Unyazi 2014, the South African Electronic Music Festival

9 – 13 September
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Full Programme

Curator
Cameron Harris
[email protected]

Curator
Carl Stone

Committee Member
Johan van Royen

Committee Member
Joshua Hogg

Committee Member
Alex Collins



Since the first festival in Johannesburg, 2005, Unyazi festivals have provided a platform for South Africa’s flourishing community of electronic composers and an interface with some of the most highly regarded international artists currently working in the field.

Unyazi IV (2014) is part of the Fak’ugesi Digital Africa festival which also includes the A MAZE digital arts and gaming festival. In addition, we are collaborating with the Society of South African Research in Music (SASRIM) conference to present events at the Wits Arts Museum.

This year the festival focuses on interaction between South African musicians/composers and those from Asia including Tomoko Momiyama (Japan), Kazuhisa Uchihashi (Japan), Alfred Harth (South Korea/Germany), Carl Stone (Japan/US). Also performing are Ravish Momin (US) and Lukas Ligeti (Austria/US). South African artists who will be participating in the festival include Frank Mallows and Brydon Bolton. The South African New Music Ensemble will also perform at the festival.

Tomoko Momiyama arrived in Johannesburg on August 25th, and is currently collaborating intensively with South African artists to produce a new piece of work specifically linked to the experience of her time in the city. The work will be the result of Momiyama’s wide experience and study of culture, environment and human psychology.


Unyazi promotional video

Please see Unyazi 2014’s promotional video at:
http://youtu.be/VACx4cfBlqg.


Listening room

A well-equipped listening room will become a focal listening point for the festival. The room will be both aurally and physically at the centre of activities, positioned equidistant from all the concert venues. The room has high-quality AV equipment and surround sound and its playlist features a programme of 32 composers from 11 countries. Feel free to pop in for a moment or for a while.

“When Cameron Harris asked me if I would be interested to help curate the 2014 Unyazi Festival with an emphasis on music from what is sometimes called the Pacific Rim, I was glad to accept, and did so without hesitation. While I knew we would able to bring several wonderful artists to perform at the festival, it was clear that because of the limits of schedule and also budget many interesting artists would not be able to come in person. So I came up with the idea of a listening room, where people could gather and enjoy music in a relaxed setting, and where many pieces from my home base in Japan, as well as South Africa, Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Korea, the Phillipines, Rwanda, Singapore, the USA, & Vietnam could be enjoyed. In the end, eight hours of music are being presented, all of them created especially for the medium of the loudspeaker. It has been a lot of fun to put together the program, and I hope those of you who can come by the festival and spend some time listening will enjoy it.”

— Carl Stone, Tokyo





Listening Room program

Days 3–5: Listening Room

Unyazi Listening Room Lounge: a cyclical performance of electronic music from South East Asia and South Africa to dip into in a comfortable lounge-like environment, curated by Carl Stone

Thursday 11 September – Saturday 13 September
Digital Arts Seminar Room, The Convent, Wits East Campus

Admission Free

“When Cameron Harris asked me if I would be interested to help curate the 2014 Unyazi Festival with an emphasis on music from what is sometimes called the Pacific Rim, I was glad to accept, and did so without hesitation. While I knew we would able to bring several wonderful artists to perform at the festival, it was clear that because of the limits of schedule and also budget many interesting artists would not be able to come in person. So I came up with the idea of a listening room, where people could gather and enjoy music in a relaxed setting, and where many pieces from my home base in Japan, as well as South Africa, Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Korea, the Phillipines, Rwanda, Singapore, the USA, & Vietnam could be enjoyed. In the end, eight hours of music are being presented, all of them created especially for the medium of the loudspeaker. It has been a lot of fun to put together the program, and I hope those of you who can come by the festival and spend some time listening will enjoy it.”

— Carl Stone, Tokyo

Schedule

Days 3 & 4: Thursday 11 & Friday 12 September
start 11:30 1 Motohide Taguchi Between Shifted Memories
11:38:28 2 Christine Muyco “Paka’ (invasive species, invaded environment)”
11:43:01 3 Satoru Wono Sonata For Sine Wave And White Noise - 1st mov.
11:50:26 4 Yui Onodera suisei (short version)
12:11:39 5 Toshiya Tsunoda “Running Fence at Nagaura Bay, Yokosuka. Jan 23 1995”
12:37:03 6 Black Zenith (Brian O’Reilly & Darren More) trajectories
12:47:36 7 Joseph Hammer Mirror Lake
13:04:28 8 Ayako Sato a membrane of membranes
13:10:05 9 Aki Onda A Day of Pilgrimage
13:16:42 10 Richard Lainhardt Bronze Cloud Disk
13:57:44 12 Yasuhiro Morinaga Shell
14:12:27 13 Yuji Takahashi Kageri (6+7)*2
14:24:51 14 Chas Smith The Ghosts on Windows
14:37:05 15 Takumi Ikeda Ukuphothela
14:48:32 16 Ai Watanabe Work within things / In search of the lost architecture
15:06:28 17 France Jobin P orbital
15:29:04 18 Aki Onda Dust
15:38:40 19 Ryu Hankil Description for Other Things
15:54:07 20 dj sniff (Takuro Mizuta Lippit) Liquefaction
16:01:32 21 Yuichi Ito Asihy
16:11:38 22 Takuo Kochi Maria Mandalene
16:30:14 23 Chihei Hatakeyama Landscape on a Hill
16:39:11 24 Tomoko Momiyama “I Saw Time, under a Cherry Tree”
17:01:03 26 Aurélie Lierman KARIAKOO (2013)
17:26:11 27 Vergil Sharkya’ Clone Regulation
17:33:06 28 Madoka Kouno “inside-out, outside-in”
17:58:05 29 Vu Nhat Tan Catru`REMIX
18:13:46 30 Hiroki Sasajima sunari
18:22:29 31 Wobbly (aka Jon Leidecker)* More Animals (Tiger Plus Cricket)
18:32:10 31 Dimitri Voudouris A[EV]3070-7f
18:43:08 32 Lawrence English “Viento, Patagonia”
19:02:49 33 Aurélie Lierman Mrs. and Mr. Goodness
19:08:32 34 Dickson Dee UNoiseYAZI
19:29:12 35 Satanicpornocultshop The Shipboard Gardener (2014)
19:53:15 FINISH

