Kankyō Ongaku:
An Evening of Environmental Music
When
Where
Pricing
$20 presale | $25 at the door
Note: Ticket holders will have access to the Plaza, Theatre, and Garden. The Garden will have a limited capacity and will be monitored on a first-come first-serve basis.
Seniors (62+) are eligible for complimentary tickets. To redeem, please contact the Box Office from 10 am - 2 pm on Mondays, Wednesdays, or Fridays at (213) 628-2725 ext.1 or boxoffice@jaccc.org and be prepared to show identification at the door.
Description
JACCC and dublab present an evening inspired by kankyō ongaku – literally translating to “environmental music” – which encompasses a uniquely Japanese approach to sound design as it relates to the natural and built environment.
This event will feature live performances, DJs, listening sessions, and visuals to complement the physical spaces of the JACCC – including the Aratani Theatre, the Japanese Garden, and Isamu Noguchi Plaza.
- kankyō ongaku pioneers Yoshio Ojima and Satsuki Shibano–performing live as part of their first-ever U.S. tour
- Portland-based duo Visible Cloaks (Spencer Doran & Ryan Carlile) performing in a Quartet with Yoshio Ojima and Satsuki Shibano
- long-standing environmental music unit Inoyama Land in an exclusive performance streaming live from Yugawara, Japan
- listening selections from Yoshio Ojima's DAT archive of broadcasts created for the groundbreaking satellite radio station St. Giga
- curated by Yosuke Kitazawa–producer of the Kankyō Ongaku compilation
- Live performances by Dustin Wong and No Translation
- Listening sessions and garden performances hosted and curated by In Sheep's Clothing
- DJ Sets by Green-House, Patrick Shirioshi, Frosty, DJ Healthy, and Ki Oni
- The premiere of Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms), an original work by JACCC Master Artist in Residence Hirokazu Kosaka
Learn More
About the Artists
Yoshio Ojima began his career as a composer of environmental and ambient music, with a particular interest, and optimism, in the possibilities of generative software. His compositional pursuit of human synthesis with computerized forms was realized in its fullest potential alongside Satsuki Shibano, a pianist renowned for her interpretations of Erik Satie and Claude Debussy. Together, they were among a handful of influential Japanese artists whose innovations still resonate, if not more vibrantly than ever, well beyond the tightly-knit scene’s original core.
Website | yoshioojima.com
Website | satsukishibano.com
As Visible Cloaks, the Portland, Oregon duo of Spencer Doran and Ryan Carlile have developed their own set of creative strategies that form an aesthetic fuse point between human intention, aleatoric composition, and improvisation. These are notions most recently reflected in 2017’s Reassemblage and Lex, a respective album and EP in which the duo combined generative software and virtual representations of global instruments into lacy, interlocking patterns.
Website | visiblecloaks.com
Makoto Inoue and Yasushi Yamashita first met in 1977 as part of the music production crew for avant-garde theater and began their collaboration as Hikashu the same year. Soon the duo was joined by Koichi Makigami on vocals and bass, and Hikashu became a techno-pop band, releasing their first, self-titled album on Toshiba EMI. In 1982, concurrent with their band activities with Hikashu, Inoue and Yamashita formed their synthesizer unit Inoyama Land, and in 1983 released their Haruomi Hosono-produced album DANZINDAN-POJIDON on Alfa/YEN Records.
Since 1988, Inoyama Land has produced environmental music for various public spaces, including expos, museums, and large-scale commercial buildings throughout Japan.
This century has brought newfound interest in Inoyama Land’s music starting with their first album, especially from the likes of DJs and collectors from overseas. In 2019 Inoyama Land was included in Light In The Attic Records’ Grammy-nominated compilation Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980-1990 alongside their contemporaries like YMO, Haruomi Hosono, Satoshi Ashikawa, Hiroshi Yoshimura, Jo Hisaishi, Interior, and Toshifumi Hinata. Inoyama Land performed at Red Bull Music Festival held in Tokyo that same year.
Inoyama Land’s sixth album Documentation is scheduled to be released in August 2023 on their own label COLLECTING NET.
Website | inoyamaland.amebaownd.com
Born in Hawaii, and raised in Japan. Studied film at California College of Arts and Crafts for two years and transferred to Maryland Institute College of Art to study performance and sculpture. Tours with bands, Ecstatic Sunshine and Ponytail, then transition to solo guitar, exploring loops and harmony. Collaborates with Takako Minekawa for 3 albums. After Baltimore, New York, and Tokyo, now residing in Los Angeles, exploring new expressions with numerous collaborations. Was an artist in residence at the Philosophical Research Society in 2022 and will be an artist in residence for Floating in 2023. In August of 2023, in collaboration with Brin, "Texture II" was released thru Leaving Records, and a solo record, "Perpetual Morphosis" with the Hausu Mountain label.
No Translation is the solo project of Emma Palm, a Los Angeles-based musician and multimedia artist with Taiwanese roots. Her music includes synths, field recordings, guqin, and vocals to create sonic collages of meditative soundscapes that attempt to translate the in-between of identity, environment, and memory.
Akiko Yamashita is a Los Angeles-based, Japanese artist. She is known for immersive installations using light, projection mapping, and real-time 3D animation to transform our perception with her prism-inspired full spectrum of colors.
As an artist, she visualizes “invisible existences” in nature. Her work references and is drawn from Japanese animism, where every existence has a spirit or soul.
A former dancer turned animator, Yamashita welcomes viewers to fully immerse themselves in her artworks. Hana Fubuki (2019), exhibited at ARTECHOUSE, translates viewers’ hand movements into gusts of wind that swirl colorful cherry blossom blizzards. Forest Perception (2021) surrounds viewers in a giant forest canopy and roots projected on opposing sides of the building. Eureka! (2021) lets viewers stimulate neurons with gestures. Where does water come from? (2020) illustrates the cycle of water from atomic to ocean state.
Featured as one of the new generation of makers in an Apple keynote film presented by Tim Cook, Yamashita also creates architectural public art light installations, including her interactive hallway Portal (2015) in the Little Tokyo neighborhood of Downtown Los Angeles, which won the A’Design Silver Award.
Website | akikoyamashita.com
Clayton McCracken is an LA-based video artist interpreting the unseen natural phenomena that lay the foundation for the human experience. Combining obsolete video technology with cutting-edge digital programming, McCracken’s work invites viewers to reconnect with the beauty of the natural world and the gift of perception.
Website | c180n.tv
Born in Japan, he is an ordained Shingon Buddhist priest, a master of the art of Japanese archery, as well as the Master Artist in Residence of the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center. After graduating from the Chouinard Art Institute, in Los Angeles in 1970, he continued to study in the fields of Esoteric Buddhist art. He has been actively advocating Japanese culture and art at JACCC since 1983.
Things To Know
Parking
Paid parking is available nearby at Joe's Auto Parks/Sho Tokyo on 350 East 2nd Street for $15 (rates may vary). Metered parking in Little Tokyo is also available and free after 8 pm.
Bar + Food
We will have three cash-free bars with everything from a Japanese whiskey bar to a beer garden for your drinking pleasure.
We will have a curated menu by Far Bar available during the evening through cash-free payment.
This project is supported in part by
