AMPLIFY 2008: light

[SOZ]

Good luck with the shows, Jon. I hope you're getting somebody good to record the performance for possible future ErstLive releases.

[jon abbey]

(from a cybercafe in Kichijoji)

yep, Unami is recording everything. the hope is to come back with double CDs of material from Ami/Toshi and Keith/Sachiko for regular Erst release, plus maybe the Keith/Unami set for ErstLive, but that's a best case scenario, we'll see.

Toshi/Yamauchi tonight, first of seven straight days of music for us, pretty exciting.

[Dan Warburton]

.

[letchhausen]

I'm going to have to wait for the CD's to come out. Though this show is everything I would want in a festival, I can't afford it. I couldn't find a cheap enough airline ticket to pull this together. I'm taking two classes this semester and the costs of materials is high. The timing of this didn't work for me this year.......So, I'm green with envy for those who are going.........waaaaaahhhhh!!!!

[Dohol]

I'm going to have to wait for the CD's to come out. Though this show is everything I would want in a festival, I can't afford it. I couldn't find a cheap enough airline ticket to pull this together. I'm taking two classes this semester and the costs of materials is high. The timing of this didn't work for me this year.......So, I'm green with envy for those who are going.........waaaaaahhhhh!!!!

This is why we need photos and detailed reports by the audience...and participants if possible...



Seriously...Pics and words folks..

[Paul C]

There's a typhoon moving slowly up the country, set to hit Tokyo on Saturday...hope it doesn't mess up anyone's plans or travel!

[jon abbey]

oh, that's supposed to actually hit here now? wonderful, thanks for the alert.

the fest will go on, rain, shine or typhoon. I'm sure mr. mudd, whose plane just landed a few minutes ago, will be thrilled to learn that he's now in the path of another natural disaster.

[Dan Warburton]

.

[jon abbey]

sb=somebody? I'm sure Mark and Robert and probably Joe F. will write it up for here, but dunno if any of them are interested in doing a more formal thing for you. I actually asked Robert last night and he didn't seem too interested, I'll ask Mark when we see him in a bit. Joe is only catching two of the three nights, then he has to head back to Seoul for work, so that won't work either.

back to this semi-alleged typhoon, where are you getting your news from? the only one I see moving this way currently shouldn't end up anywhere near Tokyo. the mildly sad thing about that is now I can't make any Typhoid Mary/Typhoon Mark jokes to Mr. Flaum but I guess all in all, no typhoon is better.

[mudd]

i'm gonna write something anyway, so i guess i could send it in rather than post it.

m

[Paul C]

back to this semi-alleged typhoon, where are you getting your news from? the only one I see moving this way currently shouldn't end up anywhere near Tokyo. the mildly sad thing about that is now I can't make any Typhoid Mary/Typhoon Mark jokes to Mr. Flaum but I guess all in all, no typhoon is better.

It's on the TV news right now - Check out NHK if you get a chance. The course they're tracking is straight up the coast through Tokyo. It's down in Kyushu now, and it's big, slow-moving and very wet, though the winds aren't that bad apparently. Still a chance that it might veer off and go elsewhere.

[jon abbey]

yeah, now I see, thanks for the tip. the current status seems to be that the bulk of the rain will come between midnight and tomorrow morning, so hopefully it won't affect us too too much, we'll see.

and seriously, these storms head right for mudd. maybe it's not too late for him to fly elsewhere and divert the typhoon?

nice solo set from Toshi last night, very relaxed and inviting. Yuko is taking pix of everything, but we haven't had a chance to upload them yet.

[mudd]

that makes fucking 4 in two months. bastards!

m

[Jesse]

Maybe it's your cologne, Mark.

[jon abbey]

Toshi solo last night at Kid Ailack.

[jon abbey]

Keith and hatta practicing meditation on the subway.

[Dohol]

Keith and hatta practicing meditation on the subway.

Meditate on a Tokyo subway?!?

Damn..

[jon abbey]

well, that was a fantastic night of music, as good as I could have hoped for. details to follow at some point, food and sleep first.

[jon abbey]

and for those of you following at home, the typhoon impact was pretty underwhelming, a ton of rain overnight but beautiful and sunny now.

[mudd]

so i'm going to be writing about this at more length for dan, but i'm gonna take notes for the night here in this thread just so everybody gets a feel for what's been up.

night before last was toshi solo, which was outside the official festival but taking place in the same venue. about as different from dance music as possible, his set was a slow exploration of the full range of his current musical palette. i'd never seen him perform solo before, but in none of his existing solo releases have i heard so much variety and depth.

last night was the beginning of the festival proper. katsura yamauchi opened things up with a solo set, essentially three pieces of varying length. the first was in multiple parts, beginning with long whispery, breathy playing where he allowed the clear tones to almost, barely break free at the end of each rise. the second segment brought a little more strength to the notes but introduced a steady rhythm and chord change that really detracted from the effectiveness for me. the third part began with blustery free jazz attack but quickly drained into something similar to the second part. there was one more bit there, and then he took the horn from his mouth and accepted a moment of applause. then he launched into the second piece, a powerful sharp drone that immediately filled the entire space with sound, and our ears with delicate echoes gently that slid and slithered around the drone itself. his last piece switched to the soprano, and used a similar full-bore narrow drone but this time with a smooth tone switch that sounded nice but somewhat surrendered the effectiveness of the drone.

the second set will take a lot more work to explain, and i'm gonna save that work for a real write-up. i will say that keith has a new set-up that seems to have let him largely relinquish the structural drone in favor of a wider array of sounds and sources. it may be this gear is fully capable of the 'old style' keith rowe multi-layer assemblies, because in this set he left that aspect largely to taku unami, who brought out a great deal of neat sound from his assembly of motorized devices mounted on boards. he also as a bizarre double-necked guitar and a mandolin. taku showed he has taken what seemed like uncontrollable toys at eq ii and created an instrument of fine range, and keith showed off the capabilities of his own new (post "the room") instrument. not only that, but the performance was fantastic.

the final set was toshimaru nakamura and ami yoshida. i've already been writing way more than i intended, so i'll cut down even further. ami is utterly intense in person, but still as delicate a presence as her sound. and toshi took something of a back seat in this set, giving space where space was needed and providing momentum throughout. a very exciting pairing, and i'm really glad to have finally seen ami perform.

hrm. pretty long for a teaser. which probably means this is gonna end up really really long.

but i got to see and most of you didn't, so i guess it's only fair.

m