Lessons in Chichibu and Tokyo

Shakuhachi lessons at Tachikawa in Tokyo suburbs and in Chichibu (Chichibu Saitama prefecture in the mountainous countryside, 2 hours west of Tokyo) are going well. Kakizakai Sensei never runs out of wisdom and new things for me to learn and it is invaluable having high-frequency lessons concentrating on single pieces per lesson. Currently I am really trying to work on the embouchure thing that Yokoyama and his Kenshukan promote so ardently (for good reason) that produces round strong tone and flexibility for meri (lowered) pitches. Saturdays I go to the Tokyo lessons and Wednesday to Chichibu as research seminars have now ceased for the month of August for summer break. Even after practising several hours some days, the right sound is nowhere to be found. It is very difficult. The lesson in Chichibu (another tomorrow) also meant a welcome diversion into the scenic mountainous countryside by express train from Ikebukuro. The ride takes you quickly out through the sprawling suburbs to agricultural plots giving way to hillside, tea, rice and eventually mountains, occasional mining, steep embankments, mind-boggling retaining walls, groves of bamboo, rivers and steep valleys, shadowed on both sides by monster-sized mountains. Compared to Australian mountains that have lilting rounded contour often in the sandstone mountains, these were aggressively sheer rising sometimes at precipitous 80 degree angles beside the train and visibly crumbling and tumbling where mining has excavated into their sides. It is a completely different landscape from Tokyo and the Chichibu-Saitama National Park is renowned for its scenic trails and walking tours, a circuit of shrines and temples and pathways used for spiritual pilgrimages featuring many mountaintop shrines and views. I am sure that when I live there in November, I will be making a couple of these pilgrimages!





The first lesson I attended at Tachikawa had a serendipitous ending when I caught a 'mystery' bus (not the correct number but worth an experiment) and ended up in Hana-Koganei, a town that just happened to be celebrating its annual matsuri (festival) in flare, colour, noise and festivity with dancing, wheeling out huge odaiko and taiko drums into the streets that were closed for the ceremony. The striking thing about these festivals, most localities have one of some size, while Chichibu's is notoriously one of the most impressive, is that the whole community seriously engage in the activity. It must take weeks, even months for preparation. The taiko-players in Hana Koganei were professional but in many towns, the folk rehearse and prepare their playing. In this town, everybody looked harmonious in their matching outfits, some for dancers, some for carrying the portable shrine through the town, others for drumming and so on such that a real mass of colour and community was visible right down to details. People had clearly put a great deal of time into their appearances and costumes. Grandchildren, parents, grandparents were all involved, through processions, group dances, eating street food from little tents lining the side oft he village centre, painstakingly cooked skewers stretchy octopus, okonomiyaki pancakes, etc. Even family pets were dressed to comply and I was surprised by how many people brought along their dogs: why? Because it was so very loud with processional bells, gongs, transverse flutes of very bright piercing tone, maybe shinobue-like, the thundering taiko, at times concurrently and the chanting, frenzy of the cheerleaders and crowd pursuing the mobile shrine through the crowds, not to mention giggling shrieking children, the excitement of the crowd and it was generally so noisy for several hours - it must have been difficult or a little terrifying for the pets dragged along. This was my first experience of a matsuri and it was amazing to be swept up in the charged atmosphere and feel the energy of the taiko in its 'natural' or original context. It was exhilarating and really cohesive, primal.

Chris Blasdel's concert

Christopher Yohmei Blasdel's 'exTemporal' recital to commemorate 35 years of shakuhachi playing was held 90/06/07 at Tsuda Hall in Tokyo. This generous hall holds maybe 400 people, filled to capacity and with very sympathetic acoustics for shakuhachi and voice. Chris' concert revolved around the theme of extemporisation/improvisation in traditional Japanese music and contemporary, explored through dance, sculpture, voice shamisen, koto and shakuhachi with staging and lighting to complement the theatrical concept of mind/body/earth integration.

