In that sense, as far as soto is concerned we are really still searching. The ideal is to have many people coming there not just in order to hear live performances of the music of musicians they like, but like our experience in Italy, I hope it will become a place that people come to because it is soto and when they come to hear what is being performed they find that it is good music. I won’t mind if some people come not because they like Kukangendai but because the things happening at soto are interesting. Although making soto successful due to the type of music, the operating policy and from a business standpoint will be difficult, I believe that in today’s society there is a possibility that a space run in this way can be successful. Soto isn’t a place where anything can happen. I want to work to start a new trend despite the economic limitations that may be apparent.
As for the future of Kukangendai, I have become very interested in the possibilities that performing overseas can bring. After Italy we also performed in Dusseldorf and Berlin in Germany, I found it very stimulating in a number of ways to perform in different countries. The feeling of the audiences can be completely different and that leads to a change in the qualities of the performance. I felt that having the opportunity to perform that kind of situation will certainly lead to growth in the way we look at our music and that it deepens our sensibilities with regard to music. Going forward, I want to try bringing these kinds of experiences back to soto and see what that feedback leads to.
*1 Atsushi Sasaki
Born in Nagoya in 1964, Atsushi Sasaki in a critic in the fields of film, music, literature and theater, and he is also the head of the recording label HEADZ .
*2 Fatzer
This is a music theater production created through a collaborative effort between Chiten and Kukangendai, which contributed the music. Adapted and re-structured by Motoi Miura, the play is based on a fragment of an unfinished play by Brecht that tells the story of a soldier named Fatzer during World War I who deserts and hides out in a cellar with three fellow soldiers, but because of Fatzer’s bad influence on the other three soldiers’ discipline, they try to kill him. The play met with success due to the clash of the unique vocal delivery of the lines of the Chiten actors and the music of Kukangendai with its intermittent flow of phrases. It premiered in 2013 as a repertory work of Chiten’s Underthrow theater space. Based on an unfinished play by B. Brecht / Directed by M. Miura, / