Echoes – Test Tone presents Chino Shuichi in Japan 2018

Live:
■ Chino Shuichi (piano) + Mukai Chie (er-hu) + Cal Lyall(guitar) + Takahashi Marie (viola) + Miyamoto Takashi (bass) + Nobunaga Ken (drums, perc)
■ Hirose Junji (sax) + Morishige Yasumune (cello) + Joe Talia (drums)

DJ:
■ Evil Penguin

Artist information:

Chino Shuichi (piano)

Started as a rock keyboardist since 1970’s with a group “Downtown Boogiewoogie Band”, free jazz pianist with Akira Sakata in 80s, joined several groups such as “Wa-Ha-Ha” (Akira Sakata, Mishio Ogawa), “Changgo 5” (Yuriko Mukojima, Eitetsu Hayashi), “A-Musik” (Ken-ichi Takeda, Masami Shinoda), “Ground Zero” (Yoshihide Otomo, Junji Hirose), “Buffles” (Hiroshi Kawani, Yuji Sagae), “Inochinoimai” (Nobuyoshi Ino, Kazuo Imai), “Fuchigami to Funato Quartet” (Junko Fuchigami, Hiroshi Funato, Wataru Okuma).
cafe oto

Mukai Chie (er-hu)

Best known for her underground improv-folk group Ché-SHIZU, Japanese composer and musician Mukai Chie has been involved in improvised performance since 1975, when she participated in the East Bionic Symphonia group, a graduation project for students of Takehisa Kosugi at the Bigakko art school in Tokyo. Her primary instrument is the bowed Chinese er-hu, although she is also a vocalist, and plays piano and percussion. Every year she organizes the Perspective Emotion mixed media arts festival in Tokyo. She has been frequently collaborating with Kenya Kawaguchi, Masayoshi Urabe, Seiichi Yamamoto since 2010.
Chie Mukai official site

Cal Lyall (guitar)

Involved in the arts scene in Japan for over fifteen years, Cal Lyall has organized large-scale performances involving both Japanese and overseas artists, while also remaining a key member of a number of musical groups which have toured both locally and internationally. His musical activities are documented on over 30 albums he has both produced (including three full-length compilations released on medama records in Japan) and contributed to as a writer or musician. As a curator, he established the monthly Test Tone concert series in 2005 at Tokyo’s SuperDeluxe. Featuring over a thousand distinct artists over its 9 year run, it reached its 100th installment in 2014. With an active performance schedule in Japan and past tours through Thailand, Laos, Indonesia, China, Korea, Australia and the US, he also heads up the Subvalent record label and oversees the Tokyo Hub of Jolt Sonic Arts (Australia).
Cal Lyall official site

Takahashi Marie (viola)

Marie Takahashi, modern and baroque violist, was born in Sapporo, Japan, in 1985. Marie has studied in Japan, France, and Germany. She was a member of orchestras in Japan, France and Hungary but her curiosity and passion for small ensembles led her to become a chamber musician. Her ensembles vary from baroque string trio to contemporary piano quartet with electronica.
Takahashi Marie web site

Miyamoto Takashi (bass)

Takashi Miyamoto official site

Nobunaga Ken (drums, perc)

Hirose Junji (sax)

Junji Hirose is one of the most unique artists on the Japanese free improvised music scene. Since the eighties he has developed highly diverse and creative sound, playing tenor and soprano sax and the self-made “noise machine.”In a number on the 1981 album Hodgepodge, Hirose used the electric guitar as a “noise machine.”
Junji Hirose official site

Morishige Yasumune (cello)

As one of Japan’s most unique voices of the cello, improvising musician Morishige Yasumune continues to collaborate with a wide array of dancers and musicians both in Japan and around the world. His improvisational approach looks to extend the cello’s sonic possibilities, expanding the vocabulary of the instrument into rich unexplored territories. In addition to his improvisational work, he also composes his own vocal works, accompanying his voice with either cello or piano.
Yasumune Morishige official site

Joe Talia (drums)

Joe Talia is an Australian drummer, composer and record producer/engineer based in Tokyo. He first established his reputation as a drummer in contemporary jazz and improvised music fields in which he is now active as a member of the ARIA award winning Andrea Keller Quartet and in numerous collaborative projects, including a long-term duo with Oren Ambarchi. In the last few years a great deal of his work as a drummer has taken place alongside outsider singer-songwriters (such as Ned Collette, Yuko Kono and Francis Plagne), in groups which synthesize his adventurous, exploratory drumming with the demands of song form. His longstanding musical partnership with Ned Collette has resulted in four records, on which Talia acts as both drummer and producer/engineer, most recently Networking in Purgatory (Bronze Rat 2013). In addition to the collaborations above he has performed, recorded and toured with Jim O’Rourke, Anthony Pateras, Richard Pinhas, John Duncan, Brous, Mary Halvorson, The Australian Art Orchestra, Thembi Soddell, Anthea Caddy, Sean Baxter, Robbie Avenaim, David Shea, Marco Fusinato, Rand and Holland, Adam Simmons, Magic Mountain Band, among others.
Joe Talia website

Evil Penguin