Day 5: Saturday 13 September
start 10:30 1 Motohide Taguchi Between Shifted Memories
10:38:28 2 Christine Muyco “Paka’ (invasive species, invaded environment)”
10:43:01 3 Satoru Wono Sonata For Sine Wave And White Noise - 1st mov.
10:50:26 4 Yui Onodera suisei (short version)
11:11:39 5 Toshiya Tsunoda “Running Fence at Nagaura Bay, Yokosuka. Jan 23 1995”
11:37:03 6 Black Zenith (Brian O’Reilly & Darren More) trajectories
11:47:36 7 Joseph Hammer Mirror Lake
12:04:28 8 Ayako Sato a membrane of membranes
12:10:05 9 Aki Onda A Day of Pilgrimage
12:16:42 10 Richard Lainhardt Bronze Cloud Disk
12:49:45 11 Aoki Takamasa + Tsujiko Noriko Fly - Variation
12:57:44 12 Yasuhiro Morinaga Shell
13:12:27 13 Yuji Takahashi Kageri (6+7)*2
13:24:51 14 Chas Smith The Ghosts on Windows
13:37:05 15 Takumi Ikeda Ukuphothela
13:48:32 16 Ai Watanabe Work within things / In search of the lost architecture
14:06:28 17 France Jobin P orbital
14:29:04 18 Aki Onda Dust
14:38:40 19 Ryu Hankil Description for Other Things
14:54:07 20 dj sniff (Takuro Mizuta Lippit) Liquefaction
15:01:32 21 Yuichi Ito Asihy
15:11:38 22 Takuo Kochi Maria Mandalene
15:30:14 23 Chihei Hatakeyama Landscape on a Hill
15:39:11 24 Tomoko Momiyama “I Saw Time, under a Cherry Tree”
15:56:46 25 Aoki Takamasa + Tsujiko Noriko Doki Doki Last Night
16:01:03 26 Aurélie Lierman KARIAKOO (2013)
16:26:11 27 Vergil Sharkya’ Clone Regulation
16:33:06 28 Madoka Kouno “inside-out, outside-in”
16:58:05 29 Vu Nhat Tan Catru`REMIX
17:13:46 30 Hiroki Sasajima sunari
17:22:29 31 Wobbly (aka Jon Leidecker)* More Animals (Tiger Plus Cricket)
17:32:10 32 Dimitri Voudouris A[EV]3070-7f
17:43:08 33 Lawrence English “Viento, Patagonia”
18:02:49 34 Aurélie Lierman Mrs. and Mr. Goodness
18:08:32 35 Dickson Dee UNoiseYAZI
18:29:12 36 Satanicpornocultshop The Shipboard Gardener (2014)
18:53:15 37 FINISH

Composers

Black Zenith (Brian O'Reilly & Darren More) [Singapore]
Dickson Dee [Hong Kong]
Lawrence English [Australia]
Joseph Hammer [US]
Ryu Hankil [Korea]
Chihei Hatakeyama [Japan]
Takumi Ikeda [Japan]
Yuichi Ito [Japan]
France Jobin [Canada]
Takuo Kochi [Japan]
Madoka Kouno [Japan]
Richard Lainhardt [USA]
Aurélie Lierman [Rwanda]
dj sniff (Takuro Mizuta Lippit) [Hong Kong]
Tomoko Momiyama [Japan]
Yasuhiro Morinaga [Japan]
Christine Muyco [Philippines]
Aki Onda [Japan]
Yui Onodera [Japan]
Hiroki Sasajima [Japan]
Satanicpornocultshop [Japan]
Ayako Sato [Japan]
Vergil Sharkya’ [Canada]
Chas Smith [USA]
Motohide Taguchi [Japan]
Yuji Takahashi [Japan]
Vu Nhat Tan [Vietnam]
Toshiya Tsunoda [Japan]
Dimitri Voudouris [South Africa]
Wobbly (aka Jon Leidecker) [US]
Ai Watanabe [Japan]
Satoru Wono [Japan]

Biographies
Black Zenith (Brian O'Reilly & Darren More) [Singapore]

[Black Zenith] Black Zenith is Brian O’Reilly & Darren Moore. The duo performs using analog modular synthesizers & moving images. They produce dense sonic textures that generate live visuals through the transformation of audio signals into images. Black Zenith draws as much influence from noise music & the electroacoustic music tradition as they do from the foundations of abstract video art.

Brian O'Reilly works within the fields of electro-acoustic composition, sound installations, moving images and noise music. Also he is a contrabassist focusing on uncovering the inaudible textures and hidden acoustic microsounds of his instrument through the integration of electronic treatments and extended playing techniques. He is currently performing solo audio and moving images and on modular synthesizer with Black Zenith and contrabass & electronics with Game of Patience. He is currently a lecturer at LASALLE’s School of Contemporary Music focusing on electronic music composition, creative music making techniques through the use of improvisation and visual music.

Darren Moore is a drummer, sound artist, composer and educator. He performs regularly as a drummer playing various styles of music including jazz, pop, fusion, free jazz and freely improvised music and also performs using analogue synthesizer, electronics and laptop. Darren is currently based in Singapore where he is programme leader and acting head at the School of Contemporary Music at Lasalle College of the Arts. He is the curator of the CHOPPA experimental music festival and series in Singapore and is active on the jazz and experimental music scenes in South East Asia, Japan, Australia and Europe. Darren has received a Doctorate of Musical Art from Griffith University in Brisbane Australia looking at the adaptation of Carnatic Indian rhythms to drum set.

