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AOKI Takamasa is one of the most interesting artists coming from the inventive electronic music scene of Japan. Equally balancing between noisy soundscapes and unconventional rhythmic solutions, AOKI has played live at many festivals in previous years, with artists like Vladislav Delay, SND, Akufen, and Radian to name a few. AOKI’s 4th album entitled Quantum is out now on Yoshihiro Hanno’s label Cirque; a forthcoming collaboration with Tujiko Noriko is underway, and another new album on Progressive Form is slated for early 2004.
Boban Ristevski had the opportunity to conduct a compressed Q & A with AOKI:
Igloo: Hello, please introduce yourself. Where do you live and what’s your age? When and how did you start making electronic music?
AOKI Takamasa: My name’s AOKI Takamasa and I live in Osaka, Japan at the moment (I’m planning on moving to Paris, France in 2004). I’m 27 years old and I started making music with acoustic guitars, bass and drums with 4-track tape recorder when I was 17. I started working with computers when I was 20, although they were so expensive and too slow to edit audio files at that time, so I mainly used them as a MIDI sequencer and controlled AKAI sampler with some cheap synthesizers. And at the same time, I researched a lot of information about real-time audio synthesis and audio programming via Internet.
Igloo: Are you familiar with contemporary electronic music from Japan?
AOKI: No, not at all. I think most of the artists are extremely boring (Japanese electronic music is dying). I only know some of my friends such as Yoshihiro Hanno, Taeji Sawai (portable[k]ommunity), Ogurusu Norihide, Ryoichi Kurokawa and Nao Tokui. They’re really talented and I really like their work.
Igloo: What kind of music do you listen to, and what are your musical influences?
AOKI: I usually don’t listen to music very much. But I respect J.S. Bach, Steve Reich, Yoshihiro Hanno and Taeji Sawai. I think I got a lot of influences from many kinds of art, such as architecture, paintings, movies, books, mathematics, science and cutting edge technology, Formula 1, etc…
Igloo: What’s most important thing for you when producing music and what do you wish to achieve? Are you composing the music or improvising?
AOKI: Well… For me, the most important thing is the simplicity in the chaos, and something emotional in the simplicity. I always try to make it groovy, even if it doesn’t have rhythm. I’m usually composing my music and improvising at the same time… trying not to fix my technique and methods to make sound. I’ll do anything possible to make something I want. The Japanese have quite a strong sense of simplicity in the back of our minds.
Igloo: So far you have released few albums on the Japanese label Progressive Form. What are your future plans about releasing music and collaborating with other artists?
AOKI: I’ve released my 4th album on Yoshihiro Hanno’s label Cirque called Quantum and I’m planning to release my 5th album on Progressive Form around April 2004. I’d really like to release some of my works on other labels, but I don’t have an opportunity to at the moment. I’m also working with Tujiko Noriko, and I hope we’ll be able to release an album relatively soon.
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Quantum is OUT NOW on Cirque.
