Electronic artists Moki McFly (left) and Similarobjects play an opening set at Sound is all our Dreams of Music
Last Saturday, at least two hundred people went to B-Side for a one-off event supported by the Japan Foundation Manila and Green Papaya Art Projects.
Organized by the experimental arts festival Fete de la WSK and the Saigon-based experimental arts collective Institute of Lower Learning, the event brought together some of Manila’s best electronic musicians and others, and featured two visiting Japanese musicians.
Daisuke Tanabe and Yosi Horikawa came to Manila to perform, respectively, their different brands of experimental electronic music.
Tanabe has been performing electronic music since the age of 16, and released his first EP in 2006. A musician of many influences who has recorded on the Ninja Tune, BBE, and Brownswood Recordings labels, he described his music as more of “like [standard] electronic music.”
His compatriot Horikawa, on the other hand, said that his music is a “little more special,” noting that it involved stringing together sounds from nature and the street. His work is more in the tradition of the musique concrete genre that uses raw sounds as the basis of musical compositions.
Tanabe hoped that the event would foster a spirit of enjoyment and sharing. “We want to share our ideas of music,” he said, “and hope [people] would learn what we’re doing and [we’d learn] what they’re doing.”
When asked about their views of the city, which both were in for the first time, the two were impressed about how bustling Manila was. “There’s so many things going on at the same time [here in Manila] that my mind is almost blown up!,” Tanabe told Coconuts Manila.
He added, “I was really surprised about how people are making music here. What can I say?” The feeling was mutual, Coconuts Manila understands.
Apart from the two Japanese musicians, the local electronic music ensembles Bent Lynchpin also performed, and Similarobjects and Moki McFly performed together in another part of the program.
Another element of the evening was programmer and digital artist Gene Kogan’s electronically-generated projections.
Kogan earlier gave a workshop for artists and computer programmers who were interested in pursuing the interface between art and technology.
This one-off event is a glimpse of things to come—the Fete de la WSK will be held in November 2013 after a long break, and will, as before, include experimental music and sound art as a key part of its program.
Tengal Drilon, artistic director of the festival, said in a statement that contemporary experimental music “is defining, and at the same time, defying our current decade’s musical trends.”
