Carsten Nicolai & ASA-CHANG
I don't work with Japanese musicians very often but I worked for a talk sessoin of Carsten Nicolai from Berlin, Germany, and ASA-CHANG from ASA-CHANG & Junrei for a web magazine yesterday.
I first met Carsten back in 2001 or 2002 when he came to Japan for the first time to exhibit his works at WATARIUM in Toyo. He is an interesting artist who combines visuals and the abstract audio to complete his works. Actually it is hard to appreciate his works for me because it's too complicated and too abstract. Some people would love to indulge in his unique art world for sure. Amazingly enough, his English became better and better each time I met him since then and once he learned how to utilize his new linguistic tool added to his repertoire, he became eloquent. What a man!
I was also assigned for the event at Apple Store Ginza on October 22. We didn't have enough time for preparation beforehand so it didn't go well for me. Carsten seemed a bit nervous. It's different from playing live or DJing at clubs that actually Steve Jansen, ex Japan drummer, was also nervous when we did a similar event 2-3 years ago. Carsten, whose English has a strong German accent, tried his best to say things clearly and easily for the audience but I, sitting behind him, could not hear him well. Plus the emcee asked him a few questions about software and equipment he uses, which I basically have no idea of and probably even digi-people would have a hard time to get the picture of how his equipment is all connected, that certainly gave me a hard time to translate his words correctly. Whew, I broke into a cold sweat... That night, I got really upset and hated myself! My apology to everyone there that evening!!!
ASA-CHANG is a very talented percussionist who used to play with Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra and now well-known for his versatile music world that ranges from abstract electro-acoustica type of music to pop music. He has been featured many times in Rhythm & Drums Magazine so I asked some of the editorial staff I know a couple of days ago how he is like. What I heard from them is that he is really careful about what to say. He chooses words very carefully but he is also good at creating comfortable atmospher for other people to enjoy talking with him. I rather enjoy working with that type of people so I was looking forward to the conversation between Carsten and ASA-CHANG.
It went well and was fun for me although the journalist there had told me he would dig deeper into their abstract ideas before it started. ASA-CHANG's words are easy to understand. Carsten was relaxed and this time we were sitting next to each other. I wonder if it was as abstract as the journalist wished - I didn't feel so. It was almost a normal conversation I usually hear from musicians.
I have found both of Carsten and ASA-CHANG have similar skeptic perspectives. When they talked about music as the universal language for communication, ASA-CHANG said that people who would insist that music has no border often create borderlines consciously or subconsciously whereas Carsten believes it is still the universal language that people can feel without understanding the meaning of lyrics although he agrees with ASA-CHANG that he wouldn't like to listen to the same thing again after travelling hours from one place to another.
Their conversation reminded me of what Jason Falkner said some weeks ago. It was about pop music and the definition of pop in music. For him, pop music is that of the Beatles, sort of classic pop music and not what is called pop recently such as Britney Spires and other Hip Hop/Dance Music oriented pop acts. He said, "Pop music has changed a lot in these days."
I do believe music is the universal language but there seems a fine line between "pop music" and "popular music" lately. The former is about musical elements and the latter is more about commercialism, I think. As for abstract music or free form music, commercialism has not much to do with it because it's not in the mainstream. The market is much smaller than that of popular music. The freedom they have to create whatever they want to express is guaranteed in a way. Good for them.
Anyway, the interesting thing is, as ASA-CHANG said, there are so many cultural differences bubbling under the surface of music no matter what style of music you play. And I believe those bubbles underneath and how deep people feel them by listening to music cannot be controlled by business people. Maybe what makes music the universal langauge is those unheard elements there moving people or touching people's heart to a certain level even if it's not the way the musician originally meant.... I don't know. But Cersten and ASA-CHANG made me think what I don't usualy think, indeed. Thank you guys!
I first met Carsten back in 2001 or 2002 when he came to Japan for the first time to exhibit his works at WATARIUM in Toyo. He is an interesting artist who combines visuals and the abstract audio to complete his works. Actually it is hard to appreciate his works for me because it's too complicated and too abstract. Some people would love to indulge in his unique art world for sure. Amazingly enough, his English became better and better each time I met him since then and once he learned how to utilize his new linguistic tool added to his repertoire, he became eloquent. What a man!
I was also assigned for the event at Apple Store Ginza on October 22. We didn't have enough time for preparation beforehand so it didn't go well for me. Carsten seemed a bit nervous. It's different from playing live or DJing at clubs that actually Steve Jansen, ex Japan drummer, was also nervous when we did a similar event 2-3 years ago. Carsten, whose English has a strong German accent, tried his best to say things clearly and easily for the audience but I, sitting behind him, could not hear him well. Plus the emcee asked him a few questions about software and equipment he uses, which I basically have no idea of and probably even digi-people would have a hard time to get the picture of how his equipment is all connected, that certainly gave me a hard time to translate his words correctly. Whew, I broke into a cold sweat... That night, I got really upset and hated myself! My apology to everyone there that evening!!!
ASA-CHANG is a very talented percussionist who used to play with Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra and now well-known for his versatile music world that ranges from abstract electro-acoustica type of music to pop music. He has been featured many times in Rhythm & Drums Magazine so I asked some of the editorial staff I know a couple of days ago how he is like. What I heard from them is that he is really careful about what to say. He chooses words very carefully but he is also good at creating comfortable atmospher for other people to enjoy talking with him. I rather enjoy working with that type of people so I was looking forward to the conversation between Carsten and ASA-CHANG.
It went well and was fun for me although the journalist there had told me he would dig deeper into their abstract ideas before it started. ASA-CHANG's words are easy to understand. Carsten was relaxed and this time we were sitting next to each other. I wonder if it was as abstract as the journalist wished - I didn't feel so. It was almost a normal conversation I usually hear from musicians.
I have found both of Carsten and ASA-CHANG have similar skeptic perspectives. When they talked about music as the universal language for communication, ASA-CHANG said that people who would insist that music has no border often create borderlines consciously or subconsciously whereas Carsten believes it is still the universal language that people can feel without understanding the meaning of lyrics although he agrees with ASA-CHANG that he wouldn't like to listen to the same thing again after travelling hours from one place to another.
Their conversation reminded me of what Jason Falkner said some weeks ago. It was about pop music and the definition of pop in music. For him, pop music is that of the Beatles, sort of classic pop music and not what is called pop recently such as Britney Spires and other Hip Hop/Dance Music oriented pop acts. He said, "Pop music has changed a lot in these days."
I do believe music is the universal language but there seems a fine line between "pop music" and "popular music" lately. The former is about musical elements and the latter is more about commercialism, I think. As for abstract music or free form music, commercialism has not much to do with it because it's not in the mainstream. The market is much smaller than that of popular music. The freedom they have to create whatever they want to express is guaranteed in a way. Good for them.
Anyway, the interesting thing is, as ASA-CHANG said, there are so many cultural differences bubbling under the surface of music no matter what style of music you play. And I believe those bubbles underneath and how deep people feel them by listening to music cannot be controlled by business people. Maybe what makes music the universal langauge is those unheard elements there moving people or touching people's heart to a certain level even if it's not the way the musician originally meant.... I don't know. But Cersten and ASA-CHANG made me think what I don't usualy think, indeed. Thank you guys!
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