The sculpture of a human torso from anatomically accurately shaped wood cut off in shards at the limb-ends by Koji Ohno in a globe-shaped 'cage' formed the centrepiece for interactive dance by Hideo Arai with vocalist Mika Kimula (revolving around contemporary improvisation with traditional elements). Both dancer and singer vocalised a dynamic range of sounds and explored the mediation between media fused with chris' improvised shakuhachi in the piece, Sokoku Butai that concerned the "synthesis of audible and visual" through shakuhachi, dance, singing, sculpture, lighting, inspired by anatomist and morphologist Shigeo Miki (Dr/Sensei), influenced by the sensuality and spirituality embodied in the relationship between the word and the body and between the body and the natural forces of the earth. It seems reminiscent of the the philosophy of aikido. Both Kimula and Arai moved and both vocalised so the boundaries between art-forms were fused there too, interacting with the sculpture by Koji Ohno.

The first part o the programme explored a Kinko style honkyoku, and jiuta/song for shakuhachi with vocal parts by both koto and shamisen players, Yutaka Mikoya and Tohru Chiba. Chiba is a talented student of Mikoya sensei. A more contemporary improvisation originating from the myth of the giant Geruda bird was performed as a duet between shakuhachi and ryuteki, performed by Sukeyasu Shiba. Here the ryuteki is emulating the ancient mythical Garuda giant bird squealing and crying in duet with shakuhachi. The Garuda with its "intense stare and tempestuous visage" [Chris' notes] plays ryuteki - tones that pierce straight through the soul - and it does. Most personnel were connected through a long association with Chris since University days. The stage setting, lighting and projection dramatically influenced the unity and macabre shadow dance on the walls surrounding the stage, giving it a large, multi-dimensional quality that silhouetted different angles of the body and the dance.

More photos are in the flickr set.

Kenshukan shakuhachi crazy!

In the words of the sensei: "Hello shakuhachi friends!

We International Shakuhachi Kenshukan are going to have an event that is
called 'The 20th anniversary of the International Shakuhachi Kenshukan
festival in Bisei'.

Date:24th 25th and 26th August 2007
Place : Bisei town in Okayama Japan (It's the place where the 1st world shakuhachi festival was held.) (This includes 2 nights stays, 6 meals, workshops , concerts , and farewell party(s?).

Everybody who is interested in shakuhachi can attend the event. You can see(touch) real "Katsuya Yokoyama".

And there will be a lot of non-Japanese shakuachi players listed below: David Wheeler, JimFranklin, Bruce Huebner, Jinmei Linder Gunnar, Neptune Kaizan, Kiku Day, Riley Lee, Marco Lienhard
Peter Hill, Stan Richardson, Véronique Piron

And from Kenshukan : Teruo Furuya, Kazushi Matama, Kuniyoshi Sugawara, Akikazu Nakamura, Ichro Seki, Toshimitsu Ishikawa, Michiaki Okada, Yoichi Iwahashi, Kaoru Kakizakai

We are very looking forward to seeing you shakuhachi crazy.

Best regards,
Kaoru Kakizakai"

Chris Blasdel 35 years in Japan concert

I plan to attend this concert cellebrating Chris' being in Japan now for 35 years studying and playing shakuhachi!

June 9 , 2007, Tokyo
A recital to commemorate Christopher Yohmei's 35 years in Japan studying shakuhachi: 'Shakuhachi exTemporal': Exploring improvisation in comtemporary and traditional shakuhachi music
Christopher Yohmei: Shakuhachi ; Sukeyasu Shiba: Ryuteki; Mika Kimula: Voice; Yutaka Mikoya: Koto; Hideo Arai: Dance; Koji Ohno: Sculpture

Date & Time: June 9 (Sat), 6:30 PM.
Place: : Tsuda Hall (03-3402-1851). Right in front of JR, Sobu Line Sendagaya Station or subway, Oedo Line Kokuritsu Kyogijo
Admission: 4000 yen (advance sale) 4500 yen (at the door)
For information or reservations, please contact: Aura-J Office
Tel: 03-3749-3741, Fax: 03-3749-3719, Mail: info@ora-j.com

