We are pleased to temporarily return from hiatus to bring you this podcast marking the recent release of a trailer for the Sound of Kyoto project, by Marios Joannou Elia. Sharing Marios' intrigue with the question "Does each city have its own sound?", it was a pleasure to be able to talk to him about how he has sought to 'musicalise' the city of Kyoto, interspersed with sections of music that will make up part of the final composition. The final film will blend performances from over 560 musicians, set in dozens of indoor and outdoor locations across the city, and including Japanese traditional instruments, an electronic matryomin ensemble, choirs, symphonic and mandolin orchestras. Following on from the “Sound of Vladivostok”, Sound of Kyoto promises to be a unique conceptual and musical interpretation of the city. Please enjoy the trailer and this podcast as a precursor to the release of the full film later in the year. During the ongoing Japan Sound Portrait podcast hiatus, you can catch up with some of Nick's broadcasts from Tokyo for CIC-Live or keep up to date with the activities of MSCTY.SPACE. Production has also recently completed on the film Ghost Amber, co-produced by Neil, with further details of screenings due later in the year.  

Japan Sound Portrait

Japan Sound Portrait Podcast 47

Concluding our series of podcasts focusing on Akinobu Tatsumi's visit to the UK, we are happy to bring you a section from his performance at The Rose Hill in Brighton on Sunday 24th February - it's a rather special journey through a range of both traditional and modern sounds. Please enjoy! And with many thanks to Yolanda Liou for the picture, which was taken on the very first day of Tatsumi's visit.     

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Although beginning and ending somewhere in the vicinity of Japan, this podcast travels beyond our normal geographical boundaries in order to preview some of the artists who'll be performing alongside TA2MI on his forthcoming UK tour. The mix is inspired sequentially from the line-up for our Sound Portraits event at The Rose Hill in Brighton on Sunday 24th February http://www.therosehill.co.uk/events/2019/2/24/japan-sound-portrait https://www.facebook.com/events/1998259136955218/ thereby featuring: Nick Luscombe/Japan Sound Portrait - Monomachi Theme Simon James - OCT Meditation Bonus D/L track from Musicity 003 Shenzhen/Shanghai Moulay Ahmed Elhassani - Mi Hanna Dada, from Atlas Electric, forthcoming on Hivemind Records F.Ampism - Om Shandy khimera - Rise and Fall Sophie Brown - Live at The Bleeding Hearts Club All-Dayer You&TH - Te Voglio Bene Assaije Unknown, from Chii Poppins Nihon mix TA2MI - Mysterious Hi-Tempo amoeba - KanZeOn Xap Mo Xnok Dub before then previewing a little of our 'Thus Have I Heard: Sound and Japanese Buddhism' event at SOAS, on Saturday 2nd March https://www.soas.ac.uk/buddhiststudies/events/buddhisminsideout/02mar2019-thus-have-i-heard-sound-and-buddhism-in-japan.html https://www.facebook.com/events/307645966747046/ which will include Clive Bell talking about Buddhist aspects of the shakuhachi, as he does here.

Japan Sound Portrait Podcast 45

We are delighted to confirm the full details for Akinobu Tatsumi / TA2MI's forthcoming visit to the UK, which will include: Wednesday 20th February The Arts Institute, Plymouth - KanZeOn screening, Q&A, DJ set https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/whats-on/ta2mi-tour-uk-2019-kanzeon-and-the-hip-hop-monk https://www.facebook.com/events/522540438237169/ Friday 22nd February Falmouth Academy of Music and Theatre Arts - Live Performance, Q&A https://www.facebook.com/events/280977739248868/ Sunday 24th February Sound Portraits at The Rose Hill, Brighton - Live Performance/DJ set http://www.therosehill.co.uk/events/2019/2/24/japan-sound-portrait https://www.facebook.com/events/1998259136955218/ Saturday 2nd March Thus Have I Heard: Sound and Japanese Buddhism event at SOAS, London - Live Performance/Presentation https://www.soas.ac.uk/buddhiststudies/events/buddhisminsideout/02mar2019-thus-have-i-heard-sound-and-buddhism-in-japan.html https://www.facebook.com/events/307645966747046/ Please tell any friends you may know in any of those vicinities! --------------------------------------------------------------- We will be releasing a collection of 3 CDs of TA2MI's music that will be available at these events - his first two albums, Travel Through Worlds and TA2MIST, plus a Japan Sound Portrait compilation of his single releases to date. This podcast is a preview mix of tracks from that compilation - all are available to listen to in full at https://ta2mi.bandcamp.com/  

