We Don't Care About Music Anyway...

From radical turntablism (Otomo Yoshihide) to laptop music innovation (Numb), via classical instrument hijacking (Sakamoto Hiromichi), Tokyo's avant-garde music scene is internationally known for its boldness.

While introducing some of the greatest musicians of this scene, the film "We Don't Care About Music Anyway..." offers a kaleidoscopic view of Tokyo, confronting music and noise, sound and image, reality and representation, documentary and fiction. This three day festival presents concerts from 5 of the people/groups featured in the film including performances both nights from Otomo Yoshihide.

DAY ONE: 21 MARCH 2011 - FILM SCREENING / Q&A / L?K?O (DJ SET)

This three day festival kicks off on day one with a screening of the film and Q&A with director Cedric Dupire alongside a musical selections from the Tokyo underground and a DJ set by L?K?O.

DAY TWO: 22 MARCH 2011 - L?K?O / KIRIHITO / UMI NO YEAH / OTOMO YOSHIHIDE

KIRIHITO 
Kirihito is, before Europe favorites Melt Banana and Nisen- nenmondai, the most infamous post-punk band in Japan. A vigorous and totally engaging live band, Kirihito formed in 1994 as the duo of Ken Takahisa and C.O.B. Ken plays synth/casio tone with his feet while playing guitar and singing. C.O.B.'s drumming is also an acrobatic spectacle pounding out the rhythms of their joyous, danceable tunes whilst stood behind an array of drums. 

UMI NO YEAH
Their name might translate roughly as Beach House, but these guys offer something rather different to their American counterparts - a seaside resort noise act, telling us a story of Bikini (Shimazaki Tomoko) and Aloha (Kirihito front man Takehisa Ken), aliens coming from outer space to discover the sea. The weird mix of Aloha's cheap synth tunes and powerful guitar drones with the guitar-hero like strip-tease performance of Bikini is, above what words can say, one of the must-see Tokyo underground noise music acts.

L?K?O 
L?K?O is a turntablist, taking in all kinds of music. He has performed with Moodman, Original Love and ooioo as well as Keiji Haino. 

DAY THREE: 23 MARCH 2011 - OTOMO YOSHIHIDE / SAKAMOTO HIROMICHI

OTOMO YOSHIHIDE (Guitar / Turntable / Electronics)
Using modified turntables with or without records, self-made oscillators and guitars, Otomo Yoshihide solo performance can take many shapes from minimal contemporary compositions to pure noise improvisation sets. Using almost no effects, he concentrates on total control over ma- nipulation of feedback and electric signal, always bringing to audiences a virtuoso demonstration of sound physics and how it interacts with the human body. Listening to a solo performance of Otomo Yoshihide is always a unique experience, a physical encounter with the limits of our own bodies and understanding of music paradigms.

Otomo Yoshihide spent his teenage years in Fukushima, about 300 kilometers north of Tokyo. Influenced by his father, an engineer, Otomo began making electrical devices such as a radio and an electronic oscillator. In junior high school, his hobby was making sound collages using open-reel tape recorders. This was his first experience creating music. Soon after entering high school he formed a band which played rock and jazz, with Otomo on guitar. It wasn't long, however, before he became a free jazz aficionado, listening to artists like Ornette Coleman, Erick Dolphy and Derek Bailey; and hearing music, both on disk and at concerts, by Japanese free jazz artists. Especially influenced by alto sax player Kaoru Abe and guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi, Otomo decided to play free jazz.

In 1990, Otomo started what was to become Ground Zero. Until it disbanded in March 1998, the band was at the core of his musical creativity, while it underwent several changes in style and membership. Since Ground Zero, Otomo has embraced minimal improvisation, film music and the jazz/big band conceptions of his New Jazz Quartet/Quintet/Orchestra.

SAKAMOTO HIROMICHI (Cello) 
A radical and lyrical performer, Sakamoto Hiromichi uses voices and musical saws (among other things) in addition to his customary cello and uses various effects, bumping and thumping, scrubbing in order to pursue and broaden his instrument's possibilities - going so far as to use an electric drill or a grinder, producing sparks. 

Besides performing solo improvisations, he collaborates with many other musician as well as people from other genres of art, such as movie, theater, the fine art, photography, butoh, and street performance. His activities are eclectic, crossing boundaries. He released a disc of solo works "zero-shiki" (1999) and participates in Pascals and Shibusa-shirazu. He has also played together with UA, Otomo Yoshihide, Uchihashi Kazuhisa, Keiji Haino, Lars Hollmer, and many others. 

 

Admission:£5 adv / £6 on the door (film screening) £10 adv / £12 on the door (concerts)