Part I: Sokoku Butai--Shakuhachi, voice and dance brings to life the impeccable sculpture of Koji Ohno.
Part II: The classics reborn in the spirit of improvisation.
Tsuki no Kyoku (Kinko style honkyoku)
Sarashi (Jiuta Sokyoku)
Night of the Garuda (contemporary duet for shakuhachi and ryuteki)

Winter Koto Concert

The Sawai International Koto School presents: Winter Koto Concert
When: Saturday 16th June 2007 7.30pm for 8pm start
Where: St Stephens Church Hall Church Street, Newtown

Koto Performers: Catherine Brown, Dwight Dowda (and Michael Field on flute), Moko Eade, Anne Grantham, Miyama McQueen-Tokita, Shoko Ono, Mizuno Oyuki, Miko Wilkin
Director: Satsuki Odamura

Admission free, Donation at door would be appreciated
Contact: Shoko Ono shoko.ono-1@uts.edu.au 0402 655 851

Raw

This afternoon I recorded Koku with passing buses and car horns [for the purposes of observation and subsequent reference]. It is still very rough but I am working on the flow and certain ornamentations to achieve greater simplicity. Hopefully, the sound will become more refined with practise. Yesterday, my double CD album of Yokoyama Katsuya 'Zen' arrived from Amazon. I am not sure why I have not this earlier! Of course it includes Koku and, in this case, played on flute-length closest to my own. My 2.1 has a 'B' fundamental and Yokoyama is using an approximate 'A#' - is that 2.2? Somehow, with so many things to think about, Koku feels very energetic when I play it but Yokoyama makes it sound perfectly serene and with superlative long phrases ...

Blue Mountains excursion

Yesterday was a beautiful crisp autumnal yet sun-filled day for Kevin [Melville] and I to take an excursion by train to Katoomba for shakuhachi lessons with Bronwyn (my first since the arrival of her new baby and hence a chance to meet Alina). Kevin was working on Honshirabe and I was struggling with Koku. It was very fruitful in terms of refreshing and learning more about the detail of the piece and its flow. I like this piece very much but I also find it the most difficult I have studied to date because of its fairly insistent intense high register and powerful, often explosive raw undercurrent while overall 'emptiness/serenity': an interesting concurrence. Technically, it contains many fine subtleties and requires utmost accuracy of pitch (of course every piece does but this one weaves around considerably). Both Kevin and I observed Bronwyn's uncanny calm and concentration despite occasional cries from Alina in the adjacent room. Overall, the composite of scenic train journey, nice Niche Nosh at the vegetarian cafe and beautiful outlook around Bronwyn's and Katoomba in general, made it a delightful one-day excursion: the seemingly long 10-hour excursion for a shak lesson turned out to be very enjoyable!

From komuso.com, "Kokû (Dokyoku) is a Koten piece from the Dokyoku school (founded by Watazumi Doso Roshi in the 1950's)" and ‘Empty Sky’ is a ubiquitous translation of Koku. This piece, transmitted through the Watazumi/Yokoyama lineage of shakuhachi, is one of many versions of 'Empty Sky', which is one of a trilogy of the oldest and venerated honkyoku, the other two being ‘Empty Bell’, and ‘Flute on the Misty Ocean,’ i.e. (in the Fuke set repertoire): Kyorei, Mukaiji, and Koku. These works are collectively referred to as the Koden Sankyoku. They are respected as the oldest works and transmitted in all branches of shakuhachi playing. "The work is in three part form: calm-movement-calm. Even though it is a very long piece it is very well organized. In each part various techniques are developed. According to legend, Kyochiku (literally, ‘empty bamboo’), a Zen priest who founded the Myoan temple in Kyoto in the thirteenth century, fell asleep while practicing shakuhachi inside the temple at Ise. He dreamed of a solitary boat floating on a misty sea and heard a strange sound from the heavens. As the mist gradually disappeared, another sound reached his ears. Awakened, he immediately transcribed the mysterious sounds into the sounds of his bamboo instrument, thus creating three pieces: Koku (Empty sky or ‘Vacuity’), Kyorei (Empty bell), and Mukaiji (Misty Sea)."

