TOKYO FESTIVAL OF MODULAR 2023
I've recently returned from a pretty incredible 6-week journey across Japan, staying in 11 different cities, and visiting many more areas. There's a lot of music/audio/sound related things to talk about from that trip, so the next few blog posts will be about that. In no particular order, lets start with:
So on my recent trip to Japan, I was lucky enough to be in Tokyo while the 2023 Tokyo Festival of Modular was taking place. I was mulling over the decision to attend or not for a while, because really, while I do love modular synths, there are just SO many other amazing things you can do in Tokyo.
Anyway, I eventually decided to make the trip over to The Face Daikanyama and check it out. I probably should have decided earlier, I only managed to catch the final 5 acts, and a few of the earlier acts looked pretty interesting too. Oh well, live and learn.
The Face is basically an underground basement, completely made of concrete. So yeah, not great for sound, but it was decent enough to get the idea. I bought my ticket and walked in, turns out there was a lucky dip/raffle on entry.. I won a patch cable! hah! You really can never have enough, so hell yeah, it's much appreciated, thanks TFOM!
There were eurorack rigs (& non-euro rigs) set up around the back and sides of the room, and a small stage area in the corner for the performers. One artist played "Boiler Room" style in the crowd, but I'll get to that later.
Another reason it would have been good to get there earlier is so I would have had an opportunity to play around on a few of those rigs, some of them looked pretty epic, but it was already dark and noisy, so not ideal conditions. I decided to pass and just watch the performers.
The first act I saw was Ipnoteca, who played a set that ranged from sparse soundscapes to erratic beat-centric IDM. It kept the listeners guessing and flowed along nicely. Good times!
Following Ipnoteca was Yi Seunggyu. This was a glitchy harsh noise set that at times teased at rhythmic passages before slamming back in to noise. I couldn't quite see what Yi Seunggyu was using, but I think it was more of a laptop and mixer (possibly mixer feedback) set than eurorack? I could be wrong.. There was some very cool, industrial-esque sound design going on in this set which I really dug. Noise sets are often challenging to listen to for me, they're abbrasive and require a conscious effort to find something to latch on to. Maybe that's the point? I'm glad that I saw this set second, it worked like an exclamation point between questions marks, adding emphasis to the evening. (that makes sense in my head)
The third act I saw was Nick Tsai from Taiwan. Nick played a very chilled out, melodic and mellow ambient set which acted as a cooling balm after Yi Seunggyu's face-melting set. I actually could have drifted off to sleep during this, and I don't mean that in a bad way, it was just deeply relaxing to listen to. I need to look in to more of Nick's work, he seems to be quite prolific!
The penultimate act for the night was tamiX. This was the Boiler Room set I mentioned earlier. It made sense to be played like that, as it was straight up techno - which the crowd loved, with all the build ups and drops of a club set. People were cheering and dancing around the Buchla rig with drinks in hand, which, as someone that regularly has to clean spilt drinks out of CDJ's, made me nervous to watch. I guess people were mostly holding cameras and phones though, trying to snap a pic or a vid, and tamiX jumped around a lot too, and the music was great, so a fun time was obviously had by all!
The headliner for the evening was the excellent Anthony Baldino. Anthony played a great IDM set that encompassed amazingly detailed, cinematic sound design. Huge percussive sounds, ripping bass at times, lush pads, leads, all the things. There was just a really good "sound" to this set too. It felt like the most well rounded mix that I saw, and the most well produced set. Big fan of Baldino's work and it was a treat to see him play in a concrete bunker in Tokyo.
Over all it was a very cool night and a great way to display the versatility & range of modular synth rigs - they are what you make them. There was a second day of performances at The Face which I unfortunately didn't attend (there really is just TOO much to do in Tokyo), along with a few days of workshops afterwards. It's an awesome event that coincides with other electronic music & modular synth events around the country, so if you happen to be in Japan while it's on, I highly recommend heading along and checking it out!