The Gentle Strains of Laptops
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Videos provide a visual complement to the futuristic sounds of Tokyo’s Laptop Orchestra. (Kennedy Center) |
No one will ever confuse Tokyo’s Laptop Orchestra with the Duke Ellington or Count Basie orchestras.
Swing will not be the thing at the Kennedy Center’s Theater Lab when the delicate sounds of musician Ko Ishikawa’s sho, a traditional bamboo mouth organ, are sent to a sextet of serious-looking musician/programmers (it’s still early for titles in this emerging art form) perched at laptops on stage. They will transform the sho’s tones into something that sounds sci-fi futuristic yet as timeless as the song of the humpback whale.The performance, “1[000] Breath[s],” is part of the Kennedy Center‘s “Japan! Culture + Hyperculture” festival. As with much in experimental music, it’s sometimes easier to listen to and show than to describe; thankfully, YouTube has excerpts of the Laptop Orchestra performing this very piece in Tokyo in 2006.
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