a few are boring. The art and technology experts involved in these projects usually stay within the confines of their respective fields of expertise, thus producing a conventional outcome.

Shibuya said one could destroy that monotony by getting rid of one’s technical fixations, going beyond one’s expertise, and “intruding” into each other’s fields. That’s what Shibuya does with his work, and both Ishiguro and Imai possess adaptability and intellectual bravado. There’s no way to tell the specifics of the projects that will arise from the laboratory, but they’ll have nothing to do with conventions and mediocrity.  

An impromptu jam session with a human and android

After the involved parties cut the ribbon, the laboratory was officially opened. Shibuya then performed live to celebrate the occasion with Alter4, a grand piano, and a Rev4 synth. Released in 2020, the Rev4 is the renewed version of the famous Prophet-5 analog synthesizer introduced in 1978. 

Shibuya started by playing a drone-y, abstract sound in a low tone with the Rev4. Then, Alter4 began swaying to the sound and reciting a poem in English. Checking Alter4’s reaction, he gently changed the ambiance of the sounds with harmonic bells and melancholic leads.

While Shibuya played synth pad harmonies, Alter4 began singing in a distinct voice; somewhere between machine and human. The surprising thing was how Alter4’s singing wasn’t pre-programmed; it was singing impromptu by listening to Shibuya’s performance. Towards the end, Shibuya moved to the piano and played various sounds, from contemporary tone clusters to tender, lyrical phrases and harmonies.

Even then, it continued to sing perfectly with the piano. The spectacle of Shibuya and Alter4 listening to one another and producing sounds was unmistakably a live session, and whoever watched the show could tell that the nervousness and fulfillment were unprogrammable. The celebratory event came to a close after it clearly demonstrated the possibilities of the future of androids and music. 

One of the laboratory’s destinations is Expo 2025 in Osaka, three years from now. The expo, with the slogan, “Designing Future Society for Our Lives,” has eight themes. Ishiguro is the producer of the “Amplification of Lives” theme and will be responsible for many different exhibitions and events, and one could expect to see projects made in the laboratory there as well. 

How will the horizon of art and technology, which was pioneered at Expo ‘70, be further expanded? I can’t wait to see the creations and imaginations of Shibuya, Ishiguro, and Imai three years later. 

■Android and Music Science Laboratory (AMSL)
Visiting professors: Keiichiro Shibuya, Hiroshi Ishiguro, Shintaro Imai, Kazuyo Sejima (lab design)

Furniture and interior design: Kazuyo Sejima & Associates (Kazuyo Sejima, Yoshitaka Tanase, Takayuki Furuya, Naoya Harada, Risa Matsunaga)
Acoustic consultant: Yasushi Shimizu
Construction: Taisei Corporation (Keisuke Yamaura, Shunya Matsuhisa)
Appliances: Kuhsohsha, hhstyle.com (Jun Watanabe)
Curtains: Création Baumann (Masashi Nakajima)
Lighting cooperation: MinebeaMitsumi

Android production: A-Lab
Sound system: Jiro Kubo (Acoustic Field Inc.)

Project management: Natsumi Matsumoto (ATAK)
Producer: Hisamoto Naito

In cooperation with Yamaha Music Japan, Yamaha Corporation, Native Instruments, ATAK

Keiichiro Shibuya
Keiichiro Shibuya is a musician who graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts with a B.A. in Music Composition. In 2002, he founded the music label ATAK. His diverse soundscape covers areas such as cutting-edge electronic music, piano solos, opera, soundtrack music, sound installation, and so forth. His notable works include a Vocaloid opera comprised of no people called The End (2012) and the android opera Scary Beauty (2018). In September 2020, he created the soundtrack for the film Midnight Swan and won the Music Award at both the Mainichi Film Awards and the Japan Movie Critics Award. In August 2021, his opera Super Angels had its world premiere at New National Theater Tokyo. In March 2022, he showed his new android opera, MIRROR, a collaboration between an android, Buddhist music, shomyo, and an orchestra from the UAE at Expo 2020 Dubai. He explores the boundary between humans and technology and life and death.
http://atak.jp
Photography Mari Katayama

The post The Possibilities of the World’s First Android and Music Laboratory in Osaka — “Massive Life Flow; Inside the Mind of Keiichiro Shibuya” Part 6 appeared first on TOKION - Cutting edge culture and fashion information.

