Typhoon in Kyushu
Aug. 30th, 2004 02:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imomus
I'm stuck in Kokura, Kyushu right now and we're weathering the worst typhoon of the year. Huge gusty winds shook the traditional dark wood building I spent the night in, and now the streets are flooded, turning taxis into boats. I'm back at Soap Gallery now, scene of last night's show. There isn't much to do but sit here and wait for the local and shinkansen train services to resume. Even this office I'm sitting in doesn't feel safe; I can hear water dripping through the roof onto a tarpaulin skin draped directly above the iMac I'm sitting at, and little spiders are scuttling across the tabletop. The typhooon map suggests that things will be better tomorrow. I certainly hope so; I have to catch a flight to Hong Kong on Wednesday from Kansai International.
Last night's show was pretty great. First there was a group called Lolo. Three yukata-clad girls played two pieces. The first was like Neu's 'Fur Immer', a repetitive drone with motorik drumkit, shamisen and a violin held upright and bowed like a cello. The second piece was like a school recorder exercise, a woodwind trio piece with some slightly sinister electronic effects casting a shadow across its scholastic cuteness. When I spoke to the girls later, they said their influence wasn't from 70s German electronica but from traditional Japanese theatre music; kyogen and bunraku.
Then came DoraVideo, with some of the most inventive use of Max/MSP I've seen. DoraVideo is a drummer who looks a bit like a sumo wrestler. His drumkit triggers Max manipulations of digital video projected on a big screen behind him. In this way he controls various short video sequences -- a clip from a samurai movie murder, the shower scene from 'Psycho', himself playing the drums, clips from Hong Kong ganster movies, a Chinese folk orchestra. It's basically live video scratching controlled by a drumkit instead of a shuttle wheel. A cymbal crash can spin the heads back, a snare advances the scene in real time to the next marker point. It's powerful and makes me think that Max used with video in this way could be the second big stage of the sampling revolution started in the 80s with Emulators and Akais.
My own show also saw me using the video projector, this time to play along, manually and in real time, adding a very visual layer of chaotic, atonal virtual instruments to my iTunes backing tracks. I loaded up the Harry Partch Flash instruments I downloaded last week (the link is in an old entry, and I can tell you that saving the Flash files wasn't easy). So when I wasn't singing I was playing, or rather puppet-playing, these weird zithery slides and boings courtesy of Harry and the Flash programmers who virtualised his amazing constructions. These instruments, projected big on a wall, are great for live shows; when you trigger them, you see, for instance, a marimba player moving to strike the notes you're playing with keyboard keys. It's a sort of iBook bunraku.
I'll post some photos of the show when I get back to civilisation. The whole show was captured on video by my friend Graham from Nottingham University, who tells me he'll be making a DVD of it at some point.
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Set List
Date: 2004-08-29 11:25 pm (UTC)Lovely Tree
Going For A Walk With A Line
Thatness and Thereness (Sakamoto)
Pierrot Lunaire
Scottish Lips
Corkscrew King
Bantam Boys
The Rape of Lucretia
Your Fat Friend
Life of the Fields
Robert Dye
Robin Hood
A Little Schubert
Frilly Military
Summer Holiday 1999
I Am A Kitten
Mika Akutsu
Pygmalism
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-30 12:46 am (UTC)BTW, is that a Sakamoto Ryuichi track that you covered? *v.cool*
~m
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-30 01:07 am (UTC)awesomeness
Date: 2004-08-30 06:56 am (UTC)I'm like totally in to mixing and stuff and I want to be a DJ when I graduate college, so there we are. Too bad someone would have to describe the vidio sequences...being totally blind does have it's disadvantages at times. LOL
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-30 11:23 am (UTC)Flash instruments are so fun to make, and not too difficult either! Last year I took to performing shows with Flash samplers that had loops of telephone samples. If you cut the samples just right, you get a perfect loop, but the most fun is when you have them slightly off and the sound gallops in and out of syncronization!
Adam
alas, babylon.
Date: 2004-08-30 11:35 am (UTC)we just had a bad hurricane with no water no street light or electricity for a week, and a second one is meant to hit us at the end of the week again. It was very post apocalyptic. It looks like you're faring pretty well, though.
i'm listening to an hour in osaka, it's really lovely. There is a strange connection that happens in hearing someone sing and then hearing them talk, it makes the songs much more intimate.. I don't know if I'm making sense. my english grammar is not of the best caliber.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-30 04:12 pm (UTC)Re: alas, babylon.
Date: 2004-08-30 06:47 pm (UTC)http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3611104.stm
Some people died, and record high winds for this area were recorded, but I think the hurricane in the US sounds more dangerous. Today in Kyushu it's sunny and calm. I'm off to the station to see what the travel situation is.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-30 08:11 pm (UTC)here's the link if anyone needs it
http://musicmavericks.publicradio.org/features/feature_partch.html#
cheers
the death row of the hibiscus
Date: 2004-08-30 09:19 pm (UTC)good luck.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-31 04:40 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-31 05:16 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-31 07:36 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-31 08:04 am (UTC)M83
Date: 2004-08-31 01:12 pm (UTC)Re: Set List
Date: 2004-09-01 08:29 am (UTC)It'd be my first complete English sang version (I assume, judging from other live performances) of "A little Schubert", which I very much like; the first time I'd listen to "Frilly Military" sang by you, which I trully adore too; and, of course, the new songs live.
If possible, I'd love to own a copy of this DVD whenever made. If, please keep me posted.
BUEN VIAJE!
eD B^)
Brautigan
Date: 2004-09-01 10:41 am (UTC)Japanese Women
If there are any unattractive
Japanese women
they must drown them at birth
Tokyo
May 28, 1976