Each Friday, Collector will present three disparate but artistically worthwhile digital artifacts from the worlds of music, performance, and art.
Haruomi Hosono & Friends ‘Pacific’
Haruomi Hosono was a member of the folk rock band Happy End and the electronic band Yellow Magic Orchestra, a group credited with creating the wildly popular “technopop” genre in Japan. On this semi-solo outing from 1978, Hosono paired up with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Yukihiro Takahashi — the trio became Yellow Magic Orchestra, also issuing a record in 1978— to tackle a collection of exotica-influence semi-electronic music tunes. The sounds on this record fall somewhere between video game music and yacht rock and doo-wop and … it’s a weird record that feels like the late 70s.
Beam Splitter (Audrey Chen + Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø)
I’ve had to pleasure to see cellist and vocalist Audrey Chen perform a few times, solo and with various groups. It’s always an incredible experience — Chen’s range of vocal exploration is fascinating! For Beam Splitter, Chen sticks to voice, allowing the Norwegian trombonist Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø investigate the lower sonic registers. This is an exciting duo video from last year.
Noa Zuk ‘Speakers’
Noa Zuk is one of my favorite contemporary choreographers. Together with musician Ohad Fishof, Zuk crafts some of the most interesting choreography happening today. Speakers was created during a one-month residency commissioned by Switzerland’s Bern Ballet, and the piece provides clear examples of how Zuk and Fishof pair sound with movement. In many of the solo sections, the movement and sound unfold like a collage, providing opportunity for jump cut movements. It grooves, loops, “Mickey Mouses” the sound, but there is a sophistication to the approach. And these pieces are very difficult to dance.