In his book Taiwan Counter Culture Exchange Travelogue published last November by Shobunsha, author Keiichi Kanda writes about the excitement and possibility of Taiwan’s alternative culture and independent scenes through his many visits to Taiwan. Kanda and Spykee reunite over Zoom after two years (a recording of Kanda’s interview with Spykee is also available in this publication).

I interviewed them about how the relationship between Taiwan and Japan’s music scenes was affected by their encounter and about what is currently happening in Taiwan.

How and when they discovered music from the other person’s country

— When did you both meet?

Keiichi Kanda: In 2018, I directed a trilogy film about Taiwan’s music scene that was on a video media platform called Lute.

In the first part of the trilogy we interviewed the band Forests, who was playing at The Wall, a venue in Taipei. My interpreter Buddha Terao introduced me to Spykee, who was DJing at the venue, and we talked for a bit. That’s how we first met. Buddha Terao is a very important figure, because he’s the connection between the venue Moon Romantic that has both an Aoyama and a Taipei location.

— Mr. Spykee, you started in the music industry as a DJ, but have worked a wide variety of jobs, like venue director and event organizer. Can you talk a little about when you first started out as a DJ?

Spykee: I used to frequent this DJ bar called SPIN every weekend when I was in college. I slowly started wanting to DJ myself, so I got together a DJ setup and started buying records at a Taipei record shop whose owner was a DJ at SPIN. Through that, I was able to start DJing at SPIN myself. A year later, I became a resident DJ.

— Has your DJ style changed since then?

Spykee: I’ve been the resident DJ at club events since the early 2000s. At first, I played a lot of drum and bass, and later focused more on electroclash. I’ve always liked band music, and wanted to incorporate it into my set, but that was hard given that I was playing at clubs. A turning point was when I became the resident DJ at an underground venue called The Under World. There, I played each set with music from different genres and eras.

Kanda: I remember you were playing a lot of different styles when I first met you at The Wall, including band music. I don’t remember much, though, because I was having a little too much fun (laughs).

— Mr. Spykee, when and how did you encounter Japanese music?

Spykee: I opened a record store in 2014. Back then, I just wanted to know about different genres and encounter music I didn’t know about. Of all the music I listened to, what I got hooked on most was Japanese indie music. At my store, I personally selected Japanese records I liked and sold them. That’s when I met Mr. Buddha Terao, who Mr. Kanda just mentioned.

— Which Japanese band did you first get into?

Skykee: Yogee New Waves. I first found them on the JETSET website. I was immediately enamored when I heard their music. Omoide Yaro A Team also had a profound impact on me. Their music made me rethink how I valued my music. There were no bands in Taipei that made music like they did. That triggered my interest in other bands from the same era. I even went back to listen to older bands that they were influenced by and deepened my understanding of Japanese music.

— Mr. Kanda, how did you, on the other hand, encounter/get into Taiwanese music?

Kanda: My first encounter was at a record store I visited when I first went to Taiwan in 2011. I never choose a place to stay when I travel, and I didn’t on this trip, either. I initially ended up staying at this awful place near the train called Nakayama (laughs). It was essentially a lodge for Japanese people because the staff understood Japanese. But the people staying there were mostly young partiers, and I did not belong. On top of that, I had to leave the place after a day because there was a fire close by, and the smoke kept coming in through the window (laughs). When I was looking for another place to stay, I found a guest house close to the National Taiwan Normal University, which is in a neighborhood that happened to have a bunch of venues and record stores. That area is considered “music city”, right?

Spykee: Yeah, it’s that kind of area.

Kanda: I was strolling around and found a record store. I walked in, and there was a person who spoke Japanese who explained Taiwanese music to me. I bought a couple records, and when I listened to them when I got back, they were so good. That’s how I got hooked on Taiwanese music.

— What bands’ music did you buy then?

Kanda: I bought a Touming Magazine record. They were really popular at the time (editor’s note: inspired by Number Girl, Sonic Youth, Pixies, Touming Magazine is a Taiwanese alternative rock band). I also bought a Wayne’s So Sad record (editor’s note: Taiwanese punk band formed in 2008), and another one I don’t remember.

