MICHEL HENRITZI / MICRO JAPON [English]

  

The book Michel Henritzi interviewed more than thirty musicians active in the Japanese underground scene has finally been released !

 

SHIN’ICHI ISOHATA

 

Shin'ichi Isohata was the last student of Masayuki Takayanagi (who taught guitar), after other more illustrious guitarists, such as Yoshihide Otomo and Kazuo Imai. His way of thinking about the musical act and sound, his morality, were profoundly influenced. From these years spent in the shadow of the master, he has retained a taste for work, perfection, high standards. For six years until Takayanagi died, he spent a lot of time practicing stoic.

Takayanagi's music in his later years was a tremendous solo noise project named "Action Direct".  It was a too huge noisy catastrophe world with a multi-layered collage that amplified prepaid electric guitars, machine and engine sounds, subway roars, dictator speeches, etc...

In contrast to Takayanagi, the music of Isohata begins with a subtle inward sound and silence. Like haiku, which prefers blank space and wabi-sabi to explosive high densities, in his music, not so much enumeration and proof of the advanced instrumental techniques he has mastered. His music is very delicate, fragile and played like a drawing. The fingering draws a mysterious melody woven from complex patterns of overtones.

I was able to know Isohata through the introduction of Taku Sugimoto. Sugimoto highly valued him and once have composed for him a works for solo guitar.

Also as a composer, Isohata was in charge of music for the documentary film of The movie “Legacy of Frida Kahlo --Miyako Ishiuchi, as weaving” (Director: Tadasuke Kotani),etc.

 

Where were you born ?

I was born in Osaka in 1962,  child who my parents had is me only.  I have grown and lived in Amagasaki City where is neighbour Osaka till 18 age.

 

What is the first sound you remember? Who made you aware of the musicality of a sound?

My first impressed sound was an onomatopoeia of a special effects children's program or anime. It was like the sound of Takemitsu's movie "Kaidan".

 

There is a first musical stir I imagine that makes you want to learn an instrument? Why did you choose the guitar?

When I was junior high school age, Japanese folk songs and pops were popular, and they were mainly played with guitar.  So I naturally took up the guitar, like a lot of teenagers and started playing the guitar because I wanted to sing some songs that were on the radio.  I studied classical guitar from my friend(he was already an genuine guitarist who won many awards.)

 

Is technique an essential element for creating musically? How do you relate to this question of playing technique?

Technique is a skill to satisfy your own expression, so it depends on what you want to express. I think that excessive technique supremacy without a clear vision is a waste of time.

 

Did you study music during your school years ? What kind of initiation into music does the Japanese school give to children? I read in a History of Japan that from the Meiji era traditional music ceased to be taught in favor of Western music. How do you feel about this occultation of a traditional culture for an exogenous music?

Most traditional music is related to our folklore, there are many genres of music in Japan, each one related to a social class. I think some songs and nursery rhymes with having Japanese taste was teached till Pre world war 2,  but most of the postwar music education was Western music. So now most traditional Japanese music is inherited by folklore only.

However, I do not deny that the government has adopted Western music. Also, traditional Japanese music is inherited through folklore. The spirituality inherent in the nation is so deep-rooted so I think it will not easily disappear.  I think it can't "educates" music(or all art). Ultimately, Education of the arts has huge risk to leads to authority and business interests and degrading the artist himself.  I think schools should keep art as just only "introduction".  Teaching about music will be at best about how to play an instrument. Everybody who want to do "music" can do it freely. If you want to learn more, you can go to a specialized school or learn from someone personally. In any case, "teaching" helps you only for skill and knowledge. Although there might be differences in awareness about art & culture between Japanese and European, it may be a national character as the each public have to protect art or culture by ourself in Japan.

 

What do you listen to during your university years? What do you like to play and why?

Before turning 20 years old, I wanted to learn the theory of jazz and the technique of jazz guitar in earnest, so I decided to drop out of college and entered a jazz music school in Tokyo.  Mainly I played or listened to jazz or fusion music in that time. Because of I was enthusiastic about jazz ever since I was fascinated by the mysterious harmony and melody of the jazz guitar (guitarist was probably Eddie Duran) which I saw at a TV show when I was about 13 years old.