Apropos tone production [and requisite emptiness] "let go of sound and focus on the process" [Bronwyn]

Kevin (silhouette with the Eucalypts) and Bronwyn. The colour and resolution of these images look much better at Flickr.

Easter holidays in Oberon

I am fortunate to be able to 'escape' for breaks to the country. My intention was to practice [shakuhachi] quite a bit but naturally the scenic surroundings also caught my attention, ranging from the prolific wood fungus growing on sawn-off pines while running in the forest to the wind farm at Blayney driving to Cowra, small country villages in drought-stricken rural NSW, the autumnal colours of changing poplars and red deciduous trees and gorgeously alive sounds of frogs, birds and other wildlife on the farm.

Cowra Japanese Garden in NSW, Australia

With Mum and Dad, I took a (nearly 3 hour one-way) drive through country NSW from Oberon to to Cowra Japanese Gardens. Designed by Ken Nakajima in 1971, opening 1979, the gardens commemorate the Cowra POW breakout and long association of Cowra with Japanese immigrants to Australia. Somehow this deplorable time in Australia's history has been transformed into something very beautiful. In addition to the stroll garden pictured, there is a rock (and pebble) meditation garden, bonsai house, pottery and in season a Sakura Matsuri! www.cowrajapanesegarden.com.au/ and more photos here Flickr/

Running and walking around Sydney Harbour

I recently started running again (and sometimes walking), mostly in the early mornings. This is supposed to increase my phrase-length on shakuhachi! I am very fortunate that this often takes me to some of the most picturesque locations on Sydney Harbour's northern foreshore. For the benefit of my overseas friends, I am including here some pictures from around Lavender Bay, Milsons Point and Kirribilli. Other times, I run down to the water at Balls Head Reserve in Waverton and Berry Island Reserve in Wollstonecraft, incorporating a very hilly but scenic course including many natural bush regeneration areas and quiet roads. In Oberon, I ran in the paddocks and along dirt forestry roads through the pine trees and sheep (and managed not to disappear down a wombat hole!)

Suburban soiree

This afternoon at Kevin's leafy suburban home with magpie and lorikeet accompaniment we had green tea, a short ro-buki practice and I played Shingetsu before we exchanged experiences and progress over lunch at sushi-ya. Shingetsu was one of the pieces we started learning at the Hawaii Shak Festival taught by Furuya, Matama and Kakizakai. It is the first piece I have studied using komibuki wave-like pulsating effect. This piece about mind/spirit or enlightenment and other-worldiness as encapsulated by the moon. Furuya told us to think of a tranquil lake with the gentle rippling reflecting the moon-rays. It has to be so simple and transparent that it is very difficult. I like very much listening to my two recordings of this piece by Furuya and Kakizakai because they are so different yet both so beautiful: Furuya maintaining the gentle pulsating and a certain lyricism; Kakizakai drops the komibuki technique altogether in order to capture the exquisite purity and sincerity without any form of ornamentation, breathtakingly serene in the high soft passages. This is taking me a long time to gain enough control to emulate the gentle high register in a very understated way.

It is quite encouraging and motivating to get together.