Spykee: If it’s something similar to those, it was probably a Hang In the Air record?

Kanda: Yes, that!

Spykee: Hang In the Air is a band similar to Japan’s Fishmans. They’re a rock band that incorporates dub and reggae elements. I recommended those three bands a lot if someone was into Japanese indie music.

Kanda: I didn’t know Taiwanese music at all until then, so it was so fresh. Since then, every time I visit Taiwan, that neighborhood is where I spend the most time. Also, the main branch of Din Tai Fung is around there, so it’s a great place to be if you want to eat a lot of soup dumplings (laughs).

Young Taiwanese artists are full of DIY spirit

— I’d like to know about the current Taiwanese music scene. What are some similarities between young artists?

Spykee: They definitely have a DIY spirit. I think there are many artists now who don’t feel the need to be signed to a major label. There are government subsidies available if someone wants to release an EP or album, but they basically fund things themselves.

Kanda: Doesn’t Sunset Rollercoaster run their own company?

Spykee: Trix, the drummer for Touming Magazine — the band Mr. Kanda mentioned earlier — also has his own label.

— Where does that DIY spirit come from?

Spykee: I think watching older generations of artists who were signed to major labels change their music style to fit the market was a huge factor. Not that that’s a bad thing; there are plenty of artists trying to get signed to a major label. But I also think there are an increasing number of artists who want to make it with their own music and don’t see signing to a major label as a goal.

— Speaking of markets, do you think there are more artists now who think of marketing their music globally?

Spykee: Sunset Rollercoaster is a great example of a band that I think wanted to make it internationally from the get-go. Their lyrics are in English. Many people around the world have access to music from different countries through subscription services, so I have been seeing a trend in artists also trying to market outside of Taiwan.

Kanda: I think Taiwanese artists are more conscious of delivering their music to the world than Japanese artists are. Perhaps it’s because Japanese musicians can thrive within the Japanese market and not have to rely on outside markets to make a living. But I think Japanese artists may start to be influenced by Taiwanese artists in that regard.

How the intermingling of Taiwanese and Japanese artists started

— In terms of the relationship between Japanese and Taiwanese artists, how do you, Mr. Kanda, feel about what has transpired in the last decade?

Kanda: When I first went to Taiwan around 2011, there was basically no musical interaction between Japan and Taiwan. Even if someone was “an influence” on another, it usually was one-sided. But they slowly started to intermingle as Japanese bands and musicians started playing shows in Taiwan and with Taiwanese artists. I think that’s what Spykee and his crew intended.

— What about you, Mr. Spykee? How did you come to bring Japanese bands to Taiwan and plan events like this?

Spykee: I mentioned earlier that I got really into Yogee New Waves’ music, and I desperately wanted them to play a show in Taiwan. I talked to Buddha Terao about it, and we were able to bring Yogee New Waves along with their label mate Never Young Beach here in September of 2015. That’s how I started planning events and organizing Japanese bands to come to Taiwan.

— Is there anything you keep in mind when planning a show or event for a Japanese band?

Spykee: When I first started bringing Japanese bands to Taiwan, I usually had them play with Taiwanese bands in similar genres or styles. In Taiwan, the organizer may come under fire if the musicality between the main act and opening act differ, while it’s rather common in Japan to have bands and artists of different genres play together. I wanted to try something like that in Taiwan, so I’ve been challenging myself to do more of that these past three or four years. For example, when I had Omoide Yaro A Team here, I got Taiwanese rapper LEO37 to play with them. When I brought KID FRESINO here, I had R&B neo soul singer-songwriter LINION play with them.

Kanda: Just when I thought Spykee and his crew were getting things rolling and new things were starting to develop, Covid happened. Now the interactions are stagnant, which is unfortunate.

How both Taiwanese and Japanese scenes will look in the future

— That’s so true. Covid is ongoing, but I would love to know if there’s anything interesting happening in the Taiwanese scene.

Spykee: There are definitely more smaller events happening, probably because of Covid. There aren’t as many small DJ bars or bars meant for smaller shows in Taipei as there are in Tokyo, but they’re increasing. Now, I feel like there’s more emphasis on enjoying everyday shows instead of on special weekend events.