Dickson Dee [Hong Kong]

[Dickson Dee] Dickson Dee (Li Chin Sung) has been engaged in the music industry for more than 25 years. His career started from importing European independent labels to Hong Kong, China and Taiwan; followed by establishing his own music label Noise Asia, organizing concerts etc. His experience includes distribution, import/export, creation, publishing, promotion, artist management and other kinds of works in the industry. He has made a great contribution to the development of independent music in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan.

In 1996, Dickson’s debut solo album “PAST” was released under Tzadik label (USA). Since then, he began to set foot on the creation field with musical styles ranging from avantgarde to experimental, music concrete, electronic, new classical, industrial noise, dance, electronic world jazz etc. He has performed under different names and formed several bands. For example, DJ Dee for electronic experimental music, Li Chin Sung for music concrete and avantgarde, PNF for industrial noise, Khoomi Sound Machine for electronic world jazz, Dickson Dee for electronic acoustic,sampling cut ‘n’ paste and turntableist. Mars News Ensemble for mix film,music, art multimedia project. He has collaborated with many artists such as Zbigniew Karkowski, Otomo Yoshihide, Sainkho Namtchylak, Maja Ratkje,Sachiko M,Tom Thiel, Werner Dafeldecker, Patrick Pulsinger, Cdrk, Tujiko Noriko, Tetsuo Furadate, Yoshida Tatsuya, Keiji Haino, Adichi Tomomi, Astro, Makigami Koichi, Kang Taehwan, Lawrence English, Electronicat, Wang Fan, Zhang Zhu, Wang Yong, Park Je Chun, Jonas Hellborg, VJ Milosh, Dr Das, Martijn Tellinga, Huun Huur Tu, Xu Fengxia, Peter Brotzmann.... etc. Also, he was been invited to Venice Biennale, Köln MusikTriennale, Fabbrica Europpa,Yokohama Triennale, Kitakyushu Biennale, Moving Closer Poland, Huayi Festival Singapore, Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture, New Vision Art Festival Hong Kong, Silk Road Art Festival Hong Kong, Arts Festival Folk and Modern Korea, Clandestino Festival Sweden, Taipei City Festival, Hanoi Sound Stuff Festival Vietnam, Guangzhou Film Festival, etc.

Dickson set up his personal label Dicksonia Audio beside Noise Asia, which concentrates on the release and publishing of his own works. This provides more freedom and convenience to further develop his creativity.

Besides concerts, Dickson also appears in arts academy and university for workshops and lectures to share his experiences with students, hoping to trigger their interest on sound art and music; furthermore, to give them a better understanding on the different aspects of music.

Lawrence English [Australia]

[Lawrence English] Lawrence English is composer, media artist and curator based in Australia. Working across an eclectic array of aesthetic investigations, English’s work prompts questions of field, perception and memory. English utilizes a variety of approaches including live performance and installation to create works that ponder subtle transformations of space and ask audiences to become aware of that which exists at the edge of perception.

Joseph Hammer [US]

[Joseph Hammer] Joseph Hammer is a time–based artist living and working in Los Angeles. He has been an active participant of the LA music and art scene since 1980. Using an Ampex 600 reel to reel tape recorder, holding the magnetic tape in his hand, he creates compositions employing looping techniques originally developed for radio and TV sound effects. Drawing simultaneously on the qualities of recording/listening and playback/performing, his practice reflects on the role of the audience versus the performer, and uses music as it influences our notion of time, memory and intimacy as the basis for improvisation and abstraction.

Hammer has performed widely throughout North America, Europe and Japan. He has collaborated with an assortment of artists from various genres: William Leavitt, John Wiese, Damion Romero, Joe Potts, Rick Potts, Aaron Dilloway, Jason Crumer, John Burnt, Bill Kouligas, Grux, Thomas Dimuzio, Anna Homler, Petra Haden, Tom Grimley, Tom Recchion, Otomo Yoshihide, John Duncan, Vincent Gallo, Cindy Bernard, Rod Poole to name a few and is a member of the LAFMS, Dinosaurs with Horns, Solid Eye, Points of Friction, Dimmer, Joe and Joe, Rod Poole Trio / Voice of the Bowed Guitar, Projections+Sound, Swinging Chandeliers, Vector 39er, Steaming Coils, Kitten Sparkles.

Ryu Hankil [Korea]

Ryu Hankil (b. 1975) worked for about two years as a professional graphic designer. Hankil was a keyboard player in two famous Korean indie pop groups, but eventually left the groups because he was tired of typical music making and sounds. Then he started his own solo electro pop project, Daytripper, and released two solo albums, A Collector (2001) and Brownpaper (2004).

When he made Brownpaper, Hankil collaborated for the first time with the Korean noise/improvisation duo Astronoise. At that time, he saw a concert by Otomo Yoshihide, Sachiko M, Axel Dörner, and Taku Unami in Seoul. He changed his musical instrument and concentrated more and more on improvised music. Hankil has organised a monthly event called RELAY since 2005. He established his own publishing office called Manual, and releases improvised music and magazines.

Hankil uses clockworks, typewriter as an instrument. He is interested in finding musical structures and so on in the vibration of objects. He focuses on using non-instruments--abandoned objects. He is member of FEN(Far East Network) and A.Typist.

Chihei Hatakeyama [Japan]

[Chihei Hatakeyama] Chihei Hatakeyama Is A Sound Artist And Musician Living On The Outskirts Of Tokyo. He Has Performed For Years Under His Given Name And Also As One Half Of The Electroacoustic Duo Opitope, Along With Tomoyoshi Date. Hatakeyama Polychromes Memory-Evoking Soundscapes With Various Recorded Materials Of Electric, Acoustic Instruments Such As Electric Guitars, Vibraphone, And Piano. His Releases Is On Kranky, Room 40, Under The Spire, Hibernate Records, Magic Book Records, Home Nomal, OwnRecords And Spekk (As Opitope).

