Tetuzi Akiyama specializes in creating music with elements of both primitivism and realism by connecting his own aspirations, in a minimal and straightforward way, to the special instrumental qualities of the guitar. Sometimes delicately and sometimes boldly, he controls sound volumes ranging from micro to macro, in an attempt to convert the body into an electronic entity.
His sound owes just as much to the country blues guitarists of the '30s as it does to his well known involvement in Tokyo’s improvising community. Akiyama takes the blues form into a new world of minimalist improvisation sidestepping both folk and improv clichés.
"Akiyama seems capable of speaking in no voice other than his own." Dusted Magazine
DAY ONE - 17 October '10 - Akiyama (solo), Forsyth (solo), Akiyama/Forsyth (duo) » BUY TICKETS FOR DAY ONE
Chris Forsyth
Chris Forsyth is known for hypnotic compositions and solo performances on 6- and 12-string guitars that assimilate minimalism and psychedelia with art rock, folk, and blues influences. He has performed widely in Europe and the US, having toured with such like-minded artists as Träd Gräs och Stenar, Steve Gunn, Ignatz, and Es. He is a founding member (with Jaime Fennelly and Fritz Welch) of gothic junk folk expressionists Peeesseye, and a member of the elusive experimental group Phantom Limb & Bison. Other notable collaborators have included guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama, trumpeter Nate Wooley, singer and songwriter Meg Baird, and choreographers Miguel Gutierrez and RoseAnne Spradlin.
"It's enough to signal Forsyth's arrival as an erudite and farsighted guitar stylist, mapping a path that's hip and scholarly in equal measure." - Daniel Spicer, The Wire Magazine
"A destructible charm teetering on violence and elegance" - Eric Weddle (Family Vineyard), Signal to Noise Magazine
"...a style as mesmerizing and transcendent as any of his forebears." - Bob Bannister, TimeOutNY
DAY TWO - 18 October '10 - Forsyth/Tomlinson (duo), Akiyama/Wright/Lambert (trio) » BUY TICKETS FOR DAY TWO
RICK TOMLINSON (guitars)
Rick Tomlinson released his critically-acclaimed second full length album under the name 'Voice of the Seven Thunders' earlier this year on Tchantinler Recordings / Holy Mountain Records. Tomlinson's records are typically difficult to classify and have so far covered plenty of ground - from fractured acoustic songs and electronic drone experiments to wavy Eastern fuzz and krautrock-inspired jams.
SEYMOUR WRIGHT
Noted british saxophonist and regular of Eddie Prevost's weekly workshops. Wright's excellent disc of solo saxophone improvisations 'Seymour Wright of Derby' is available for free download from his website here: www.seymourwright.com
ROSS LAMBERT
Ross Lambert is an improvising musician performing on: guitars, pipe, voice, dictaphone, pocket trumpet and other vibrating and magnetic sources. He is also involved in performance and performance art, film music, sound design, broadcasting, writing and facilitating or producing regular creative events. Recent ventures include the experimental jazz trio 'Sum' (cogito ergo) with Eddie Prevost and Seymour Wright. Lambert is co-founder, producer and programmer of the collaborative ongaku:enjoy_sound (http://www.ongakusound.com) concert series running since 2002 and a regular of the influential weekly improvisation workshop, inaugurated late 1999, by Eddie Prevost in London.
