About

Taishi Kamiya

Taishi Kamiya is a sound artist and a developer of sounding devices born in Sapporo, Japan. He seeks to explore the moments when audible sounds turn into music. Making full use of Soprano saxophone and laptop computer, he performs by processing the derived sounds in real time. He has released a solo album from the label Home Normal (UK), and Nomadic Kids Republic (JP), etc.. In addition to his performances, he is involved in sound installations using various atmospheres. He is interested in the way that tones changes, depending on situations and circumstances, such as inside a temple, or during a snow. He also plans and organizes music events.

Artist Statement

Music comes from within the sounds - how the music will sound relies entirely on the environment, or the state of one’s emotion in which the sounds are heard. For instance a plop on the water would be perceived as noise under certain circumstances, but on the other hand it could turn into a beat or texture, by contrast. In my compositions, I try to present the sounds in keeping the contingency, to provide a space for the listeners, for their diverse interpretations, rather than filing them into a single interpretation from the artists’ ego. The concept of my music is to prepare a structure for realization of unexpected beauty.

With this concept as the basis, “music”, “art”, and “event organization” are my three methods to approach the phenomenon-receiver’s environmental situation, and psychological process, in order to explore the process of how the sounds turn into music.

Within the “music” activities, I process the actual sounds from such instruments as the saxophone. Not just manipulating the sounds, but as my intention, I adjust them to bring back accidental transitions, making the tones sound different in each playback. I construct my compositions by using these sounds as rough templates, observing the changes carefully over and over, to extract the beautiful tones that occur accidentally. I use the same method with my performances, in which I repeat these processes to construct music.

Within the “art” activities, in order to derive contingencies, I prepare structures, and present them as sound installations, which would approach one’s environmental situation and the psychological process. From these installation practices, within my point of view, I explore the diverse details of the process where music comes out of sounds, leading them to enhance the possibilities of musical expressions.

Within the “event organization” activities, I try to control the environment itself, to change the way music is perceived.