Hyper-shaku at Creativity and Cognition '07

Written with Sam Ferguson, our paper, Gestural Hyper Instrument Collaboration with Generative Computation for Real Time Creativity has been selected for the Creativity and Cognition Conference (Seeding Creativity: Tools, Media, and Environments) in Washington D.C. with keynote speakers Mitchell Resnick from MIT Media Lab and Thecla Schiphorst from Simon Fraser University. We are quite chuffed because only 24 papers were chosen. Sam will present the paper as I will be in Japan at that time. This paper describes an environment for creative engagement utilising idiomatic musical performance gestures and expression to elicit responsive generative augmentation of audio and visual delivery. The system employs artificial biological systems to generate new artistic material meshed with musical performance. The generative process is triggered and moderated by the gestural interaction of the human performer (sensed by motion captors, computer vision and computer hearing). The model’s scalability and modularity enable different generative processes to be interchanged to explore the affect of their interaction with each other and responsiveness to the performer. Technical implementation is demonstrated in the environment, Hyper-Shaku.

Nihongo Kurasu

Of course I finally have to try to learn Japanese language! In the holidays I spent two weeks in an intensive beginners class (Continuing Education at Sydney University) and 3 weeks ago we started level 1 following on. The virtues of non-declining verbs, 2 tenses, absence of singular and plural are just wonderful compared with the European languages I have studied previously. I guess the script and particles are going to make up for it but so far very fun with our invigorating teacher, Mayumi Sensei. So far just meet & greet, endless different techniques for counting of different objects, shopping terminology, business hours, cards, professions, transportation. The teaching is very inspiring.

Youkobo Art Space Tokyo Residency

Youkobo Art Space is located in metropolitan Tokyo, 15km west from the city centre, near to Kichijoji Station. It consists of a gallery space, 2 studios and 2 apartments, one each Japanese and Western style equipped with heating, appliances, cooking utensils, LAN Internet access, a bicycle, etc. The co-directors are Hiroko (sculptor) and Tatsuhiko Murata who have welcomed over 70 artists of 15 different nationalities since founding Youkobo Art Space in 1984. Youkobo Art Space's primary objective is to support and enhance the creativity of artists by offering opportunities for artistic investigation on urban issues in a contemporary Japanese setting. Its various programs are committed to providing the local community with creative stimulus by promoting cultural exchange between international artists and local citizens. I have been invited from December '07 to January '08 to undertake two proposed projects: a responsive sound & video design performance environment; and composition of a shakuhachi and koto double concerto integrating traditional and contemporary idioms. The responsive sound & video design performance environment, InterTOKYO will use real time generative music, images and sound collected in the Tokyo neighbourhood and sounds derived from shakuhachi original sounds together with gesture tracking computer vision and wireless sensing to trigger exploration by subtle gestures of the shakuhachi performer. In the end, the piece is intended for multimedia performance in 2008 World Shakuhachi Festival but I will trial performance at Youkobo, where it should be a thought-invoking locative piece to facilitate community engagement. Collecting its material involves photographic, audio recording and video exploration of the neighbourhood, following the theme of 'finding Zen in modern Japan', a junction epitomised by Tokyo, examining the clash/fusion/collaboration/complementarity/co-existence of the Traditional and technology, assimilating the physical and digital in an aesthetic environment. In preparation for the composition, I hope to collaborate with and seek advice from Kakizakai and to audit some traditional music sessions at the Tokyo Geijitsu Daigaku (Tokyo University of Fine Arts), recommended to me by Tom Heneghan at work [his former University].

Zen priests of nothingness on ABC Radio National

Geoff Wood will broadcast a documentary in his Encounter series on ABC Radio National (Australia) featuring the background and music of the komuso monk. Inspired by his visit to Myoanji Fukuji Temple of Light and Darkness in Kyoto, where the remaining monks in the tradition of the mendicant Fuke sect remain, Wood visited guided by Kyoto shakuhachi master, Kurahashi sensei. The radio program will include Katsuya Yokoyama (Tokyo), Yoshio Kurahashi (Kyoto), Ronnie Nyogetsu Seldin (New York), Christopher Yohmei Blasdel (Tokyo) and Riley Lee (Sydney). 'Zen Priests of Nothingness': Sunday 1 April 2007, 7:10am; repeated 4 April, 7:10pm. This program will be online for MP3 download for 4 weeks following the broadcast at http://www.abc.net.au/rn/encounter/. Accompanying the radio documentary is a special edition of 'The Rhythm Divine' on Friday 30 March, 7:35pm featuring Katsuya Yokoyama and Riley Lee. [...this information is courtesy of the Japan Foundation Sydney 'Omusubi' newsletter]

Youngest member of the shakuhachi community

Congratulations to Bronwyn and Gary for the birth of Alina Grace on 21 January at home. Alina commenced pre-natal shakuhachi listening practice months ago.