 

What does Jazz represent for you? Jazz is very present in Japanese society, a bit like a wallpaper. Who are the musicians that interest you before meeting Takayanagi?

Since I was a boy, I have been fascinated by the strange dissonances and melodies of jazz that I have never heard before. But not only that, I was very interested in "ad lib" of jazz, which was composed and played instantaneously. I am sure that it was the important basis of my "improvisation" for creation of music more freely in the future.

Before meeting Takayanagi,  my first buying LP of jazz guitar when I was boy was "Midnight Blue / Kenny Burrell"(I don't know why), so I was enthusiastic about copying his music or Joe Pass's solo by ear only without knowing jazz theory. I also loved some Jeff Beck's electric guitar music or sounds. Other, My friend when my junior high school age was so good at classical guitar, he taught me the performance albums of Andrés Segovia, John Williams etc... So I was influenced from their guitar tone or touch. and classical guitar world has also introduced me not only in Western classical works but also in South American guitar works like Agustín Barrios or Leo Brouwer or contemporary music, and I was affected strongly by such any music.In Japanese, When I was high school age, I liked also Japanese traditional instruments "Biwa" besides the guitar, so I found "November Steps" by Toru Takemitsu and a lot of works were a great influence on me since that. In Japanese pop music, I liked to listening too many songs, for example, Shōwa-Kayō, some songs of Yōsui Inoue, or most of early Yumi Matsutōya's songs by her husband Masataka's arrangement, Kiyoshi Hasegawa, YMO, and Kazumi Watanabe(he was Takayanagi's excellent student), etc..

 

Does talking about Japanese jazz make sense to you? And if so, why ?

I don't know much about the history of jazz in Japan. What's more, I can't talk anything about the current Japanese jazz scene because now I have no connection with them. I can indirectly tell you what Takayanagi said about Japanese jazz scene till in 1991, but most of them will be dominated by severe criticism and antithesis of the Japanese jazz world.

 

What takayanagi didnt like especially in japanese free jazz music ?

What takayanagi didnt like especially in japanese free jazz music ?

As Takayanagi's own words at that time (although there may be bit some misunderstandings...), he had felt an intense aversion to musicians who don't love music purely and use it for just business (they tend easily to get influenced with trends), or had disliked as well the persons who don't study seriously and actively all the time and busy for just publicity stunt. He said always what wanted to devote his life to music with clean hands as much as possible, and he did it.

 

How did you come to meet Masayuki Takayanagi and take his lessons? Did you study with another teacher before him?

I studied at a music school in Tokyo before I met Takayanagi.  Later, I have learned jazz theory and guitar from a great guitarist named Tim Donahue who was staying in Japan at the time. He also taught me the fretless guitar. He is known as a fretless guitar virtuoso.

afterwards, one day when I was 22 age, I had really mysterious experience listening Takayanagi noise music at small livehouse in Tokyo. I still remember the terrible huge roar invaded my body and brain and shook me all. I couldn't stand the torture-like sound and wanted to escape from the scene soon, but on the other hand, I felt a strange beauty in the sound and was gradually fascinated(my tinnitus continued for about a week after that).  After listening to this "terrible" sound, I already wanted strongly to know what this music was all about. Just that day,  coincidentally I found that Yoshihide Otomo who his student or his roadie of Takayanagi, put up a leaflet on the wall of the venue to recruit students for Takayanagi's lessons. This day was a turning point in my life. It was the spring of 1985.

 

I imagine that watching an Action Directe performance after listening to Eric Dolphy, Bill Evans, Jim Hall… must be quite a shock.

I had experience of Takayanagi Noise music for many times. As mentioned earlier, At first time,  it was a horrific torture-like pain, but within me some aesthetic values have changed. Believe it or not, over the course of several experiences, his noise became to give me the beauty of a symphonic harmony, and peace of mind. Takayanagi said about his own noise music it's "psychedelic" music, I also think that's right... although we won't be able to experience it except in a real concert.

 

Did you already know the Japanese free scene? I think of Motoharu Yoshizawa, Yosuke Yamashita, Kaoru Abe, Masahiko Sato… Did you read the writings of Akira Aida or Teruto Soejima?