Kanda: Interesting. By the way, are there talk live-houses in Taiwan? Like Loft/Plus One, where musicians can hold events where they just talk?

Spykee: Hmm, I’m not sure… I don’t think there are.

Kanda: Really? There are a bunch of places like that in Tokyo. Maybe I’ll start a talk live-house in Taipei (laughs).

— This may be a business opportunity! By the way, what Taiwanese trends have you recently been tuned into?

Kanda: There was news that Freddy Lim (Taipei-born legislator and vocalist in heavy metal band Chthonic) survived a recall election. I thought that was wonderful news.

— Interesting. In terms of politics, there’s a relatively high percentage of young voters, isn’t there?

Spykee: People don’t usually passionately discuss who they’re voting for, but they do vote. In the October 2021 Japanese House of Representatives Election, artists and cultural figures shared their stances on social media, pushing for people to go vote. Did that movement trigger any changes?

Kanda: That’s true, there was some movement on social media, but it’s kind of an echo chamber… We might see these changes on our own timelines, but there are still plenty of people online who have no interest in things Iike that. For a second, I thought maybe the opposition could take over, but in actuality… Although I do think people are starting to talk more about politics than before.

— Lastly, I want to know what you both think about the future of Taiwan and Japan.

Spykee: Many teenagers come to see Japanese bands perform when they’re in Taiwan. These teens can speak English, too. I see a future with more opportunities for us to be able to interact with Japan in music and in other areas.

Kanda: I agree. I think we have a lot to learn from Taiwan, like with anti-nuclear protests and LGBT rights. I think we can have a positive influence on each other in cultural and social realms. I also haven’t been able to go to Taiwan since Covid, so I want to go back as soon as I can. I’d also love to have an event to celebrate the publication of my recent book, Taiwan Counter Culture Travelogue in Taiwan!

Keiichi Kanda
Born in Osaka in 1978. Author/manga writer/general moderator. Works published in Popeye, Kettle magazine, The Spectator, Shukan Gendai, Ronza, and others. His book co-written by Ryo Kikuchi, Moshi Bungou Tachi Ga Cup Yakisoba No Tsukurikata Wo Kaitara was published by Takarajimasha. In November of 2021, his book Taiwan Counter Culture Travelogue was published by Shoubunsha.
instagram：@pokke0902
Twitter：@pokke0902

Spykee
Director of Romantic Office, and has been DJing for 20 years. Was responsible for getting Cero, Your Song Is Good, STUTS, KID FRESINO, VIDEOTAPEMUSIC, Skirt, Yogee New Waves, Never Young Beach, Homecomings, Omoide Yaro A Team and other bands to perform in Taiwan.

Translation Mimiko Goldstein

The post Taiwan and Japan, the Intersection of Two Music Scenes: Keiichi Kanda and Spykee on its past and future appeared first on TOKION - Cutting edge culture and fashion information.

In honor of this release, we’re releasing a short series of three articles that reexamines Harakami’s career path from the beginning. In our first article, we interview filmmaker Yasuto Yura, one of Rei Harakami’s university peers who would later become one of his long-standing friends. How did Rei Harakami feel about making music at the beginning of his career? And how did Rei Harakami go from filmmaker to musician? Yura, who lives in Kyoto, spoke to us over Zoom.

* For this interview, I referred to the June 2021 issue of Eureka, “Special Feature: Rei Harakami” (Seidosha).

Rei Harakami had a preference for analog—then he encountered the computer.

――You first met Harakami when you were studying film at the Kyoto College of Art. What was your first impression of him?

Yasuto Yura: Harakami and I first met when we were helping an older student out with their film. Harakami was a second-year student at the time. I was making sound effects, and I think he was helping as a regular staff member. My impression of him was that he was a really cheeky guy. He spoke what was on his mind, so he was quick to express any complaints. But it wasn’t like he just didn’t want to work. He just wasn’t afraid to speak up when something was wrong, or the work could be made more efficient. I think that never changed, even in his later years. But back then, he was about 20 years old, so I thought he was cheeky. (laughs)

――Did you have any idea that you’d become such good friends when you first met?

