Session 2 - Koenjihyakkei
This Wednesday
night at 7:30, our prog-rock concert video series will continue on the big
video wall in the E14 atrium with a selection of live performance
excerpts from the Japanese Zeuhl band Koenjihyakkei.
Prog rock of all
genres has, to put it mildly, a strong following in Japan. Obscure
European prog bands who can barely fill a club at home
can sell out large venues in Tokyo. A few years ago, for example, I
attended a show there by the 70's Italian band "New Trolls" where
3000-plus Japanese concertgoers were actually singing along with the songs in
Italian.
Magma, the French
band featured last Wednesday, have considerable
influence over several Japanese musicians. Perhaps the strongest example
of this is in the music of Yoshida Tatsuya, especially in his Koenjihyakkei incarnation.
But Yoshida doesn't just copy Magma here - he distills Magma's most
intense essence, then holds it over a musical bunsen burner until it's jacked
it up to 11 and stays there. Gone is the dynamic contour of Magma's music
- Koenjihyakkei don't relent until they pound a cognitive hole in
your auditory cortex, but this is OK as it gets to a really interesting place.
Koenjihyakkei (高円寺百景 - sometimes translated as the "Hundred Sights of Koenji")
are facetiously named after the nondescript suburb of Tokyo where Yoshida once
lived and is quite fond of. The band has been in on-and-off existence
since 1991, with their first CD released in 1994. The musicianship in
this band is always extremely strong. Yoshida himself is probably one of
the top drummers in the world now - his resume includes stints with major
European prog bands (e.g., Gong, Samla Mammas Manna, etc.) and probably nearly
every edgy prog-rock and avant-jazz artist in Japan. His performances are
amazing and sometimes balance on the verge of what's physically possible (for
example, I've seen him capably play drums, guitar, and keyboard at the same
time).
Koenjihyakkei's music involves chanting
choral vocals, much as with Magma - they similarly don't sing in their native
Japanese, but rather utter nonsensical phrases. They don't have Magma's
penchant for long, epic pieces - their songs tend to be only 5-10 minutes long.
This provides a good opportunity to select a sampling of their music for
Wednesday that spans their career by drawing from the 4 DVD's they have
released over the last decade - Live at Star Pine's Cafe (2002), Live at Doors
(2006), 070531 (2008) and Live at Koenji High (2010). You will see their
music evolve considerably - the early pieces indeed channel extreme moments of
Magma, while the later works tend more strongly to free or avant-fusion jazz.
Koenjihyakkei are distributed in the US
through Skin Graft Records, who host an informative website at:
http://www.skingraftrecords.com/bandhtmlpages/koenjipg.html
Yoshida Tatsuya is amazingly active and
prolific, and runs many different bands and musical projects - his most famous
is probably Ruins (a duet with bassist Sasaki Hisashi that sounds
amazingly full), but a real favorite of mine is Korekyojin (featuring the
awesome guitarist from Bondage Fruit, Kido Natsuki) - perhaps we'll
feature them on a future video night. You can find out more about
Yoshida's work at:
http://www5e.biglobe.ne.jp/~ruins/eng/index.html
The Japanese edgy prog/jazz scene tends to be
highly recombinant, and frequent musical dalliances between players in
different bands are common. Since Yoshida Tatsuya, Koenjihyakkei's
founder and leader, tends to be at the center of this scene, many astounding
Japanese musicians have passed through Koenjihyakkei's ranks. For
example, the Live at Doors DVD features one of my favorite keyboard players in
Japan, Kanazawa Miyako (her own band, Le Silo will be covered in a video night
later this term). The "070531" DVD showcases an all-star cast,
including composer/keyboardist/producer Hoppy Kamiyama (Zappa fans shouldn't
miss his recent "A meaningful meaningnessless" CD, plus he ran the
"God Mountain" label), Akihisa Tsuboy (incredible violinist - a
future video night may feature his own band KBB), Imahori Tsueneo (guitarist
for one of the most important Japanese avant-prog bands who pioneered this
quirky style, Tipographica), and keyboardist Ishibashi Eiko (her solo work is
wonderfully eccentric). The reed player for most of Koenjihyakkei's
career is Komori Keiko - she also plays in one of Japan's craziest big bands, Shibusashirazu
(also a perfect candidate for a future showing in this series).
So I look forward to seeing those of you on
Wednesday who dare to take the Koenjihyakkei challenge
- 2 hours of Japanese prog extremism will make us a better community.
Next Wednesday (March 16) will also feature a
Japanese band - this time Kenso, who are a little more "mainstream"
although no less intense....
===================================================
Joe Paradiso (Spring 2011)