I know some past movements about such world. But... sorry in fact, I couldn't be interested in most of such scenes. I have read some of the writings or linner note of Akira Aida or Teruto Soejima. My most trusted criticisms or commentaries on free music are written by Toshihiko Shimizu.

 

When you're a young musician looking for yourself, how do you experience this confrontation between imported jazz and the emergence of such a radical local scene that calls into question the very definition of jazz?

I think it maybe has something to do with the social, political and economic conditions of the time other than music. I didn't have time to experience directly in such confrontation  because of Takayanagi's overly hard guitar practice and music studies. I was only baby student yet.

 

How were the lessons with Takayanagi? What was he talking to you about? Did he open his classes to discussions on philosophy or politics?

In 1985, Takayanagi had three classes at his studio in Shibuya at the time. Otomo belonged to the first class. I was late and became a student of the last class due to I didn't know that there was such his lesson. Initially it was a group lesson with everyone in the room of studio, not an individual lesson. I think there were more than 20 students in our class at first, but soon the number decreased,  and at the end it has been a private lesson since eventually there were only three. I think mabe I'm the only one who is still active in music in this class.

Basically, Takayanagi's lesson was the basis for playing the guitar only. We played in a form similar to a classical guitar such as how to hold the instrument (sitting form) and how to hold the strings but we use a pick or put the guitar on the right foot with a footrest. Takayanagi often spoke deeply about music during the lesson time. Sometimes the talk was longer than the actual lesson time, but they were a very interesting and valuable time for me.

For about a year before his death, twice a month, he taught for us a jazz history in addition to guitar lessons at other place. We used Joachim Ernst Berendt's jazz history book (German title "DAS JAZZBUCH VON RAG BIS ROCK") to learn his views on music in general. His lectures ranged from music to political and social issues.

 

Could you enlighten us on his concepts of Mass Projection and Gradually Projection?

They are the two extremes of sound density (rhythm, intensity, energy). In very simple terms, Gradually Projection is very low density sound number (volume is possible both big and small, but it's not the "process" such as from silence to loud noise.), Mass Projection is maximum volume and ultra-high density sound number.  These concepts were often played at his free style guitar performance or noise set as "Action Direct". But please keep well in mind it is a big misunderstanding to simply recognize the difference between the number of notes and the volume. It means that there is silence in the noise. And silence does not mean no sound, but the existence of noise(loud & ultra-high density) into it.  Both do not exist separately, but always coexist. Two means one. These have Buddhist philosophical meanings such as "There are 3000 worlds in a momentary thought." Takayanagi was an avid Buddhist till some point (maybe up to about his 30s age ), and  He told me in his later years that he is trying to challenge the musicalization of Buddhism. He also said about why he use motor on his electric guitar in his Action Direct noise solo project,  it was he wanted an extremely fast rhythm (vibration) that humans couldn't play.

 

What does silence in music mean to you?

The silence for me is like Japanese feeling "Wabi-Sabi", it's not "no sound". There is an expanse (or even small) of space there. A space where a resonance coexists. Toru Takemitsu created silence in some works with Japanese instruments by making sounds.  I think maybe many Japanese feel a kind of silence in some sounding space. It might be close to Haiku of Basho Matsuo "Deep silence, the shrill of cicadas, seeps into rocks.(shizukesa-ya iwa-ni shimiiru semi-no-koe) ". Or as otherside consept , My making minimum sound in the silent space will be too loud noise in the micro world.

 

 

What did his lessons bring you in your practice and your reflection on music?

They brought me so much reflections and effects. I already had some skill when I became his student, so it was very boring at first to keep simple repetitions and chromatic scales endlessly. It was needed time for me to understand how important they were. Later, I really understood how important this lesson was for helping so much me to correct my bad habits, and the important links between musical expression and technique.

 

What do you think of his music today? How do you see Action Direct?

I analyze that the improvisational performance that Takayanagi actually played the guitar is a cutting-edge "close to jazz" music that uses a contemporary musical approach. D.Bailey's approach also has that tendency, but they have many different roots. My guitar playing is strongly influenced by both two styels. Most of his performances I actually experienced were during the last noise music period. I still remember the sound clearly. The pain of torture when I first experienced it gradually turned into a lullaby-like comfort, which still feels like psychedelic realism. Oddly, when I was in the flood of his noise, I was also in silence. I have never experienced such an Illusion at any other noise music. However It might only be experienced his real live. Also, I often could hear the energy same as the Mass Projection from his strong picking notes on guitar. I'm sure Mass Projection = Gradually Projection.