Takumi Ikeda [Japan]

[Takumi Ikeda] Takumi Ikeda (b.1975) creates music and performs live using audio-programming language. He also plays improvisations without using computers, does performances without aiming to making any sound; and writes instrumental works using the idiom of contemporary music. He has collaborated with artists from various fields and has composed music for films.

Yuichi Ito [Japan]

[Yuichi Ito] Yuichi Ito, born in Japan (1983) , is an artist and researcher. He is currently a research assistant in the Media Engineering Department of the School of Engineering at Chukyo University, Japan, engaged in the research and production work of sound art as well as media art. His main research theme is "Art Expression Created through Anomalous Use of Information Media", and his representative works are "White Lives on Speaker", "Don't flatten, part2.1", "fmi" and others.

France Jobin [Canada]

[France Jobin] France Jobin (b. 1958) is a sound / installation / artist, composer, and curator residing in Montreal, whose audio art, qualified as "sound-sculpture", reveals a minimalist approach to complex sound environments where analog and digital intersect. Her installations incorporate both musical and visual elements inspired by the architecture of physical spaces. Her work can be “experienced” internationally in varied music venues and new technology festivals, such as Mutek, FIMAV, SEND + RECEIVE, Club Transmediale, ISEA RUHR 2010, surface tension tour Japan.

Jobin has solo recordings on many renowned labels, mainly baskaru (FR), ROOM40 (AU), LINE (US), nvo (AT), and ATAK (JP). Her sound art is also part of countless compilation albums. The collaborative album ligne, created with sound artist Tomas Phillips, was released on the ATAK label (JP).

Invited by the AIR Artist-In-Residence program in Krems, she created und transit, a sound installation set in the MinoritenKirche cloister in Stein (AT). A recent collaboration with artist Cédrick Eymenier (FR) resulting in "EVENT HORIZON" was presented in Paris, at the Venezuela Biennale, the Torrance Art Museum in Los Angeles, and at ISEA RUHR 2010. In 2011, Jobin was one of five international artists to present her sound installation, Entre-Deux, in the new media exhibit Data/Fields, curated by Richard Chartier in the Washington, DC area, along with Ryoji Ikeda, Mark Fell, Caleb Coppock, and Andy Graydon.

immersound”, a concert event/philosophy initiated by Jobin, proposes a dedicated listening environment to seek out/explore new experiences in the listening process. First produced in 2011 at Oboro in Montreal, she continues to curate and produce the event.

In January 2013, the Conseil québécois de la musique awarded France Jobin with the prestigious Opus Prize for Concert of the year – Category Musiques Actuelle, électroacoustique for her concert at AKOUSMA 8.

France Jobin’s work continues to evolve as technologies enable her to create new environments.

Takuo Kochi [Japan]

[Takuo Kochi] Takuo Kochi was born in Tokyo in 1963. He graduated from Senzoku Gakuen College of music, with a major in musical composition in 1986, and completed the master course in the same college in 1989. He studied composition with Mutsuo Shishido.

Takuo Kochi won a prize “Music Today” 3rd international composition contest produced by Toru Takemitsu, and “ISCM World Music Days” in 1999 (Romania). He is a member of Japan Society for Contemporary Music.

Madoka Kouno [Japan]

[Madoka Kouno] Born in Kanagawa. She first became interested in epistemology and perception while studying at university. In 2003, she completed a course on "Sound / Art Expression" at Bigakko, after which she began performance focused on perception and cognition. Currently she performs using empty tape-recorders, metronomes, metal plates, etc to catch variations in interference and distance/space.

http://www.i-ma-wav.com/

Richard Lainhardt [USA]

[Richard Lainhart] Richard Lainhart (February 14, 1953 – December 30, 2011) was an American composer, performer, and filmmaker. He is best known as a composer of electronic music that combines analog and digital instrumentation with extended performance techniques[1] derived from traditional acoustic instruments. Lainhart's music is particularly associated with the renaissance of modular analog synthesis,[2] and frequently performed with a Buchla 200e modular synthesizer controlled by a Haken Audio Continuum multidimensional keyboard controller.

Aurélie Lierman [Rwanda]

[Aurélie Lierman] Aurélie Lierman (1980 °Karago, Rwanda) is an independent radio producer, vocalist and composer. Lately Aurélie Lierman is trying new directions by fusing radio art, vocal art and composition. Her main focus is her personal field recordings: a large collection of unique sounds and soundscapes from rural and urban contemporary East-Africa. Sound-bit by sound-bit she’s transforming and sculpting them into something she would call "Afrique Concrète".

In May 2014 Aurélie Lierman won the First Prize at Monophonic 2014 (Brussels) for her most recent radio composition ‘Anosmia’. In 2013 Aurélie Lierman won the PIARS Competition (1st Prize, Rome) and GRAND PRIX NOVA (3rd Prize, Bucharest) for her radio compositions ‘iota mikro’ and KARIAKOO). Aurélie Lierman had two album releases in collaboration with the British cult-group Nurse With Wound ( [SIC] 2013, “Santoor Lena Bicycle” 2014). Autumn 2014 new album releases with a.o. Varkenshond (BE/NL) are in the make.

www.soundcloud.com/aurelielierman
https://www.facebook.com/aurelie.fasol

dj sniff (Takuro Mizuta Lippit) [Hong Kong]

[dj sniff] Takuro Mizuta Lippit (aka dj sniff) is a musician, curator and producer in the field of experimental electronic arts and improvised music.

