TOKiMONSTA
Works:#17 Shortcomings
Born and raised in the South Bay area of Los Angeles, TOKiMONSTA(Jennifer Lee) was an unfocused pupil of classical piano. However, she has come to use this background to create vast textural soundscapes through utilizing live instruments, percussion, digital manipulation, and dusty noise. Through her musical creations, she is able to fuse vintage sounds with progressive styles into something unique.
Her music has been recognized and praised by the very best in avant-garde and mainstream media. TOKiMONSTA has been featured on various large scale international radio programs such as: BBC Radio1, NPR, BBC World Service, J Wave, Studio Brussels, Radio Nova, KCRW, KEXP, to name a few. Subsequently, she has been featured in print by SPIN, Dazed and Confused, DJ Mag, Pitchfork, XLR8R, URB, Paper, LA Times, and more. LA Weekly ranked her as 2010’s #1 female DJ in Los Angeles. Additionally, Resident Adviser did a full feature on her for “Breaking Through”, a RA series which focuses on the next big emerging artist.
Not only has she caught ears of many as a different dimension of Los Angeles-based music, TOKiMONSTA is notably the first female to join crew/label BRAINFEEDER headed by Flying Lotus-celebrated as the most exciting LA music label by LA Weekly. In addition, she is also a 2010 Red Bull Music Academy alumni, allowing her to join the ranks of other elite taste maker alumni.
Her live performance is engaging as well as intricate―using a laptop, other pieces of instrumentation and multimedia to orchestrate a truly interactive experience. She is a fearless and energetic performer who tours regularly around the world from LA to NY, London to Tel Aviv, Singapore to Tokyo.
http://www.tokimonsta.com/
Ryoji Ikeda
Works:#16 espoir
born in 1966 in Gifu, Japan
live and work in Paris, France
Japan’s leading electronic composer and visual artist Ryoji Ikeda focuses on the essential characteristics of sound itself and that of visuals as light by means of both mathematical precision and mathematical aesthetics. Ikeda has gained a reputation as one of the few international artists working convincingly across both visual and sonic media. He elaborately orchestrates sound, visuals, materials, physical phenomena and mathematical notions into immersive live performances and installations.
Alongside of pure musical activity, Ikeda has been working on long-term projects: 'datamatics' (2006-) consists of various forms such as moving image, sculptural, sound and new media works that explore one's potentials to perceive the invisible multi-substance of data that permeates our world. The project 'test pattern' (2008-) has developed a system that converts any type of data - text, sounds, photos and movies into barcode patterns and binary patterns of 0s and 1s, which examines the relationship between critical points of device performance and the threshold of human perception. The series 'spectra' (2001-) is large-scale installations employing intense white light as a sculptural material and so transforming public locations in Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona and Nagoya where versions have been installed.
With Carsten Nicolai, Ikeda works a collaborative project 'cyclo.' (2000- ), which examines error structures and repetitive loops in software and computer programmed music, with audiovisual modules for real-time sound visualization, through live performance, CDs and books (Raster-noton, 2001, 2011).
He performed and exhibited worldwide including Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne; MIT, Boston; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Sónar Festival Barcelona; Tate Modern, London; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Auditorium Parco della Musica, Roma; lCC, Tokyo; Art Beijing; Göteborg Biennale; Mutek Festival, Mexico; Le Fresnoy, Tourcoing; Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media; Le Laboratoire, Paris; Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo; Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; Singapore art Museum; Crossing the Line Festival, New York; Ars Electronica Center, Linz; Grec Festival, Barcelona; Aichi Triennale, Nagoya; Palazzo Grassi, Venezia; Armory Park Avenue, New York; Barbican Center, London; Museo de Arte, Bogota; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; Laboral, Gijon; Festival d’Automne,Paris, as well as electronic music festivals and small DJ clubs.
His albums +/- (1996), 0°C (1998), matrix (2000), dataplex (2005) and test pattern (2008) - pioneered a new minimal world of electronic music through his razor-sharp technique and aesthetics. His work matrix won the Golden Nica Award at Ars Electronica in 2001.
http://www.ryojiikeda.com/
shimmy
Works:#15 leaf for fukushima
"shimmy" (Guitarist/Bassist) is a nickname and stage name.
shimmy has been performing with many artists not only in Japan but internationally for live performances and recordings including MI-GU, THE CORNELIUS GROUP, if by yes, Plastic Ono Band, Mike Watt, Nels Cline and many others. Shimmy often performs with internationally acclaimed artists such as Yoko Ono, David Byrne, Lou Reed and Ryuichi Sakamoto; those who are also his own musical influences.
