concrete

Current
The Voice of Inconstant Savage
[Commissioned Work] This multifaceted, polyphonic and immersive sound installation by Yasuhiro Morinaga establishes a historical encounter between Portuguese culture and Japan, memories and myths that remain and coexist with other cultures of the Amazon. Commissioned for the Engawa – Japanese Contemporary Art Season programme , The Voice of Inconstant (2023) 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’.

Event/Workshop
For a Friend, To a friend, …
This piece is dedicated to two Indonesian art masters, Gunawan Maryanto, who died in 2021, one of Indonesia's most prominent poets, with whom Morinaga worked on several projects, and Bambang Mbesur, a vocal artist who died in 2020. The texts were created for the sonic theater project “Gong ex Machina”, by Yasuhiro Morinaga and Yudi Ahmad Tajudin. It is recommended to use headphones while listening to the piece. --TEXT 1 Be my back I am a turtle traveling in time The pounding gong composes the body we inhabit Composing the islands we live in Composing I Composing you. The vibration of the sound harbors the memories of a far and lengthy travel That pounding gong Reverberating time TEXT 2 in the beginning was sound. A bang: be! And then, vibration, a long hum that creates a wave Creating space, and also: time And then nebula, partly clumping up, hardening, becoming planet. Add infinite numbers of planets, add trillions of galaxies. And among them all a little dot, so little it is insignificant: Earth: Us In the beginning was sound A bang and a long hum that create everything within seven days TEXT 3 “Do you hear me? Do you really hear me? Do you understand me? Do you really understand me?” Track List: Javanese instrument, Gender for Ruwatan rituals [recorded in Yogyakarta, Indonesia] Voice by Gunawan Maryanto & Rizman Putra [recorded in Tokyo, Japan] Threshing by Ede-Bih Group [recorded in Dak Lak, Vietnam] Meras Gandrung by Haidi, the Osing Group [recorded in Banyuwangi, Indonesia] Saggeypo by Kalinga Group [recorded in Luzon, Philippines] Pinwheel by Ede group [recorded in Buon Ma Thuot, t, Vietnam]

Cinema
Siege – A Closed Off Man
In 1935, the First High School (旧制第一高等学校) was relocated from Hongo to Komaba, where the students were separated from others and enhanced their homogeneity as First High School students by holing up on the campus. However, in an increasingly intense World War II, it was no longer possible to maintain the identity of the First High School. In the consciousness of a student, “I”, who has been devoting himself to research in a desire to identify with the First High School students, the image of First High School in the Komaba Campus era appears.