How can you find meaning in sound? Meet Japanese sound poet Tomomi Adachi who combines his voice with his own wondrous musical inventions to create sound works between poetry and music.
“I like the idea that it is a funny performance, although the concept is serious.” In this interview Adachi introduces us to his highly personal musical performances, based on his own quirky instrument inventions.
The video contains footage from two performances – “Japanese Sound Poetry” based on what Adachi calls “the oldest instrument there is” — the human voice. The other performance called ‘infrared sensor shirt’ forms sounds according to how Adachi moves.
Adachi does not like technical competition, he explains. Discussing who plays an instrument better is not what interests him. Instead Adachi wants something original, such as the many different instruments he has invented over the years, or his own voice. “The voice is my own thing”, he explains. The voice can be provocative and aggressive, but it can also bring people new experiences. Using the voice he can discover new sounds and work with history at the same time.
Adachi also explains that he sees the difference between traditional singing and sound poetry as a question of music and singing merging together in the case of the latter. He likes how with sound poetry “everyone can perform together”.
Tomomi Adachi (b 1972) is a Japanese vocal and electronics performer, composer, sound poet, installation artist, instrument builder and occasional theater director. Adachi studied philosophy and aesthetics at Waseda University in Tokyo. He has composed works for his own group “Adachi Tomomi Royal Chorus” which is a punk-style choir and he has performed contemporary music, including the world premiere of John Cage’s “Variations VII,” “Europera 5,” and “Waterwalk”. He is the only performer of sound poetry in Japan and has performed Kurt Schwitters’ “Ursonate” for the first time in Japan.
Tomomi Adachi was interviewed by Christian Lund at the Louisiana Literature festival in August, 2013
Filmed by Klaus Elmer
Edited by Kamilla Bruus
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.
Supported by Nordea-fonden.
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