 

What did you do after finishing your study cycle with him? How do you approach music at this time? What music did you want to do?

Takayanagi died in 1991, however I hadn't completed his entire course yet. So then some remaining student including me continued to learn the Takayanagi method from Kazuo Imai who was the only student who could graduate from Takayanagi.  After that, I destroyed my finger and spent a lot of time learning from him the whole process of the rest of the method. After learning from Imai, I had tried to play an experimental solo noise project for some years in the local Kansai because I wanted to reproduce the psychedelic experience and realism of Takayanagi sound by my own approach.

Also, I've been mainly interested in the quiet musical approach so far. And I have been thinking about abstract concepts for many years. Currently, I am in a borderless area with no tonality or abstract(even about volume). To immerse in it more deeply,  I need to learn more about pan-music(sounds) and the history of various things. I am dreaming the no genre or no categorized music.

 

Did you hang out with his other students like Kazuo Imai or Otomo Yoshihide?

Unfortunately I never played with them when I was a student of Takayanagi. Imai had already graduated from Takayanagi's lesson and he or Akira Iijima were our substitute teachers on the day Takayanagi was sick.

 

How do you come to play with Taku Sugimoto? How do you see this Onkyo stage?

I'm sorry I don't remember when or where we met at first time. but I remember he introduced me to you for the first time by sending my CD. I really appreciate him even now.

I don't also remember how I met Onkyo but when I first experienced them, I was impressed like that time when I heard John Cage's cartridge music, and I sympathized with it because I also had such a concept for a long time.

 

Did reading John Cage's texts influence your relationship to music?

I was very interested in his innovative concept of music, however to be honest, I don't like so much some his work actually expressed as sound (including 4:33 or his performances without music).  It might be because there were many occasions when I didn't find or feel beauty from his works using the theory of an accidental music (Cage might say, it's because my ears are trapped in "music" and not open.). But I like so much a kind of his electric cartridge music and some of them have brought a great influence on me.

 

You also played with Otomo Yoshihide. How are his meetings going?

I hadn't seen him for a very long time. In fact, The live recording in Tokyo in 2005 was the first time the two co-starred. In 2013, we co-starred again in the duo recording and the concert that night. After that, the most recent playing with him was when I invited him as a guest when I performed an introductory performance of documental film music in Tokyo in 2015.  As you can see, I have played with Otomo only a few times, but In my improvised ensemble with someone, playing with Otomo feels one of the best for me. It might have a little nostalgia as in my old memories, but as musicians Otomo's honed sensation and vast musicality bring so deep impression to me and really enjoyed every time.  His music is his own music, is never that of Takayanagi but I think his sound has surely takayanagi's spirits.

 

How do you approach the composition? Do you go through traditional notation or the use of graphic or other scores? What place do you leave for improvisation?

I'm not a composer of experimental musical type. also I don't take a way to come up with a concept first and then build it slowly. I usually use normal score. However I usually put notes in a normal score. But about rhythm, almost my works do not have a clear tempo, so mostly bar lines are not necessary. It's my own rhythm like Japanese "Ma" of when my playing improvisation, so it will be very difficult for anothr playe to play my score correctly with my image. About the way of my composition, the memories of my five senses are converted into sound images and appear suddenly as sounds. Sometimes they are like abstract paintings, sometimes they are like popular music. I don't know at all why so. Then I will often try to elaborate and modify these sound image to compose them as tangible songs.

 

What are you looking for in improvisation?

If there is no mistake in my memory, Derek Bailey wrote in his own book "Improvisation" that improvisation is inherent in the process of creating various music. Some primitive music often comes from improvisation, so I don't think Improvisation itself is not influenced by fashion. In the first place, I think that the act of composing = creation itself is like improvisation what is spent long time. I guess a lot of people recognize that improvisations are merely reproductions of past memories and clichés. John Cage and some composers of contemporary music were not very interested in improvisation as a finality, rather they saw it as a body of habits that hampered the musician. Also M. Feldman quit graphic notation due to the improvisational performance of the performer's self-interpretation.

