Canolfan, Nagoya, 10/23/06

Damn what a hangover. We had to get up at 8am to start our travels to Nagoya (from Tokyo) as well as activating our rail passes (which last year I lost 3 hrs after arriving in Tokyo, dumbass that I am). Once we got on the Shinkansen (bullet train), with a bento box, Pocari Sweat and some coffee, I was feeling a bit better.

Tonight's show was at Canolfan, a long running well established venue. Brian had some experiences there when he lived in Japan some years ago and it has continued to host a variety of music through out the years. Needless to say, the place was small with a suitably small PA. It was good to see familiar faces from last year, in particular our good friend Koutaro Fukui who we met in Chicago a while ago. He had lived and worked there for about 7 years before returning home to Nagoya to work at M-Audio 2 years ago.

This evening consisted of Brian and I again, Blake solo, as well as Koutaro's group, Poca and Gonzo and Yoshiyuki Hirao. Hirao-san, the organizer of the event, showed up about 30 minutes before the start of the performances interestingly enough (and we had some doubts whether he was coming at all). He was first to perform and his set consisted mostly of radios and a few small electronic devices. Despite the limited palette, I found it to be a rather interesting set, much in the vein of what has been dubbed "onkyo." Mostly minimal, using sustained static, white noise and crackles from the radio, supplemented with sharper crackles and sizzles, including several jolting electronic stabs that stirred people from their torpor. I could have done without the constant backdrop of white noise from the radio.

Next up came Gonzo Murakami and Poca (whose real name I still don't know). Gonzo we met last year in Nagoya and certainly one of the more interesting people I've run across. He has a hippy/crusty vibe to him, along with a love of chemicals and music. His oeuvre consists of toys and little electronic gadgets he amplifies with a microphone. I actually first saw him in Chicago with several other Japanese performers and liked it quite a bit. Consequently, last year when I met him in person and saw him perform, it was once again interesting. On first blush, at least when one meets him, I don't think one would expect this kind of music from him. It is delicate and he has a good ear for improvisation, construction and the sounds themselves. This evening he performed with his frequent collaborator, Poca who was largely using feedback processed through some electronics, pedals, etc. They put together an interesting performance with a good sense of dynamics, with Gonzo animatedly manipulating his toys, winding things up and letting them go, some subtle percussion like effects in there as well, and Poca complementing him with more drawn out tonal/feedback and looped sounds that were occasionally rhythmic. Gonzo had quite an interesting "device" (if you met him, you'd understand why it made perfect sense), which was simply a cardboard box with a mounted exposed tape player, radio and some exposed electronics (contacts?) that he used as his main instrument. A fine performance.

Third on the evening was the Koutaro Fukui Group, led by Koutaro on guitar, along with a second guitarist and bass player. This was different than what I expected (actually, I didn't know quite what to expect). That is, it veered away from the abstraction and noise we were hearing this week. They performed three pieces, using some sort of structure they improvised in a bit. There was a strong amount of melodic content and rhythm but not to the point of rigidity and outright songs. Talking with Koutaro later, he told me that he was concentrating on somewhat more "traditional" music and had not been working much on abstract material. So this performance was not entirely surprising.

Blake followed with a somewhat delicate (for him, anyway) set of shifting drones slowing moving against each other, flowing well but never shifting abruptly. It certainly was more of a straight drone set which was quite lovely. It had a very meditative feel to it and sitting on the couch listening to it, I lost track of time very quickly, engrossed in the waves.

Finally, Brian and I closed the evening. Since we had not seen Koutaro since last year, we invited him to sit in with us (on guitar) as a trio. It turned out to be a rather fortuitous pairing. It may have been my favorite set of the tour as the three of us found some excellent ground to work in. Koutaro's interventions ranged from sharper single notes to sustained tones along with the occasional plucks and scrapes. Brian and I contributed our usual combination of electroacoustic manipulation, sustained tones and field recordings. It turned out to be a rather dynamic palette.

And lo and behold, we got paid. Oh yeah, here's Gonzo's setup along with his instrument of choice, the cardboard box: