Three performances from the Japanese underground with Hijokaidan vocalist Junko in duo with Michel Henritzi for an intense barrage of noise and total sound, the stripped back jazz guitar deconstructions of Shinichi Isohata and A Qui Avec Gabriel's solo accordian traversing pop and the avant garde.

Junko/Michel Henritzi Photo by Daniel Lowenbruck

JUNKO & MICHEL HENRITZI

Junko is one of Japan's foremost improvising vocalists and a member of long-running free-noise unit Hijokaidan (trans. Emergency Staircase). Michel Henritzi is a French guitarist and Member of Dustbreeders (noise unit with Yves Botz & Thierry delles) and Howlin’Ghost Proletarians (guitar duo with Fabrice Eglin). He runs the labels A Bruit Secret and Turtles’Dreams and has a long association with a number of musicians from Japan having played with Tetuzi Akiyama, Rinji Fukuoka, Jojo Hiroshige, Junko, Kumiko Karino, Masayoshi Urabe, Chie Mukaï, Tamio Shiraishi, Yukiko Nakamura, Fumio Kosakai, Masafumi Ezaki, Taku Sugimoto and many more.

michelhenritzi.canalblog.com



SHINICHI ISOHATA

Isohata was the last student of Masayuki "jojo" Takayanagi - one of the most important figures in Japanese free jazz and a teacher of Otomo Yoshihide and Kazuo Imai. Whilst less known than these avant garde titans, Isohata has developed a personal style, combining technical jazz, contemporary music and a reductionist 'onkyo' approach that deconstructs the jazz idiom to create his own subtle, broken jazz language.

He also performs compositions by Taku Sugimoto and Otomo Yoshihide and has performed with Xavier Charles, Quentin Dubost, Christine Shanaoui, Yvar Grydeland, Masafumi Ezaki, Reiko Imanishi and others.



A QUI AVEC GABRIEL

A Qui Avec Gabriel is female accordion player based in Tokyo. She made her debut in "UTSUHO" from John Zorn's label TZADIK in 2001 (where she joined Haino Keiji as a guest musician). She has performed solo since 2002 and improvised with various musicians and other media performers. Her second CD "Itsukushimi no ame no naka de" was released from Sachiko's (Kousokuya/Overhang Party) label 'musik atlach'.

Recently she joined new psychedelic drone unit, "Pouring High Water" that was formed by Suzuki Junzo (vocalist ,guitarist of 20guilders / miminokoto) & TOMO (hurdy-gurdy player of TETRAGRAMMATON) &Taguchi Fumihito (feedback glass).

She has released records with Makoto Kawabata of Acid Mothers Temple (on Important) and with Rinji Fukuoka (on Musik Atlatch). More recently she apperas on Michel Henritzi's solo record "Yokohama No Shadows".

She flexibly crosses the border between pop and avant-garde. Her silent improvised sound is beautiful and nostalgic like folklore, with a hidden fortitude and energy within the tenderness.