Kaidan

Last night, Judith and I went to see Kaidan, a Ghost Story, performed by Taikoz, Riley Lee with Meryl Tankard's contemporary dance direction, at Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre. The advertising photos do not do justice to the complex blend of rear projection, front projection on translucent curtains, integrated Taikoz players on stage mingling themselves and their instruments amongst wispy dancers and puppet-like mystery. Rather than being scary, the seasonal progression through a loose narrative and bizarre mix of humans and insectoid creatures, was disturbing, at times tortured and uneasy. I don't know much about dance but the lithe skill of the dancers seemed very intriguing and subtle. Riley shaved off his hair(!) and looked like a sincere monk in his earthy-toned kimono. J & I really like this new look and it is much better for seeing the shakuhachi embouchure (normally hidden under his caterpillar moustache!). The sets were minimalistic, rather using lighting, a sequence of video-projection (sometimes too intrusive and obvious for my taste) with fluttering objects, flowing costumes, occasional suspended scenes for dancers and different planes on the stage. Taikoz, as usual, were excellent. An ambient-like elctroacoustic backing track was composed by Tim Constable while the Taikoz music composition/direction was designed by Ian Cleworth and Taikoz. These meshed well and frequently relaxed to make space for sonorous tones of Riley's 1.8 and bigger flutes or occasional the piercing Nookan, a kind of big fue/shinobue with equally intense tone.

Whilst mostly derivative of Japanese origins (such as the black-dressed stage assistants in kabuki, the established genre of ghost stories in Japan and Japanese puppetry - bunraku), some inter-cultural influences included Buddhist temple bells, Chinese Peking Opera gongs, marimbas and metallophones and Burmese bells, lending to the eclectic stylistic ensemble. The title stems from the Japanese ghost story, Of a Mirror and a Bell from Irish author Lafcadio Hearn's collected translations. The mirror is said to reflect a woman's soul and here, the woman's life disintegrates as she gives away her mirror. Her eventual sadness and hopelessness leads her to suicide, the curse signalled by a constantly tolling bell, subsequently sunk at the bottom of a river. The story opens and closes with the river, the source of the spirit and the story, perhaps. Very interesting show.

Discovered new shak prac spot ...

David introduced me to one of his favourite bushwalks that is conveniently located very close to home on Middle Harbour, ranging from the hilltop with Eucalypts, numerous wildflowers and lizards to the shoreline, rimmed with oysters, perch swimming in the shallow waters, mangroves, stingrays, sandstone ledges overhanging the gentle lapping of waves and the rushing sound of wind through the casurina trees. It is a little 5km loop. By midday the cacophony of cicadas was ubiquitous but I intend to return to practice in the early morning.

Asialink Performing Arts Residency

[It doesn't rain ... it pours]. I received news that my Asialink Performing Arts Residency application was successful, to spend 3 months in Asia. I applied to do composition and interaction design at the Future University in Hakadote, Sapporo Island of Japan. [It looks like there may be some change to the host institution arrangement so I may take it up in Tokyo and Chichibu, with the possibility of including an additional Asian country]. I hope to catch the Chichibu Yomatsuri (Night Festival: floats, fireworks, Kabuki performances, a portable shrine, flutes and taiko drums). The objectives of this residency are to combine 3 activities: composing a new acoustic major work for shakuhachi and ensemble; studying shakuhachi playing with Kakizakai; and developing responsive electro-acoustic interactive music for shakuhachi with sensors driving sonic augmentation and live visualisation display. There is some time to refine the plan and destination institutions. Tom Heneghan at work has advocated his old University - Tokyo Geijitsu Daigaku [Tokyo University of Fine Arts] - and I would like to learn more about traditional Japanese music including Nagauta [Kabuki music] and the Kinko tradition of shakuhachi. This is a nice creative complement to the Matsumae science research fellowship. This will probably take place at the end of 2007, running into 2008. My Asialink Performing Arts Residency program is funded by the Australia Council and NSW Ministry for the Arts, organised by Asialink at the University of Melbourne.

