Music | reflets de lumière

Fuyuki Yamakawa

Posted in Music, Performing Arts by B on April 18, 2010

Fuyuki Yamakawa, Madrid, 2010

Fuyuki Yamakawa and Atsuhiro Ito, Madrid, 2010

A cluster of raw lightbulbs hang down, pulsing like a ritualistic flame to the heartbeat of an electronic stethoscope. He waves an electric guitar in the air, shaking the body. The guitar drones punctuate the throbbing feedback while he leaps and kicks the symbol, clashing it repeatedly. A deep, primordial voice cuts through the heavy air, the overtones resonating in discordant harmonies of antediluvian textures.

Fuyuki Yamakawa is the London-born Tokyo-based creator of sound/visual installations and improvised music who uses modern audial technology (including bone conduction microphones for ‘body beats’ and electronic stethoscopes to amplify his heartbeat) together with the ancient art of Tuvan overtone singing, characterised by the contemporary emission of two or more sounds at once. His performances are powerful and while completely unconventional, engage the audience with a strangely primal sense of involvement that transcends time.

“My physical body’s phenomena is outputted as sound and light and it gives perceptional stimulations to eyes, ears, and skins of audiences. Eventually the venue transforms into extended part of my body,” he says. “Sometimes it stops my heart for seconds. I use electric guitar but I never touch the strings. I shake and rub the body of guitar to make drones. These actions work like ‘sports’, which influence heart beat.”

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Fuyuki Yamakawa (山川冬樹)

La Casa Encendida

Obra Social Caja Madrid