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’.

Outland ethnologies
Thang Mo by Ngoc Dai [Vietnam]
「Thang Mo」は、ベトナム国内で政治風刺や過激な性的表現による歌詞が原因で販売中止となった問題作です。ベトナム北部の伝統民謡を想起させるダイ氏の歌声とシャンソンをベースに繰り広げられる本作は、2017年のTPAM(国際舞台芸術ミーティング-横浜)で初めて披露されました。本作は、TPAMでダイ氏が歌った曲目を中心に構成しており、ミキシングやレコーディングには、ベトナムの舞台芸術界で圧倒的な支持を得ている音楽ディレクター、ニャット・リー氏が務めています。リー氏による繊細なミキシング処理も本作の聞きどころの一つといえるでしょう。

Installation
Invisible Ensemble
インドネシア、ジャワ島中部の儀礼ルワタン(Ruwatan)の一節を使用したサウンド・インスタレーション。ルワタン(Ruwatan)は、悪霊や危険または特定の人や出来事といった事象から身を守るための儀礼である。ジョグジャカルタのダラン(影絵師)のチャトゥール・クンコロ(Catur Kuncoro)や詩人のグナワン・マリヤント(Gunawan Maryanto)が朗誦するルワタンの一節に加え、この儀礼で伴奏されるゲンデルやボナンといった青銅楽器(ガムラン)の音、バイクの通過音や鳥のさえずりといった生活環境の音を立体音響の空間に散在させている。聴取者はヘッドフォンを装着し自由に展示空間を行き来しながらこれらの音を束ねてゆく。その音の痕跡は、ステレオの音声ファイルとして、聴取者自らの携帯電話に保存して持ち帰ることができる作品である。

Cinema
A Ripe Volcano
A Ripe Volcano reflects Bangkok as a site of mental eruption and emotionally devastated land during the heights of terrors, primal fears, trauma, and the darkness of time. A Ripe Volcano revisits The Rattanakosin Hotel, the site where the military troops captured and tortured the civilians, students and protesters who were hiding inside the hotel during the Black May of 1992; and Rajadamnern Stadium, a Roman amphitheatre styled Muay Thai boxing arena, which was built in 1941-45 during the Second World War and since then has become the theatrical labyrinth of physical and mental explosions. The work builds around the recollections of human experiences that took place within these spaces and shifts through the mental space distilled from the possessed memory of wounded time.