Contrary to them, Takayanagi asserted that improvisation was a light of hope for future music. He does not consider improvisation to be a cliché, a performer's habit, or just a reproduction of past memories. It's still too high a hope at this point, but maybe manifest itself on the day when humans reach a much higher level internally. I also wish to find or experience such next improvisation world although it will be too difficult that is realized while I'm alive.

 

What changes for you about improvising alone or improvising with other musicians? Do you happen to not listen to the other musicians with whom you improvise, to be in your inner world?

I have a concept and image of self-expression, so playing solo, improvised or composed, is the best way for me so far. In the case of my improvising with other musicians, I hope to play with people who have as close to my aesthetic sense of values as possible (because of I'm not so interested in experiments in group improvisation right now). It's not that they all have the same genre or similar means of expression, but I want to create an ensemble where everyone can enjoy the "process" of creating one work by together. Or, I sometimes take a way like a group exhibition in art where the sounds of each other are staggered side by side ( it's a sequence of each solos like Japanese "renga"-a linked verse). In any case, I’m sure it's important to find various ideas without impairing the expressiveness of oneself and others and avoid the historical failures of improvisation.

 

You composed the soundtrack for a film about Frida Kalho. How did you approach this work? What resonance do you see between your music and her painting?What does composing the soundtrack to a movie involve?

First of all, why I decided to participate his movie works despite my inexperience in film music was that I found the beauty of the film directed by Tadasuke Kotani was very well linked to my sensibility. I knew Frida Kahlo's name and some of her works because she was famous, but I didn't know the pain and suffering of her spectacular life until I participated in this documentary film. I have seen Frida's works only on the internet, even so,  I felt very mysterious feeling to see a lot of her pictures which was drawn by coloring with Mexican-taste, with painful and strange concepts.  Then I composed several tunes by inspired by a glimpse of the blood, prayer, pure white world, and her blue house in her work. However, I soon became to be more interesting in her legacy such as  clothes, shoes, and daily necessities, further I was really impressed to a lot of photographs by Miyako Ishiuchi taken with amazing reality and beauty. The legacies of Frida have become a really beautiful photographic works of Ishiuchi due to her tender heart and love, wonderful shading or lighting technique, and sensibility of delicate composition. I'm sure Frida will be happy too. Tadasuke Kotani visualized the life work of Miyako Ishiuchi who took a picture of the life of Frida Kahlo, with his unique, exquisite, dramatic, and literary touch and silent beauty. So I didn't make music just for Frida only. The overall movie and the three artists brought me a lot of inspiration and images. Therefore, I also dedicated the music to Ishiuchi, Director Kotani.

 

You toured in Europe. What differences did you feel between audiences and the way musicians in Europe approach music? What does playing in Europe mean to you?

In Japan when I was born and raised, Western music was already pervasive everywhere. I myself listen to, play on a daily basis, and love them, so I don't feel odd almostly with European musicians. However I think that the strange impression that many Westerners have on Japanese people still remains (for example,  like obscuring things or shaking the judgment of right and wrong...). These might be due to differences in fundamental religious concepts since ancient times. Since my first visit to Europe, I was very interested in how abstract music made with this Japanese feel would feel to the European audience other than my pleasure of interacting with different cultures.

That's exactly what the concept of "Yū" I played on my last tour(2019) was. Although very difficult to explain in other languages, "Yū" is like a hazy illusion in which the soul appears like steam, or "Monono-Aware". This time, I visited several European countries with wonderful dancer "Misuzu", and Naoyo Yakushi who always patiently understands and plays my works.  Fortunately, a lot of audiences at any venues accepted our performance "Yū / phantom" very favorably. It was a really great pleasure and favorable evaluation beyond expectations for me.

 

What does the record mean to you?

Recording is just a "record". It is most important to actually experience playing music live, but I think it is a really good tool to enjoy a virtual re-experience of a presence feeling or for music analysis. I also think recording is a convenient way to save them for a long time and verifiy a more accurate history of performers and music.

 

Propos recueillis par courrier à l’automne 2020

Photographie de Michel Henritzi