Sometimes we're asked to host a performance so rare and by an artist so iconic that we feel even more privileged than usual, and in June we are thrilled to bring you just such an event with a legend of the Japanese underground...
KAZUO IMAI
[Solo Guitar]
On WEDNESDAY 12th June
Commencing at 7.30 p.m. [doors at 7]
Born in Kawasaki in 1955, Kazuo Imai studied with two of post-war Japan's leading musical iconoclasts, Fluxus artist Takehisa Kosugi and Masayuki Takayanagi. Kazuo was taught by Kosugi at the radical Bigaku School of Aesthetics from 1975, and as a graduation project he participated in the East Bionic Symphonia collective. Kosugi then invited Kazuo to play with his celebrated mixed media group Taj Mahal Travellers, which he did from 1975 to 1977. Kazuo also studied under guitar virtuoso Takayanagi, and was the only one of Takayanagi's private students to ever graduate. He played for several months with Takayanagi's New Directions group in 1976.
Kazuo has been a central figure on Tokyo's free improvisation scene for the past 40 years. He is now a leader of Marginal Consort, a legendary Japanese free music quartet who are visiting Sydney this month for a rare performance at Carriageworks. Building on the experimental music traditions of Japan, they create enormous and evolving musical environments during three-hour, entirely site specific performances.
Kazuo has also played with many Western and Japanese improvisers, including Lee Konitz, Barre Phillips, Arthur Doyle, Han Bennink, Irene Schweizer, Shuichi Chino, Tetsu Saitoh and Kazue Sawai.
Soloworks61, Part One
KAZUO IS GENEROUSLY BROUGHT TO US UNDER THE AUSPICES
OF THE EXCELLENT LAWRENCE ENGLISH AND ROOM 40 !
ALL PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC EVENTS ARE FREE
WITH GENEROUS DONATIONS INVITED AND ENCOURAGED
PLEASE REPLY TO THIS EMAIL ADDRESS [ nshimmin AT dodo DOT com DOT au ]A.S.A.P.
FOR FULL DETAILS AND TO CONFIRM YOUR ATTENDANCE
WE RECOMMEND EARLY RSVP FOR THIS EVENT, WHICH IS LIKELY TO FILL UP
OUR EVENTS ARE B.Y.O.
please bring along any beverages you wish
but no food is allowed at these events
DO INVITE FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED
BUT DO NOT POST ON WEBSITES OR SOCIAL MEDIA
THIS MONTH, WE RECOMMEND THAT ALL OUR FRIENDS SIGN UP TO THE AUSTRALIAN DIVISION OF EXTINCTION REBELLION, THE NON-VIOLENT ENVIRONMENTAL PROTEST MOVEMENT WHICH SEEMS,FINALLY, TO HAVE WORLD GOVERNMENTS SITTING UP AND PAYING ATTENTION. GET UPDATES HERE...
Extinction Rebellion Australia
We also have a request from the good folks at Kaldor Art Projects - if you're in Sydney this coming weekend, take your buckets and bags to Carriageworks to take away for your garden some of the 300 tonnes of soil cultivated for Asad Raza's ABSORPTION during the installation's final days...
http://kaldorartprojects.org.au/project-34-asad-raza