Otomo Yoshihide + Sachiko M + Reiko Kudo + Tori Kudo

Event information

Four legends of the Japanese avant-garde playing in different combinations. Whilst their paths have crossed numerous times in Japan, this will be the first time they come together in the UK.

OTOMO YOSHIHIDE (guitar / turntable / electronics)

Otomo's wide-ranging activities encompass the avant-rock of Ground Zero, the free jazz and big band suites of his New Jazz Quartet/Quintet and Orchestra, film music and harsh noise.

SACHIKO M (sampler with sine waves)

Sachiko M has been active as a sampler player since 1994. Early in her career she was involved in the cut-up and "plunderphonic" (or "plagiaristic") sampling movements. In '98, in a drastic departure from those approaches, she originated the revolutionary method she uses to this day--manipulating the sampler's internal test tones.

REIKO KUDO (vocals)

Reiko is the partner of Tori Kudo of the Japanese underground music group Maher Shalal Hash Baz. In the late seventies and early eighties, while still known under her maiden name of Reiko Omura, she led a unit called Noise. Noise played in Tokyo underground venues like Minor (alongside groups like Fushitsusha and Kousokuya), and released one album, Tenno.

As well as often singing with and writing songs for Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Reiko has been quietly creating several albums of limpid, lucid observation with an exceedingly fragile sense of melody. Her performance at OTO in 2009 had everyone in tears.

TORI KUDO (guitar / piano / vocals)

Tori is best known for his strikingly naive work in the group Maher Shalal Hash Baz. He is also a longstanding if idiosyncratic contributor to Japan's musical underground whether through the songs of MSHB or his improvised piano concerts and collaborations.