Suiai by Naoto Yamagishi / Ko Ishikawa / André van Rensburg

Suiai was recorded in Tokyo, Japan in 2020 & 2021. It features a dynamic trio of musicians who are well-known for their incredible versatility, virtuosity and daring exploration of musical language. A sacred ritual blending the mysterious atonalities of ancient Japanese instrumentation with the modern metropolis.

Naoto Yamagishi is in search of music before its word and concept were formally defined. A music free from formal constraints, traveling between places with flowing motions and sounds initiating from daily life – its rhythms, sonority and space. Naoto started drumming at the age of 13 and studied under Takuya Abe in Japan. He collaborates with various artists regardless of genres – musicians, dancers, poet, photographers, calligraphers, Ikebana the Japanese flower arrangement artist and media artists – from Japan and overseas.

Ko Ishikawa began performing the sho in 1990 and has appeared at music festivals in Japan and around the world. He is a member of the gagaku (traditional Japanese court music) group "Reigakusha" and has performed many gagaku classics and contemporary works. He has also worked with various musicians and composers as a soloist on the sho (a traditional Japanese bamboo instrument). He is also highly acclaimed for his singing of gagaku music such as houmagaku.

André van Rensburg is a composer, producer and instrumentalist who established himself in South Africa in the mid '90s and has since traveled the world, performing and recording in Taiwan, Japan and New York City. His interest in ancient and microtonal music drew him to the shakuhachi, which he has been studying and playing in Japan since 2016. He has created numerous sound installations in galleries worldwide and composed extensively for experimental theatre, dance & film.