Yura: No, not at all. (laughs) There were times when we both went out drinking with a group or were at the same wrap party. But before I knew it, he started showing up at my room unexpectedly or waiting outside my apartment for me to come home from my part-time job. (laughs)

――After that, you became such good friends that you’d go out drinking together three times a week. What led to you two finally hitting it off?

Yura: At the time, he and I were the only students who designed our own sound for our films, at least to my knowledge. I used a computer, and he made more analog music using cassettes. Harakami said that he didn’t like computers. If anything, he was more into improvisation, so he wasn’t really interested in playing and performing using a computer, which is more fixed. He used to barge into my room with a bottle of sake all the time, and when he saw my Roland MC-500 sequencer and other gear I was using at the time, he asked half-jokingly, “What do you do with this?” So I showed him how to use it. He started fooling around on it, making random stuff. He was completely absorbed in it for a while and asked me, “What do you do when this happens?” Looking back on it now, I feel like even back then, what he was doing was rather complicated. But after working for a while, he’d be like, “I got it!” And after that, we’d get wasted. (laughs) I wasn’t necessarily the reason he got into it, but I think maybe he was able to experience something he hated and feel an affinity for it. Or he realized that it was interesting depending on how you used it. I think this was after Hiroi Sekai came out, so maybe that was around when we started talking more.

――I see. So it all started with the computer.

Yura: Back then, his year was having a film exhibition, and he was selling Hiroi Sekai tapes there. I stopped by that exhibition, and I remember he asked me to buy his tape, so I did. Recently, I visited that same gallery where the exhibition was held because I had some errands there. We started talking about Harakami, and the gallery owner also had the tape. (laughs) I don’t think there are many of those tapes out there. He probably only made about 20 of them. He worked really hard to make them, dubbing everything manually.

He also did illustrations, so he used to make flyers for exhibitions and such using the convenience store copy machines, which were finally able to make color prints. But he didn’t use it in the traditional way. Instead, he’d use the copy machine as an effect. He’d go through the trouble of making the illustration small and enlarging it on the copy machine to make the quality rough on purpose. He seemed to like things like that: figuring out how to use existing technology to alter something. He did that with sound and film too.

――What kind of films was Harakami making at the time?

Yura: In the early days, he mainly made animations. The song “Isudetabi,” which was on the same label as the latest release, originally came from a film of his friend moving around while sitting on a chair. He used the song for that film. Later, he made experimental works that reimagined the structure of stories and films.

――In terms of filmmaking, Voyant, which Harakami made in 1995, was his last work before he became a musician. As his senior in the same industry, how did you feel about Harakami as a filmmaker?

Yura: I thought he was the most interesting, at least of the people I knew. I always kept him in mind, and he probably kept me in my mind, too. We never said it directly to one another, but I wanted to leave him speechless with my work, and he wanted to compete with me, too. So when my work was bad, he would make sure I knew. (laughs) I wouldn’t say we were doing it consciously, but once one of us finished a piece, we’d talk about it over some drinks. Looking back on my days as a student, having him there was very important.

An important document of how Rei Harakami went from filmmaker to musician

――At the end of last year, the remastered editions of Hiroi Sekai (1991) and Semai Sekai rei harakami selected works 1991~1993 (1993) were released. These tapes date back to before Harakami became known as a musician. What was Harakami’s attitude in regard to making music?

Yura: Back then, he was making music for people’s films. Most of the songs on Semai Sekai are from that—basically, it was music he had composed for people’s film soundtracks. He was skilled at making music, so classmates started asking him to make music for them. First, there was the image of the work, and then the film, and Harakami would figure out what kind of music to add to that. In a sense, it was the beginning of his client work.

――I see.

Yura: Back then, I worked as a tech staff member at the university. I was helping to select the gear and software that would be installed in the new video and audio production facility. So I introduced Mac, the sequencer software EZ Vision, and the Roland SC-55 sound module (Editor’s note: The SC-88 PRO, a later model of this equipment, would be one of Rei Harakami’s favorites into his final years of life). From there, Harakami learned how to use these in class. I think that’s when he started using the computer to create music. “Kujirayarou no Tema” from Semai Sekai makes great use of the SC-55.

――This work documents the process of how Harakami, a guitar and bass musician, set down the path of becoming an electronic artist. In a way, it was like the start of Rei Harakami as the world knows him.