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Also celebrating Tatsumi's forthcoming visit to the UK, we are making the film KanZeOn available to watch online for free for the first time - Tatsumi is one of three main characters in the film, which is part documentary and part a sensory exploration of sound, so anyone wanting to find out more about his fascinating double-life as a Buddhist priest and DJ/producer can do so via the following link. https://vimeo.com/103341775 This podcast provides an introduction to the sonic character of the film, consisting of selections from remixes of the film's soundtrack by the following artists: woob dj tatsuki kidkanevil manone shinekosei TA2MI escalade as part of KanZeOn ReIndications, which is available via the following link. https://kanzeonreindications.bandcamp.com/album/kanzeon-reindications  

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Following the announcement of our forthcoming event 'Thus Have I Heard: Sound and Buddhism in Japan' http://thushaveiheard.eventbrite.co.uk/ which features the Buddhist priest and producer/DJ Akinobu Tatsumi, this podcast features a selection of Tatsumi's music. Two selections are taken from this mix of some of his more dancefloor oriented tracks by Yoshie Takahashi https://www.mixcloud.com/TA2MI/all-ta2mi-music-mix-by-yoshie-takahashi/ interspersed with an experimental entirely new track called 'Contact is Universe'. Further details will be announced shortly for other events that Tatsumi will be doing whilst he's in the UK http://ta2mi.com/          

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In this podcast we are happy to share some of the great music that we've been sent/given during the year... - starting with a remix by our friend Koichi Yuasa/japanetehq of a Japan Sound Portrait track made with Takeshi Nishimoto at last year's nowJapan Festival. - followed by a track called City (Lm version) by GOOD LUCK HEIWA, from their album Lm released at the end of 2017. http://goodluckheiwa.jp/lm/ GOOD LUCK HEIWA are Takuji Nomura on Keyboards and Daichi Ito on Drums and Whistling, and they are also part of Haruomi Hosono's touring band - we were grateful to receive their CD as everyone was saying their goodbyes following their concert at The Old Market in Brighton earlier in the year. - next is the track Doujiri by Ken Sugai. https://sugaiken.bandcamp.com/track/doujiri The image accompanying this podcast is of Ken-san, and is a fantastic modern re-creation of an important religious statue of the itinerant monk Kuya. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%ABya Where in the original image/statue there are six small statues of the Buddhist deity Amida coming from Kuya's mouth, representing the power of devotionally chanting the syllables 'na-mu-a-mi-da-butsu', Ken-san has replaced these figures with diodes, perhaps playfully suggesting the revelatory potency of experimental electronic music.  - this is followed by a track called Otomi, by Chihiro Ono. This was drawn to our attention by Neil Luck as part of a release called New Vocal Solutions on his label squib-box https://squib-box.bandcamp.com/album/new-vocal-solutions-sampler a compilation of experimental music artists working with Vocaloid technology (most famous for powering digital avatar popstar Hatsune Miku). This track hinges around a field recording of the fermentation process of  ko-ji - a natural fungus used in the process of making Sake, Miso and Soy sauce. - and finally we have some selections from a new collection of tracks we have received from TA2MI, https://ta2mi.bandcamp.com/ made in collaboration with ZUMBO. We are also delighted to announce that TA2MI will be visiting the UK for a series of performances/events in late February/early March 2019, so please watch this space for further announcements... 

Japan Sound Portrait Podcast 41

Nick meets DJ Sinta and UKD from the Tokyo Grime production duo Double Clapperz, and ONJUICY, a Grime MC also from Tokyo, during their visit to London earlier this summer. https://soundcloud.com/doubleclapperz https://onjuicy.localinfo.jp/ We already started to explore the story of Grime music in Japan in a previous interview with Elijah, Director of the UK label Butterz http://japansoundportrait.libsyn.com/japan-sound-portrait-23 and 6 weeks from now sees what promises to be a landmark event taking place in Tokyo, where Butterz will celebrate their 8th birthday alongside an Allstar line-up of artists from the Japanese grime scene and beyond https://www.facebook.com/events/247661915882943/?active_tab=about Featured tracks: Double Clapperz - Sha Ni Kamaeru - Obscure VIP - 02 Obscure (EGL VIP) Sha Ni Kamaeru - Obscure VIP - 01 EGL - Sha Ni Kamaeru feat. Ralph (Double Clapperz VIP) Thanks to Hayato Takahashi for help with arranging the interview and translation.    

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The Japan Sound Portrait podcast is a regular series by Nick Luscombe and Neil Cantwell dedicated to the sharing of the many and varied sounds from Japan - from field recordings of the countryside and the city, to music and interviews from well-known and emerging Japanese artists, as well as international artists with an interest in the subject. For more info about Japan Sound Portrait please visit http://japansoundportrait.tumblr.com/

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Japan Sound Portrait

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