Keith Kenniff
Works:#14 a word I give
Composer Keith Kenniff started playing drums, guitar and bass at an early age. His musical path eventually led him to the prestigious Berklee College of Music, where he graduated with honors in 2006 with a B.A. in percussion. In 2001 Keith began writing ambient electronic music under the moniker Helios, and has since released six albums. He also records quiet contemplative solo piano music as Goldmund, and is one half of the electronic / indie rock project Mint Julep, together with his wife, Hollie. Keith also composes music for film and television, featured regularly on programs for the BBC, NPR and various feature films and commercials.
Yoshitomo Nara
Works:#13 studio days
Yoshitomo Nara is well known for his drawings, paintings and sculptures of children and animals sporting adult expressions, provocative stances and salty vocabularies. His mixed-media paintings, sculptures and doodle-like drawings on the backs of envelopes combine musical references with iterations of kawaii, or cute. Not only does his work resonate with an international language of youthful alienation, anger and bemusement, but it also appeals to adults who maintain a connection with their childhood.
Dai Fujikura
Works:#12 unbroken music-box
“Stream State” for orchestra (2005), the premiere of which was conducted byPierre Boulez, was performed seven times in Switzerland, Germany, Austria,Italy and Japan in the subsequent twelve months. In 2005. In 2006 Fujikuramade his BBC Proms debut with “Crushing Twister” and the Chicago SymphonyOrchestra presented the first of two feature programmes of his music in theMusic Now series. Between 2007 and 2009 Fujikura had three major commissionsin France – “Swarming Essence” for the Orchestre Philharmonique de RadioFrance and IRCAM, “prism spectra” for viola and electronics (also created inIRCAM) and “…as I am…” for Lore Lixenberg and Ensemble Intercontemporain. In2009 Noriko Ogawa premiered a piano concerto, “AMPERE,” which was aco-commission from the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Nagoya Philharmonic.During the same month as the world premiere of “flare”, an internationalco-commission for the Arditti Quartet from the Wigmore Hall, EdinburghFestival and the Ishibashi Memorial Hall, Gustavo Dudamel conducted the world premiere of “Tocar y Luchar” for the Simon Bolivár Youth Orchestra in Caracas, Venezuela. Future projects include a bassoon concerto for Pascal Gallois, a new work for the Munich Chamber Orchestra, Fujikura’s first opera (directed by Saburo Teshigawara), and collaboration projects with David Sylvian. Also preparing two portrait CDs from NMC label and Samadhisound label.
http://www.daifujikura.com/
Andrew Paynter
Works:#11 Environments
Andrew Paynter is a San Francisco based photographer and director. His work projects include an on going documentation of various American working artists, American Landscapes and documenting the demise of the floating power lines throughout San Francisco. He's directed music videos for Tortoise and Tommy Guerrero as well as two fashion commercials for NY designer Phillip Lim. His photography has taken him all over the world, most notably to Japan.
http://andrewpaynter.com/
Arnor Dan Arnarson
Works:#10 Old Skin
Arnor Dan Arnarson, lead singer of the band Agent Fresco, is a Danish-Icelandic singer songwriter living in Reykjavik, known for his deeply personal lyrics and expansively emotional vocal delivery. He is currently on a tour of Europe with Agent Fresco to promote their award-winning debut album “A Long Time Listening.”
http://www.facebook.com/arnordan
Ólafur Arnalds
Works：#10 Old Skin
Born in 1986, Ólafur Arnalds has immersed himself completely in a world of delicate symphonic compositions generating near weightless orchestral pieces. Over the past couple of years he has advanced from a former support-act for Sigur Rós to an internationally respected artists in his own right. His motivations are clear: 'I would like to bring my classical influence to the people who don't usually listen to this kind of music…open people's minds.'
http://olafurarnalds.com/
Atom Heart
Works:#09 Sunshine Mandala
Since his early musical beginnings in 1985, Atom Heart (a.k.a. Atom™), has earned global notoriety for his vast and variegated projects, number of releases, collaborations and musical styles. His catalogue includes works with and for artists such as Depeche Mode, Air, Bill Laswell, Yellow Magic Orchestra and Towa Tei, just to name a few.
http://www.atom-heart.com/
http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/atom_heart/
Kazunari Tajima
Works:#08 decayed
As a Tokyo based fashion, advertisement and documentary photographer and as a video/film director, Kazunali Tajima has shot both editorial and advertising projects for fashion magazines including commissioned work for ELLE JAPAN, various advertisements, TV commercials and numerous portraits of musicians . One of his renowned works include Tajima's documentary photo book of Ryuichi Sakamoto, "N/Y." photographed when Tajima lived in New York for several years expanding his career.