Kevin's Master's Recital

This evening, Kevin [Man] gave his first recital in the Master's Degree on shakuhachi at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Kevin is paving the way as the first shakuhachi major at SCM with teacher, Riley Lee. He performed a folksong arrangement for solo shakuhachi, Rokudan, E-mu and San'ya, the latter on his new 2.4 shakuhachi in the reverberant small recital hall underground at Macquarie Street. It was quite sympathetic to shakuhachi. Shoko Ono played koto in the two chamber pieces. [Kevin is best known for his performance in Taikoz and Karak ensembles playing percussion]. Gambatte Kevin!

Matsumae International Foundation Research Fellowship

Today, I learned that my application for a Matsumae International Foundation research fellowship was successful. I applied to spend 3 months hosted by Professor Hori at Tokyo University's Artificial intelligence Lab in 2007. The lab is 2 stops from Shibuya on the subway. This will take place over summer (mid-year). Apart from developing my generative responsive environment for gestural interaction research [Hyper-Shaku augmented audio-visual shakuhachi with biologically-inspired models of computational creativity], this opportunity will afford me the chance to pursue shakuhachi lessons with Kakizakai, both in Tokyo and hopefully also visiting Chichibu. I have further developed the research ideas that use camera tracking [computer vision] and computer listening to respond to the chin movement of shakuhachi gestures and intensity and noisiness fluctutations to trigger a group of generative musical and video processes, including the grain characteristics of the granular synthesis engine, thresholds and triggers for a Neural Oscillator Network and video interoplated motion. Progress this far has just been submitted in a conference paper and will contribute to the understand of gestural interaction towards my ARC grant [Gestural Interaction with Aesthetic Information Sonification]. During the fellowship, I hope to integrate IRCAM WiSeBox wireless motion captors as used in Fluid Velocity sensorbike exhibition and cultivate more musical responsiveness, gestural sensitivity and textural variation.

Bronwyn’s shak+koto concert

Sound of Japan: An evening of Shakuhachi and Koto
Bronwyn Kirkpatrick + Miyama McQueen-Tokita + Shoko Ono
Friday 1st December 2006, 8.00pm
The Old Darlington School, The University of Sydney

The programme included contemporary compositions: Shikyoku ichi ban (Poeme 1) by Taezo Matsumura (1969); E-mu (Picture Dream) by Hideaki Kuribayashi (1976); Dosei (Voices of the Earth) by Hikaru Sawai (1991); Rin by Hikaru Sawai (2000); Sanka (Song of Praise) by Tadao Sawai (1978); and Futatsu no den-en-shi (Two Pastorals) by Katsutoshi Nagasawa (1973); an arrangement of a traditional silk-pounding song as rhythmical koto duet, Godan Ginuta by Mitsuzaki Kengyo (1853); and the traditional honkyoku shakuhachi solo, Koku.

Shak-blog moved ...

[I have moved the shak-blog from dot-mac to this blogspot due to persistent software glitches using iWeb and tedium of unreliable wysiwyg code editing environments].

Other aspects of travelblog, travel photo-libraries and podcasting remain @ Kirsty Beilharz dot-mac web site (podcasts, travel) but the shakuhachi blog future's here for a while ...

Photos ranging from shakuhachi, shakuhachi camps, geeky, the farm, Japan trip photos, etc. are @ My photos on Flickr