Installation

The Voice of Inconstant Savage
Commissioned for the Engawa – Japanese Contemporary Art Season programme organized by Calouste Gulbenkian Museum's Modern Art Center, The Voice of Inconstant Savage is an immersive installation that superimposes a prayer inspired by the story of a 16th-century Portuguese missionary, a chant from a Kakure-Kirishitan (hidden Christians) prayer – a religion rooted in Nagasaki Prefecture –, a chant from the Karawara spirits of the Awá indigenous people – who live in the Amazon rainforest – and a chorus of Western Gregorian chant. Morinaga questions the position of the aesthetics of inconstancy in relation to the discourse of the “savage” that modern society confronts.

Field recordings

Sombat Simla: Master Of Bamboo Mouth Organ
Simla is known in Thailand as one of the greatest living players of the khene, the ancient bamboo mouth organ particularly associated with Laos but found throughout East and Southeast Asia. His virtuosic and endlessly inventive renditions of traditional and popular songs have earned him the title ‘the god of khene’, and he is known for his innovative techniques and ability to mimic other instruments and non-musical sound, including, as a writer for the Bangkok Post describes, ‘the sound of a train journey, complete with traffic crossings and the call of barbecue chicken vendors’.

Cinema

Uzu
The Autumn Festival of Dogo, one of the most violent religious festivals in Japan, takes place each year in the town of Matsuyama on the island of Shikoku. From the meticulous preparation to the battle, it is above all an immersive plunge into a mysterious and abstruse ceremony reported by Gaspard Kuentz (to whom we owe notably Kings of the Wind & Electric Queens, co-direct- ed with Cédric Dupire, VdR 2014). Alternating between external and distant viewpoints – such as the women leaning on the balcony to watch – and the perspective of an on-board and subjective camera, intertwining silence into the tumult of the collective trance, Uzu builds the immersive account of an event and conserves the tension required to evoke the brutal assault. Somewhere between visual ethnography and war reporting, a sensorial choreography imbued with violence, in submission to the chief.

Field recordings

Yasuhiro Morinaga presents Field Recording Series Slamet Gundono [Surakarta, Indonesia]
Slamet Gundono [Surakarta, Indonesia]
The second edition of “Field Recording Series” by Yasuhiro Moringa has released. This edition features Jawa’s charismatic performer, Slamet Gundono. Slamet Gundono is a charismatic performer, musician, puppet shadow master. With his particular ironic sense of humor through the appreciation of traditional Indonesian culture, the unique style of his music and narration have been appreciated by local Indonesians. By his considerable influences, He received a prestigious award, Prince Clause Award in 2005. Sound designer & Music director, Yasuhiro Morinaga met with Slamet Gundono during the production of contemporary dance performance (choreography by Akiko Kitamura) in 2011. Throughout the number of discussions and communications, both Morinaga and Slamet agreed to work collaboratively in producing new recording album. With two microphones, Morinaga captured Slamet’s dynamic voice and instruments and other Indonesian local instruments such as gender or kendang etc. Because of his improvisational music style, the recording has never been replaced or re-recorded. And Morinaga decided not to edit anything during the process of post production process (certain bypass filtering and equalization during the mastering process) to enhance the real sonic environment around him and his musicians.

Installation

Trading Garden
未来のモビリティに乗って過去へサウンドスリップ ヘッドセットをしてホンダのユニカブに乗ると、アークヒルズが昭和の頃のかつての「麻布谷町」へとタイムスリップ。かつての六本木界隈を忍ばせる昭和の生活空間のサウンド、金魚売りや豆腐売りやチンドン屋の声を、実際の外音と共存させながら聴くことで、都市における聴覚文化を考える音のAR作品「Trading Garden 市場の庭」