 
Our
Mission
Contact Us
Become a Member
Support
Workshops
Youth Ensemble
Past Events
Links
Nameless Sound
was established in 2001 to present the best of international
contemporary music and to support the exploration of new methods in
arts education
Nameless
Sound presents
concerts by premiere artists in the world of creative music. In
addition, Nameless Sound artists work directly with students from
Houston’s public schools, community centers, and homeless shelters.
Nameless Sound’s educational work helps to nurture a new generation of
artists and inspire tomorrow’s creative thinkers.
CONNECT
Blog
Facebook
Myspace
Myspace Youth Ensemble
Twitter
Arts
Houston
Flickr
|
|
|
|
Koboku Senju
 
| When: |
Saturday, May 29,
2010, 8 pm |
|
|
| Where: |
at The El Dorado Ballroom Building
downstairs at 2312 Elgin [map] |
|
|
| Tickets: |
$13 General, $10 Students
Everyone under 18 gets in for free |
Tetuzi
Akiyama (Japan) - guitar
Oyvind
Lonnig (Norway) - trumpet
Toshimaru
Nakamura (Japan) - no-input mixing board
Espen
Reinersen (Norway) - tenor saxophone, flute
Martin
Tacks (Norway) - tuba
Key pioneers from Tokyo’s ‘Onkyo’ movement meet three of Norway’s premiere emerging improvisers in the quintet Koboku Senju.
In the late 1990’s, a group of Japanese musicians were
involved in a weekly event at a tiny Tokyo space called ‘Off Site’. The
music that developed from this modest series became a key element of an
international movement that challenged improvised music with an
increased attention to silence and extremely quiet sounds. Called
‘Onkyo’, it was a sound of austere beauty, where small sonic details
were framed by potent doses of silence. Onkyo was a delicate sound with
radical implications, strongly contrasting with the maximalist
tendencies of much improvised music that came before it.
In
helping to form that aesthetic, Toshimaru Nakamura developed the
“no-input mixing board”: simply a mixing board with inputs connected to
outputs to generate internal feedback. In Nakamura’s hands, this
re-configured piece of audio equipment became a new instrument. Its
range of sonic phenomenon, high-pitched drones, feedback loops,
electronic patterns, and whistles refocus attention on the physical
qualities of sound and the individual listener’s relation to how they
are received. When one moves the position of their head, they can often
discern significant changes in the sound’s shape (as the ears’
relationship to the sounds shift).
Tetuzi Akiyama, another essential player from the Onkyo
scene, presents a contrasting approach. An acoustic guitarist with
clear roots in blues and folk styles, Akiyama offers fragile delicacy
and melodic expression to this aesthetic. Though his sources are more
obviously based in traditional music, Akiyama nonetheless played an
important role in reducing the music to its minimalist essence. The
themes and melodic contours of his playing unfold with an unhurried
patience. Its simplicity comes from the fact it doesn’t rely on volume
or power to grab attention; but anyone drawn into his musical world
will find it rich in melodic and harmonic detail.
Espen
Reinersen and Oyvind Lonnig are the Norwegian duo Streifenjunko. The
two young horn players (saxophone and trumpet respectively) are at the
forefront of extended techniques on wind instruments, where the science
of harmonic overtones, acoustic phenomenon, and breath control are
finely tuned to serve an exploration of beautiful abstract sound.
Martin Tacks, another young Norwegian, is doing the same exploration on
the tuba, making him one of a small handful of musicians who have
tackled this nuanced approach on that instrument.
Artist Links:
http://www.streifenjunko.no/site/
http://taxt.no/martin/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toshimaru_Nakamura
http://www.japanimprov.com/tnakamura/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetuzi_Akiyama
http://www.japanimprov.com/takiyama/profile.html
This
concert is co-sponsored by Project
Row Houses
|
|