His musical work builds upon a distinct practice that combines DJing, instrument design and free improvisation. He is interested in how a mediated musical memory, from archival collections of vinyl records to digitally captured sound events during a performance, can be used to create a new sonic reality that emerges through the fleeting notion of the "now." This pursuit has led him to create customized instruments that allow him to intuitively access and re-play these different temporalities ingrained in our listening consciousness. His live performances range from carefully constructed solo sets to improvisational groups with virtuosic instrumentalists.

His curatorial work aims to present a global overview on new experimental approaches to music, sound and performance. He is often involved in facilitating the technical or conceptual development of the works that he features, and his network is built from being an active artist in the field. During his appointment as Artistic Director of STEIM (2007 - 2012) in Amsterdam, he has curated and produced over 100 projects including large scale international festivals and award winning art works.

He has performed throughout Europe, Asia and The United States at various venues and international festivals including Club Transmediale Berlin, Warsaw Autumn, Japan Society NYC, The REDCAT Los Angeles, March Meeting Sharjah, Jazz em Agosto Lisbon, and FLOW Festival Helsinki. He has released 12 DJ mixes and 2 solo albums, and his work has been reviewed in the New York Times, All About Jazz, The WIRE and createdigitalmusic.com.

He has musical projects with eRikM, Tatsuhisa Yamamoto, Astro Twin (Ami Yoshida & Utah Kawasaki), Adachi Tomomi, Keir Neuringer, Raed Yassin, Yutaka Makino, Paul Hubwebber, Future Fossils (Raoul van der Weide & Sanne van Hek), Daysuke Takaoka, Mark Sanders, Andy Moor (The Ex), Jaap Blonk and C. Spencer Yeh. In the past he has had the honor to play with some of his heroes such as Evan Parker, Otomo Yoshihide, Akira Sakata, David Toop, Martin Tetreault and Michel Waisvisz.

dj sniff is now based in Hong Kong.

Tomoko Momiyama [Japan]

[Tomoko Momiyama] Originally from Japan and currently based in Tokyo, Tomoko Momiyama graduated from Stanford University with B.A. in Music and Human Biology in 2001. Since then, she has been internationally active as a music composer, dramaturg, and producer of multi-disciplinary art events, installations, and performances. Her works, many of which are community-based and site-specific, have been performed throughout Japan, as well as in different parts of Asia, Europe, Central America, and the U.S.

By intervening in the relationships between people, cultures, and environments, Tomoko weaves diverse narratives into multi-layered music that is original, and yet anonymous and universal. Composed through in-depth collaborations with different localities, her music is intimately connected to its’ contexts of creation and questions what is home in today’s society. In search of music that is folk and contemporary at the same time, she has developed a unique methodology for collective composition involving people from various backgrounds, who are not necessarily professionally trained in music. In addition to working with communities of displaced people, disaster survivors, social minority groups, children, and elderly people, Tomoko has collaborated with international music ensembles and composers, visual artists, dance choreographers, theater artists, educators, and shamans, among others. Her projects cross a wide range of media and vary from live concerts to electroacoustic music for radio, from audience-participatory sound installations to theater pieces on disability and gender issues, and ritual performances inviting people to communicate with natural elements in our environment, such as wind, water, and trees. By functioning as a medium of communication and sharing moments of paradigm shifts through creative dialogues and exchanges, Tomoko challenges pre-existing social frameworks and personal boundaries, while addressing the issues of identity from multiple perspectives.

Commissions and invitations include the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (Japan), Yokohama Minato-mirai Hall (Japan), Yogyakarta Contemporary Music Festival (Indonesia), Bowdoin Camera Japan Festival (The Netherlands), and etc. Winner of the Japanese Government Overseas Study Programme for Artists, Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company “Able Art on Stage” grant program, and the Nippon Foundation Fellowships for Asian Public Intellectuals.

Yasuhiro Morinaga [Japan]

[Yasuhiro Morinaga] Yasuhiro MORINAGA is a Japanese sound designer, sound archivist and the composer of concrete music. MORINAGA has worked on multiple projects in film, contemporary dance, installation, and the performing arts.Also he has been engaged in field sound recording and specialized in the traditional and ritual music of Southeast Asia and Southern part of Italy. By the use of recording materials, he creates soundscape and concrete music. His composition is conceptualized through the use of cinematic structure.

MORINAGA s eclectic sound design and musical works for film and audiovisuals have been presented at the festivals such as Cannes Film Festival, Venice Art Biennale, Venice Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival and etc. His collaborative works with installation and performance have also presented at the museums such as Pompidou Center[France], San Francisco Contemporary Museum [U.S.A], Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art[Canada], Smithsonian Institute[U.S.A], National History Museum of Luxembourg [Luxembourg]. Morinaga also produced sound and music for SONY's monolithic design exhibition at Milano Salone 2010.

His field recordings have been released under the label, CONCRETE. In collaboration with British Library's Sound Archive, in 2010, Morinaga compiled and produced an archival recordings by Sir.Ludiwg Koch, one of the greatest pioneers of wildlife sound recording and natural history. Following year, Morinaga set up a project of field recording series specialized in the music from Southeast Asia.

In 2013, Morinaga directed musical concert, "Anabiosis Passage" together with Indonesian Artists including Slamet Gundono, Endah Laras and Marzuki Mohamed aka Kill the DJ (Jogja Hiphop Foundation). This collaboration ranges from various music from traditional to modern electronic music, based on the Morinaga's field recording materials in Indonesia.

