KEIJI HAINO SHOW

Presented by MONA, PBS 106.7FM, Beat Magazine and JOLT

KEIJI HAINO + UMINARI TRIO

THE GODFATHER OF SOUND ART

In Melbourne and Sydney we think he will probably play electric guitar – but what ho, he might not. Probably he will. He might sing. Or not. Maybe there will be electronic gadgets. Who can say? It will be amplified. It will be electric – whatever it is.

On this landmark visit to Australia, one of Japan’s true innovators of the sonic arts shares his love of unbounded sonic creation – of the psychedelic; the rock; the troubadour; the outsider; the life force that cannot be tamed. Haino’s electric shows can feel shamanic – where the artist allows the raw energy of life to talk over his body. Perhaps it was the might of this raw creative power that led to NHK, Japan’s national broadcaster, banning Haino from 1973–2013.

And for MONA Hobart, Haino will deliver a rare bespoke percussion performance tailored for the elegant gallery art space where this 21st master will perform.

CONCERT PLAN:

SET ONE : UMINARI TRIO

Intermission

SET TWO : KEIJI HAINO

UMINARI TRIO

Yasumune Morishige // cello + Cal Lyall // banjo + James Hullick // piano

Uminari Trio represents the sonic communion between three artists who bow to the might of auditory creation. Everything is improvised, though falling into self-similar sonic places that the trio will visit in each concert. These sonic places have beginnings and endings – shaped like pieces – but for the trio they are continuations that play out through multiple performances and through a loyalty each of the musicians shares for the higher ideal of sonic creation. It’s an elegant intertwining sound that arises from acoustic instruments: cello; banjo; prepared piano; sometimes voice; that can be amplified and electronically translated or left in their acoustic domains. Each of the artists in the trio have been radically influenced by sonic art culture; the cultures of ancient creators; and the global mayhem of the proliferating information soup pouring out through the internet. This is music ecstasy with a meditative backbone: an ocean rising up after a still night over moonlit waters.

Artists