His contribution to 'kizuunaworld' project is his current photo series,'dead flowers,' shot with black and white still film.
http://www.tajimakazunali.com/
Stephen Vitiello
Works:#07 Up Through The Trees
Stephen Vitiello has created CDs for such labels as New Albion, Sub Rosa and 12k. His sound installations have been presented internationally. Since 1989, Vitiello has collaborated with numerous musicians and visual artists including Nam June Paik, Pauline Oliveros, Steve Roden, Scanner, Lawrence English and Machinefabriek.
http://www.stephenvitiello.com/
Taylor Deupree
Works:#07 Up Through The Trees
Taylor Deupree is an accomplished sound artist whose recordings, rich with abstract atmospherics, have appeared on numerous record labels, and well as in site-specific installations at such institutions as the ICC (Tokyo, Japan) and the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (Yamaguchi, Japan). He started out, in the 1990s, making new noises that edged outward toward the fringes of minimalist techno, and in time he found his own path to follow. His music today emphasizes a hybrid of natural sounds and technological mediation. It's marked by a deep attention to stillness, to an almost desperate near-silence. In 1997 he founded the record label 12k (http://www.12k.com), which since then has released over 80 recordings by some of the most accomplished musicians and sound artists of our time and has located a common ground with the acoustic avant-garage, the instrumental derivations of post-rock, and the synthetic extremes of techno and ambient musics.
http://www.12k.com/index.php/site/artists/taylor_deupree/
Otomo Yoshihide
Works:#06 quiet night in Fukushima
Otomo was born in Yokohama in 1959. He spent his teenage years in Fukushima.
He has been actively creating numerous varieties of parallel works, and his range of activities has spread across the globe. Otomo has demonstrated an exceptional talent as a composer of movie/TV soundtracks and has produced over 60 original soundtracks.
In recent years, he has been producing new musical works and live performances founded under the name of ‘ensembles’, in which he collaborates with a vast range of people and talents. He has also been making a strong effort to produce music workshops, and other types of public projects for children with disabilities through the language of music and art. After 311, he launched a project called “FUKUSHIMA!” (http://www.pj-fukushima.jp/index.html) which keeps him very busy running between Tokyo and Fukushima, which has been afflicted by on-going radioactive disaster caused by the Nuclear Energy Plant accident. Otomo has published books in the past years including ?“MUSIC” (Iwanami Shoten), “Otomo Hideyoshi’s JAMJAM Diary” (Kawade Shobo), “ENSENBLES” (Getsuyo Sha) and others.
Project FUKUSHIMA!
http://www.japanimprov.com/yotomo/
Christian Fennesz
Works:#05 dropping wings
Christian Fennesz is known from his own particular musical world as well as his impeccable work in creating beautiful compositions for guitar. Somewhere between concrete music, classical and ambience sounds, he stretches musical resources and effects to create melodies and atmospheres that fuse classical and orchestral concepts with conceptual musical research and complex digital structures.
http://www.fennesz.com/
Jan Bang
Works:#04 modern interior
Norwegian musician/producer Jan Bang has been at the forefront of the Scandinavian Jazz and Electronica scene. From his work as successful pop producer in the 1990s his creative thrust and pioneering work in developing the concept of live remix- improvising with electronics alongside more conventional instruments and performers - has led today to him being constantly in-demand as producer and performer. In 2005 he launched, together with Erik Honoré the internationally renowned Punkt Festival where Bang’s live remix, his own musical instrument, works within the framework of overlapping concerts one being the original, the other the remix. Jan Bang’s solo album “….and poppies from Kandahar” is due for release on David Sylvian’s Samadhisound label.
http://www.samadhisound.com/janbang/
David Sylvian
Works:#04 modern interior
David Sylvian is a world renowned musician respected for his solo work and that created in collaboration with musicians from phenomenally diverse backgrounds and disciplines.
http://www.davidsylvian.com/
Alva Noto
Works:#03 'KIZUNA motonoto version'
Alva Noto is a visual artist and a glitch electronica composer based in Berlin and Chemnitz. Meticulously placing microscopic sounds of electronic glitches, Alva Noto creates a sometimes-abrasive soundscape along with computer-generated video art. He has won 2 Ars Electronica awards: one in 2000 for his music and another in 2001 for interactive art.
http://www.carstennicolai.de/
http://www.alvanoto.com/
Arve Henriksen
Works:#02 kizuna world
Arve Henriksen is a Norwegian trumpet player, vocalist, and composer. He has collaborated with various artists on the ECM label. Furthermore, he has produced records with traditional Japanese instrumentation such as the koto, biwa and shakuhachi. Recently, he has been creating pieces focused on vocals.
http://www.arvehenriksen.no/
Valerio Berruti
Works:#01 'KIZUNA' -prayer for Japan-
Although still a young man in his 30’s, Valerio Berruti has already won various awards for his contemporary art. In 2009, his art was chosen for the Venice Biennale as a talented, budding Italian contemporary artist. His works ranges from using traditional fresco techniques, animation, sculpture, and reliefs.
http://www.valerioberruti.com/