Yura: That’s true. Semai Sekai might be the tape that started it all. Hiroi Sekai was his world before that, and his world after that was Semai Sekai.

――How did you feel about the process of Harakami changing?

Yura: Before making this cassette, Harakami hated computer and techno music. But he suddenly became absorbed in it, so I did think, “That’s different.” Since he could record the tape in one shot, he didn’t need to dub it as many times, so the sound quality became clearer, and the sound was much better. But Harakami didn’t like it to sound too high-quality, so he would sometimes try to “dirty” the sound quality on purpose.

――Why do you think Harakami became so absorbed in computer music?

Yura: For one thing, he probably realized that he could express all kinds of small nuances with the computer. Also, he got into polyrhythm around that time, so I feel like he must have realized that when he incorporated that into his own songs, the computer was more convenient than playing instruments.

――The songs in both albums leave an impression with their diverse sound: They feature a raw physicality, piano playing that sounds improvised, elements of blues-rock and folk, and a collage-like quality that aren’t present in Rei Harakami’s later works. How did you feel when you first heard these albums? 

Yura: I thoughtit was unusual for him to make this kind of music. It doesn’t sound like music from a band or a computer, and it isn’t music that’s easy to understand. There’s a unique, floaty feel to it, which I thought was interesting when I listened to it. Although I didn’t think it would sell. (laughs) Regarding the diversity of the sound, I think Harakami mixed all kinds of music within himself, and that was his output. But Harakami would never say what music had influenced him. (laughs)

Rei Harakami’s world—his “sekai”— will never fade away

――Many listeners will listen to these two re-releases for the first time after listening to Rei Harakami’s other music. How do you feel when you revisit Rei Harakami’s earlier music from a modern perspective?

Yura: In many ways, I think that it was because of these works that the later Rei Harakami came to be. That kind of work doesn’t just come out of nowhere. There was a Harakami even before this tape, and everything is connected. After Semai Sekai came out, Harakami started receiving work requests from all kinds of people. From there, music started to become his job. But back then, he still felt strongly about wanting to be a filmmaker, so he was really torn. At one point, I’d said to him, “You get this many compliments and work requests from your music—why don’t you turn that into your main job?” About two weeks later, Harakami told me that he was going to debut through Sublime [Records]. I was happy for him. I think Harakami wanted closure with filmmaking, so he created Voyant (1995) to bring a conclusion to his filmmaking career.

――Harakami’s music transcends borders and time, and is still listened to today. Why do you think that is, and what do you think is the appeal of his music?

Yura: I think about that sometimes. I believe it’s because he made things that hadn’t ever existed in this world, and that’s been true since he was making films. I think he hated going along with the scene or being put in a category, so he used his own methods to make whatever he wanted. I mean, isn’t every Harakami song immediately recognizable as one of his? There won’t be any new songs, but he made music that was so original that you instantly know it’s Harakami when you listen to it. I don’t think that will ever fade away. I still listen to his music from time to time, and it never feels old. His music had its own unique universe. And I think that was born from Hiroi Sekai and Semai Sekai. Some people use various techniques to make songs that go with the current trends, but Harakami made music separate from that. That won’t change whether ten years pass or 100 years pass. They aren’t songs or sounds that feel like they belong to a specific era. They don’t get old, and even today, people can still listen to his music normally.

Yasuto Yura
Yasuto Yura began independently creating films in 1991. He’s shown his work in Japanese cities such as Kyoto and Tokyo, as well as Europe and other Asian countries. In addition to filmmaking, he also produces various other works, including installations, collaborations, books on computer technology/introductory design, and CGI animations. He currently teaches film production at Osaka Electro-Communication University and is a part-time lecturer at Ryukoku University. Other roles he holds include Organizer of VIDEO PARTY (a group that holds film screenings), Program Director of Lumen Gallery, and planning committee member of the Kyoto International Student Film & Video Festival.
www.yurayas.net

レイ・ハラカミ『広い世界 と せまい世界』（rings、2021/12/29）

Construction Syunsuke Sasatani

Translation Aya Apton

The post “Revisiting Rei Harakami’s music” Pt. 1: Filmmaker Yasuto Yura on the birth of Rei Harakami’s eternal universe appeared first on TOKION - Cutting edge culture and fashion information.