Christine Muyco [Philippines]

[Christine Muyco] Maria Christine Muyco is one of the most active women composers of the Philippines. She currently leads the Philippine chapter of the Asian Composers League (ACL) - the ACL Philippines (ACL Phil). She was a fellow of the Asian Cultural Council, New York, which has supported her Computer Music training for a multi-media project at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in 2011. Her recent commissions include the IkoToki: Sounding U.P. Campus Daily Moves (Electro-Acoustic and Computer Music series of works) funded by UP-OVPAA. This project allowed her to record environmental sounds around the campus and this led her to be interested in different species of birds and frogs; their sounds became instrumental to her recent computer music works working particularly on the concept of “audiation” as a means to understand the sound source against the more generalized approach to sound of most soundscape projects. Her recent grant is for a children’s choral book and she has is also preparing for the performance of her chamber opera for the East-Europe Music Festival in Vietnam this October. She is currently the Chairperson of the Composition and Theory Department of the University of the Philippines College of Music. Besides being a composer (B.M. Music Composition, University of the Philippines; M.Mus. Music Composition, University of British Columbia), she is also an ethnomusicologist/music anthropologist. She finished her Doctorate in Philippine Studies at the University of the Philippines, Diliman (2008), the same university that gave her a grant to take Ethnomusicology and Dance Theory courses at the University of California, Los Angeles, U.S.A. from 2006-2007.

Aki Onda [Japan]

[Aki Onda] Aki Onda is an electronic musician, composer, and visual artist. Onda was born in Japan and currently resides in New York. He is particularly known for his Cassette Memories project – works compiled from a “sound diary” of field-recordings collected by Onda over a span of two decades. Onda’s musical instrument of choice is the cassette Walkman. Not only does he capture field recordings with the Walkman, he also physically manipulates multiple Walkmans with electronics in his performances. In recent years, Onda often works in interdisciplinary fields and collaborates with filmmakers, choreographers and visual artists. He has collaborated with artists such as Michael Snow, Ken Jacobs, Raha Raissinia, Alan Licht, Loren Connors, Oren Ambarchi, Noël Akchoté, Jean-François Pauvros, Jac Berrocal, Lionel Marchetti, Linda Sharrock, and Blixa Bargeld.

Yui Onodera [Japan]

[Yui Onodera] Yui Onodera is a composer, sound artist, and architectural acoustics designer based in Tokyo, Japan. After studying music and architecture, he founded the Critical Path label. In terms of environmental functions and spacial relationships of sound, he employs materials from various sources ranging from field recordings, electronics, and voices, to various musical instruments, for process-based, restrained electro-acoustic pieces.

He has created collaboration works with The Beautiful Schizophonic (Crónica), Celer (spekk), Pjusk (12k) and Stephen Vitiello (12k), as well as producing and contributing to domestic and international compilations and remix works. He has given live performances in venues such as NTT InterCommunication Center, Iwate Museum of Art, and Kawagoe City Museum, and has supported Brandt Brauer Frick (!K7), Cristian Vogel (Mille Plateaux), Machinefabriek (12k), Yves De Mey (Line), and Twigs & Yarn (flau) for their Japanese tours.

He has performed with artists such as Ametsub, aus, Carl Stone, Christophe Charles (Mille Plateaux), Toshimaru Nakamura (Erstwhile), Ken Ikeda (Touch), ILLUHA (12k), minamo (room40), FourColor (12k), sawako (12k), Chihei Hatakeyama (krankyy), PORTRAL a.k.a. INNER SCIENCE, and Gonno. In 2013, he participated in Störung Festival, a festival of electronic music and visual arts, performing with Moritz von Oswald (Basic Channel), Mika Vainio (raster-noton) and Francisco López (sub rosa).

Hiroki Sasajima [Japan]

[Hiroki Sasajima] Hiroki Sasajima is the sound artist residents in Tokyo. He had started the activity of field recording around 2007. Since then, he goes to record various places in Japan actively and releases many works from labels in all over the world. For his live performances, he places field recording sound and the sound of objects in the space to give a chance to rethink about "how to listen or capture the sound" for audiences. He is interested in the beauty of the detailed and missing sound, and searches for the essence and the possibility of the sound with focussing to the characteristics of time, space and regional cultures. He weaves a seamless fabric of vibration with the pure innate vision of sound.

www.hirokisasajima.com

Satanicpornocultshop [Japan]

[Satanicpornocultshop] Satanicpornocultshop is a Japanese experimental music group known for assemblage-style compositions that incorporate a variety of musical styles and techniques. The group draws heavily on hip hop and electronic influences and utilizes samples to define their sound.The group's prolific body of work has been published and released by numerous labels including the band's own Nu NuLAX NuLAN imprint since 1998. Other labels that have released their work include Poland-based Vivo Records, French label Sonore, British independent label Some Bizzare Records. 2006 - Winning the Digital Music Honorary Mention on Prix Ars Electronica and the Research of the electronic music on Qwartz Awards, France.

BANDCAMP: http://satanicpornocultshop.bandcamp.com

Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satanicpornocultshop

Ayako Sato [Japan]

[Ayako Sato] Ayako Sato is a doctoral student at Tokyo University of the Arts. She composes and researches electroacoustic music. Her works have been selected for performances at international conferences and festivals including FUTURA, WOCMAT, NYCEMF, SMC, ICMC, ISSTC, ISMIR, and so on. She was awarded the third prize of International Electroacoustic Music Young Composers Awards at WOCMAT 2012 (Taiwan), the honorary mention at WOCMAT 2013, the honorary mention of CCMC 2012 (Japan), the honorary mention of Destellos Competition 2013 (Argentina), the third prize of Prix PRESQUE RIEN 2013 (France), and Acanthus Prize 2014 at Tokyo University of the Arts (Japan).

http://asiajaco.com/

Vergil Sharkya’ [Canada]

[Vergil Sharkya] Vergil has established his reputation in composition, academic research, scores and soundtracks for film, theatre and dance, composition and arrangements for orchestras, improvised music, radio broadcasts, multimedia installations, soundscapes, psychedelic noise rock, dub, and drum'n'bass. During the past 20 years Vergil has created over 50 major works, performed in countries across Europe, the UK, and North America, and published numerous works for international distribution (Audio Research Editions, Cuneiform Records, High Days Gramophone, Sabotage Records, UKsupersonic, VergilReality Recordings, et al). He has gained undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications from leading international institutions (University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, Liverpool John Moores University), and his music has been performed by renowned musicians, ensembles and orchestras. His research has culminated in the creation of hypercomposition, a new method of composition that combines and integrates traditional and contemporary compositional approaches with a unique metacomposition of recorded sound on computer-based digital audio systems. In 2010 he finished a major research project in composition for which he was awarded his doctoral degree at Liverpool John Moores University, UK, developing a complete theory of hypercomposition with examples of its practical application.

