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without records

OTOMO Yoshihide+Yasutomo AOYAMA

  • 2008
  • Installation
  • Commissioned by YCAM
  • World Premiere
  • 改訂新作
大きなサイズで見る
1

Dense soundscapes built from accumulations of individual elements

Sound installation consisting of 127 portable records players.

32 participants in a production workshop conducted prior to the event rebuilt record players one by one. By mounting such different materials as cardboard or iron onto the turntables that were originally made for playing vinyl records, the players were converted into quiet lo-fi devices playing unique rhythms and noises. Composed out of these is a spatial installation, whereas the rotation of each player is controlled by a computer programmed to generate multilayered soundscapes without ever creating the same combination of sounds twice during the event period.

The work directs the visitor's attention to the usually ignored sounds made by players themselves, and demonstrates the meanings, potentials, and historical significance in the realm of sound art of records and players that are gradually falling into oblivion in this age of digital portable players.

Profiles

OTOMO Yoshihide

Musician

Born 1959 in Yokohama. Has been attracting a lot of attention around the globe with his endeavors across genres and styles, from experimental music to jazz and pop, while also being renowned for his musical contributions in the realms of cinema, TV and theater. In recent years, his focus has been on musical works and sound installations, as well as collaborations with various artists and regular citizens under the name “Ensembles,” presented in a rather unique concert style. At the same time, he continues to engage in a range of participatory projects. After the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, he launched a project in the Fukushima area, where he spent his teens, and in 2012, received a Ministry of Education's Award for Fine Arts for his work on the “Project FUKUSHIMA!” His numerous other awards include a Japan Record Award for the score for the TV program “Amachan” in 2013. Since 2014, Otomo has been devoting himself to Ensembles Asia, launched as a vehicle for establishing a network across Asia through music. He was the artistic director of the Sapporo International Art Festival 2017, and in 2019, director of the reorganized Waraji Matsuri, a popular local festival in Fukushima.

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Yasutomo AOYAMA

Artist

Born in Hokkaido, and currently lives in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture. While making artworks in Sendai, he is involved in music such as giving live performances and DJ. He was in charge of an installation when collaborating with Otomo Yoshihide in "we insist?" project that was held in Sendai in 1995. Later he participated in "MUSIC MERGE FESTIVAL '97″ with Otomo as their unit "DJ TRANQUILIZER." He also performed a long-hour live session inviting Masami Akita (MERZBOW) and others as guests. In 2007, he was responsible for visual composition of Otomo's exhibition "without records" held at sendai mediatheque.

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Credit

Otomo Yoshihide direction and sound compositionYasutomo Aoyama art direction

[Workshop members]Yoshiko Akita, Eiichi Ishii, Keisuke Ishikawa, Naomi Ootomo, Saeko Oyama, Hiroko Kaku, Emiko Kasamatsu, Haruka Kadowaki, Yoshihiro Kikuchi, Tomoka Kinoshita, Manabu Kimura, Keisuke Kuwamoto, Emi Koumatsu, Hidetaka Sugiyama, Motoko Soda, Shogo Takenaga, Tokiko Tatsuno, Mayumi Tahara, Masanori Tamura, Naho Terashima, Mitsuru Tokisato, Yasuo Nakagawa, Tatsuaki Nose, Akiyo Hasegawa, Yutaka Hanaoka, Makoto Hirabayashi, Yumi Fukano, Koreyuki Mitsunaga, Kenji Yamanaka, Kanako Yamane, Tatsunori Yoshioka, Mitsuya Watanabe

[Turntable doner]Arakaki Kazumi

[YCAM InterLab]Takayuki Ito system design and programmingRichi Owaki space design Etsuko Nishimura turntables managementFumie Takahara lighting designSoichiro Mihara control system engineering (hi-fi version) Daisuke Yamashiro facilitation of workshopChang Yung-Ta technical support

Satoshi Hama technical support

Exhibition

OTOMO Yoshihide / ENSEMBLES

Finished

* Information in Japanese only

Tour 3Countries 5

July 4, 2009 — August 9, 2009

ENSEMBLES 09 - Rest-ful Musical Devices

Vacant

November 30, 2010 — January 16, 2011

ENSEMBLES 2010: Resonance

Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito

November 17, 2011 — 20

Japan Society

March 9, 2012 — July 1, 2012

x_sound: John Cage, Nam June Paik & After

Nam June Paik Art Center

October 27, 2012 — February 3, 2013

Art & Music - Search for New Synesthesia

Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo

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Links

Installation

120

OTOMO Yoshihide's works

5

Yasutomo AOYAMA's works

1

Works of 2008

35

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