Tonight, the two artistic projects “Genmyo玄明” and “Hot Cat” team up for the first time to take you on a journey from ancient Asian art to contemporary improvisation. Sound and vision, tradition and avantgarde merge as Violin, Qin, Shamisen and Shakuhachi join forces to create soundscapes that are being visualized by live painting.
Yurika Saito (Live Painting)
Wolfgang Schwabe (Qin)
Shiomi Kawaguchi (Shamisen)
Vincent Laju (Shakuhachi, Cello)
Fumio Okura (Violin)
………….Hot Cat…………
“Hot Cat” is the project of the violinist and conductor Fumio Okura. Stressing experimentation and improvisation it integrates music from different styles and artists from different backgrounds into an organic whole. “Hot Cat” is an open structure which allows each artist to freely contribute his or her ideas to add to the unique texture of the Hot Cat performance. All members of Genmyo are part of the large family of Hot Cat artists. Furthermore, Hot Cat has performed with artists such as Yuko Kaseki, Min Yoon, Yoshihiro Shimomura (Butoh-Dance), Shuichi Chino, Isabel Anders (Piano), Izumi Ose (Piano, Vocal, Performance), Vincent Laju (Cello, Shakuhachi), Tatjana Bielke (Musical Saw), Peter Czekay (Trumpet), Jung-Jae Kim, Kai Winter (Sax), Lan Hungh (Oriental Percussion), Johannes von Wrochem (E-Guitar), Irina Kowallik (Dance), Stefanie Alf (Violin, Dance), Rina Nakano (Performance), Yatang Hsu (Erhu) and many more.
…………Genmyo 玄明…………
is a trio consisting of Shiomi Kawaguchi (Shamisen), Yurika Saito (Live painting) and Wolfgang Schwabe (Chinese Zither Qin). It takes its inspiration from the Chinese composer, poet, musician and philosopher Ji Kang 嵇康. Famous for his non-conformist attitude, he strove to reconcile nature with culture by combining the Daoist notion of nothingness with elements of Confucian ritual theory. Genmyo bases its improvisations on traditional compositions for the Chinese Qin and the Japanese Shamisen to explore the space between Ji Kang’s aesthetic ideas and contemporary sound art. We deeply sympathize with the 3rd century iconoclasm of Ji Kang. Our goal is to create new art, free from stereotypes, using the Qin, the Shamisen and the brush as our instruments.
…………About the musicians…………
:::Shiomi Kawaguchi
since she was a child growing up in Tokyo, she started learning Shamisen (a Japanese three-stringed instrument) and Min-yo (Japanese folk songs). In 2017, after years of traveling silk-road with the Shamisen, she moved her base to Berlin.She is a member of the all-female ‘Shamisen Trio Mitsune’ http://de.mitsune.de/ , the psychedelic folk band “Jaguar no me” http://www.jaguarnome.com/ and jazz band ‘The Japs’ https://aandjaps.wixsite.com/sitetop
:::Yurika Saito
Born and raised in Tokyo, she encountered mountain landscape painting in Canada during her travels, and has been working with nature and art as the theme of her work. She pursues a wide range of possibilities in painting, embroidery, herb dyeing, and performance with the theme of connecting nature and humans. https://yurikasaito.de/
:::Wolfgang Schwabe
learnt to play qin with the Qin master Ge Hancong (葛瀚聰) in Taiwan. After random performances with LTK, a Taiwanese punk band, in the late nineties, he has been regularly performing in Taipei and Berlin playing Echtzeit Musik. In 2018 the CD “180818” with Lin Hui-Chun was released (https://huichunlin.bandcamp.com/album/180818). He is the co-founder of the “International Conference on Guqin, Aesthetics and Humanism” and has published numerous articles on Qin aesthetics.
:::Vincent Laju
Shakuhachi player, Cellist, improviser & composer, he studied and graduated in France. He collaborates with composers and artists from all discipline in Berlin where he resides, he can be heard from solo to large ensembles such as “Berlin Improvisers Orchestra” and “Grand 8” (Marseille). His graphics and sound work series « Zeilen » is regularly performed and exhibited in France and in Germany. He has performed in “GMEM” (National Center for Music Creation), for festivals and concerts in Europe. In 2019 he played 20 concerts in Japan with Japanese musicians. https://www.vincentlaju.com/
:::Fumio Okura
studied Violin, Conducting and Musicology in Tokyo and Berlin. Studied Conducting further with Prof. Peter Eötvös and was also the Guest Student at Staatsoper Berlin. He also works as a Voice Actor. In parallel with strong interest in Music and Theater he pursues the Sound Possibilities of the instrumental combinations with various styles and backgrounds. Furthermore, his project “Hot Cat” tries the Integrated Arts with Experimental Music and Film, Live Painting, Performance or Butoh-Dance. In 2023 the CD of String Quartet “Your Dramatic Joy” was released https://ernestorodrigues.bandcamp.com/……/your…… In 2024 he played in various concerts in Tokyo