Since moving to Montréal in July 2010, he has been playing and recording with musicians from a variety of different musical backgrounds. He was invited to host The Montreal Sessions on CKUT 90.3 FM radio for the month of October 2011, where he introduced a selection of his works as a composer, as well as performing live on air with Jean Derome, Michel F. Côté, and with writers Serge Lamothe and Martin Martimots Rivest.

In the spring of 2012, he composed and performed the soundtrack for the contemporary flamenco show 4kg by Sarah Bronsard, which was awarded the Prix Cirque du Soleil – Meilleur Création Originale (Best Original Creation) at the Festival St. Ambroise Fringe de Montréal 2012. Subsequently, he also produced and performed the electronic part for a performance of Gavin Bryars' The Sinking of the Titanic by Ensemble Innovarumori at the 2012 edition of Suoni per il Popolo festival, which won critical acclaim.

Since July 2011 he has been hosting l'après-midi d'un phon, a concert series dedicated to contemporary composition, musique actuelle, and improvised music, in his studio on the boulevard Saint-Laurent in the heart of Montréal's Plateau. He currently works with Ensemble Supermusique with whom he performed Bruit Court-Circuit at the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville in May 2012, at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal in September 2012, and which was recorded for Ambiances Magnétiques and released in December 2012.

While Vergil deepens his explorations of avant-garde composition and musique actuelle, he also continues to work on projects of different musical aesthetics: LesMuetants – The Silent Band, supported by Sennheiser Canada, which furnishes the musicians of a 6-piece jazz-éléctro ensemble and up to 1000 audience members with wireless headphones, which isolates the acoustic space of the listeners from the environment and each other, but places the listener in the same acoustic space as the musicians playing and creating the music, and AfrikrelektrO, a fresh, original afro-electro-pop trio for which he is co-composer, synth-bassist and keyboardist.

www.supermusique.qc.ca/fr/artistes/sharkya_ve/
www.myspace.com/vergilsharkya
soundcloud.com/vergilsharkya
lapresmididunphon.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/LesMuetants
www.frequency.com/video/lesmuetants-teaser-1/147933054
www.afrikelektro.com

Chas Smith [USA]

[Chas Smith] Chas Smith is a Los Angeles-based composer, performer, instrument designer and builder who composes most of his music for his own exotic instruments. His compositions, which always display his dualistic fascination with the scientific and the sensual, might owe their split personalities to the diverse collection of composers he studied with in the 1970s: Morton Subotnick, Mel Powell, James Tenney, Earle brown and Harold Budd.

As a performer, he played steel guitar and pedal steel guitar with various music ensembles including western swing with the Radio Ranch Straight Shooters to rock-a-billy and honky tonk, to prog metal with Tack From Venice, to experimental with Tokyo 77, and free-improv with the Feedback Wave Riders.

He has also played pedal steel guitar and his instruments on feature films scored by composers including Hans Zimmer, Thomas Newman, Mark Mothersbaugh and T-Bone Burnett. Smith has also been featured on recordings by composer Harold Budd, singer/composer Joe Strummer and art ensemble Stillife. Smith has performed his own works at various new music festivals and art galleries, and his music has been recorded on the Cold Blue Music label.

Motohide Taguchi [Japan]

[Motohide Taguchi] Motohide TAGUCHI studied composition under Prof. Michiharu MATSUNAGA, Prof. Masataka MATSUO and Prof. Kazuko HAYAKAWA. In 1999, he was selected as a successful competitor of the 16th Japan Society for Contemporary Music Composers’ Award. In 2002, he was selected as a participant of the International Young composers’ Meeting (Apeldoorn, the Netherlands). His work has been performed in Japan, Asia and Europe.

He has been active for the research on contemporary music in the Southeast Asia and cultural exchange with the composers in the region. He received a grant of the API Fellowship (The Nippon Foundation) in 2002 and the Asia Fellowship (The Asian Scholarship Foundation) in 2010 to conduct researches on the contemporary music in the Philippines, Indonesia (2002) and Thailand (2010).

Yuji Takahashi [Japan]

[Yuji Takahashi] Yūji Takahashi (高橋 悠治 Takahashi Yūji, born September 21, 1938) is a Japanese composer, performer, pianist, and author.

Studied under Roh Ogura and Minao Shibata at the Toho Gakuen School of Music.[1] In 1960, he made his debut as a pianist by performing Bo Nilsson's Quantitaten. He lived in Europe from 1963 to 1966 where he worked with Iannis Xenakis. He gave the first performance of Xenakis' Herma and Eonta. In 2006 he was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award.[2]

His sister is the pianist Aki Takahashi. His son is the composer Ayuo.[3]

Vu Nhat Tan [Vietnam]

[Vu Nhat Tan] VuNhatTan born August 8, 1970, Hanoi, VietNam, is a Vietnamese composer of experimental orchestral/chamber/piano, and electro/computer & multimedia works that have been performed in Asia, Europe and elsewhere Tan studied piano at Vietnam National Academy of Music in Hanoi, where he earned a certificate in 1987 and degrees in secondary education in composition and musicology in 1991. He then studied composition and musicology there from 1991-95 and graduated with his BMus. He later studied computer music and new music at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Cologne in 2000-01, on a scholarship from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst. In addition, he studied composition with Chinary Ung at the University of California at San Diego in 2002 as a guest student His honors include Third Prize in the composition for traditional instruments competition of the Vietnam Composers Association in Hanoi (1992, for Chamber Piece for Traditional Vietnamese Instruments [withdrawn]) and First Prize in the Saint-German-en-Laye competition (1995, for Ky Uc – Memory). He has also received four prizes from the Vietnam Composers Association (1998, forNgu Doi Dang Dan – Interplay of Five Instruments; 2001, for Phac Thao 2000 – Outline 2000; 2002, for Nhip Don Nhip Kep –Simple Meter, Compound Meter; 2003, for Ao Don Ao Kep – Four-Part Vietnamese Dress). Most recently, he received a grant from the Asian Cultural Council (2002), which enabled him to research contemporary music and ethnomusicology in the USA. His music has been performed in Australia, Cambodia, China, France, Germany, Mongolia, Switzerland, the USA, and Vietnam, including at the Roaring Hoofs Festival in Ulaanbaatar (2000), the Louisiana Festival of Contemporary Music in Baton Rouge (2002), the Totally Huge New Music Festival in Perth (2003), and the Asian Music Festival in Tokyo (2003) He is also active in electro/computer music & multimedia performances . He created the multimedia performance projects Dem Dai – Sleepless Night (2001), on a grant from the Arts Network Asia in Singapore, Chao HoiAn (2002), on a grant from the British Council in Hanoi,KhaT (2003), Space of Traditional and Contemporary Music in China (2003), on a grant from the Arts Network Asia, and Pito(2004), on a grant from the Ford Foundation. He has performed on numerous occasions as a pianist and sáo tre (bamboo flute)-player in contemporary and improvisational music in Australia, China and Vietnam. Furthermore, he gave improvisational music concerts and workshops in Hue in 2004. He has lectured on composition and musicology at Vietnam National Academy of Music in Hanoi since 1995. He has also guest-lectured on Vietnamese music in Australia and Vietnam.

https://myspace.com/vunhattan
http://vunhattan.multiply.com

Toshiya Tsunoda [Japan]

[Toshiya Tsunoda] Toshiya Tsunoda has been prolific in the experimental arts community for over two decades. Born in 1964 in Kanagawa, Japan, he studied oil painting at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, where he received an MFA. In 1994, he co-founded and ran label WrK alongside m/s, releasing sound art pieces from various young Japanese sound artists, including his own. He currently runs labels Skiti and edition.t. Tsunoda's recorded works often take the form of untainted field recordings— his Extract from Field Recording Archive series documents vibrations through solid objects and air, and his CD Ridge of Undulation features minimally processed recorded landscapes and vibrations, with sparse sine waves. Tsunoda has released collaborations with Seijiro Murayama, Taku Sugimoto, Mitsuhiro Yoshimaru, and (most recently) Michael Pisaro, among many others. Tsunoda’s work is currently on view at MoMA as part of "Soundings: A Contemporary Score", through November 3rd 2013.

http://toshiya-tsunoda.blogspot.com/

Dimitri Voudouris [South Africa]

[Dimitri Voudouris] Dimitri Voudouris was born - 1961 Athens, Greece. A clinical pharmacist, new music composer and scientific researcher. He curated UNYAZI the first electro-acoustic music festival and symposium to take part on the African continent in 2005. He composes for acoustic instruments, electronics, multimedia, dance and theatre. His technical and theoretical approach researches cognitive psycho-acoustic behavioural patterns in humans in an area of continued environmental changes. His theories assist him in the morphological study and creation of various building blocks used in the construction of microenvironments that intern form the backbone of his compositions.

http://dimitri-voudouris.com/

Wobbly (aka Jon Leidecker) [US]

[Wobbly] Wobbly (aka Jon Leidecker) has been performing under the inadvertent pseudonym 'Wobbly' since 1990, investigating what it means to improvise in real time with pre-recorded sounds. Albums have been released on Bureau B, Illegal Art, Tigerbeat6, Alku & Important. Much of his recent work has been collaborative: a trio album with Dieter Moebius and Tim Story, playing festivals with Fred Frith's Gravity Band, recording projects with Matmos, People Like Us and Huun-Huur-Tu, and finally, joining the notorious collage group Negativland as a full time member.

Ai Watanabe [Japan]

[Ai Watanabe] Born in Japan, Ai Watanabe studied composition at the age of twelve years and obtained her first degree at Tokyo College of Music. After obtaining her master's degree, she continued her studies at the CRR in Paris in the class of electroacoustic composition with Denis Dufour from 2008 until 2011. Now she is with the doctor course of the Tokyo University of the Arts. Ai Watanabe is recipient of many awards: the President of Tokyo College of Music in 2003, finalist for the International League of Artists of Japan in 2005 and 2006, prizes of CCMC (the Contemporary Computer Music Competition in Japan). She participated in internships Futura (Crest, 2005 and 2006), selected Pierre Schaeffer Award 2010, and price JAPAN2011 in Italy.

http://aiwatanabe.tumblr.com/

Satoru Wono [Japan]

[Satoru Wono] Born in Japan 1964 and studied composition and piano. In 1987 he got the Rookie of the Year Award For Composition from the Japan Contemporary Music Association and started his career as a composer. After several years, he extended his activity to pop music and released solo CD "Sweet Science (1998)", "El Nino (2003)", "Romantic Season"(2014) etc. to present the fusion of latin pop and electronica. On the other hand, he keeps trying to produce experimental sounds with electro-acoustic devices and releases solo CD "Sauvage (1998)", "String Quartet (2002)", "Sonata for sine wave and white noise (2003)", "Dance Suite(2012)" and so on. As music director and keyboard player, he also works for a Japanese art group Maywa Denki. Now his activity includes the arrangement and production for pop music and films, writing some books, teaching about music and films as an associate professor at Tama Art University in Tokyo.

*artist photo (c) 2011 Seitaro Tanaka

http://www.swono.com/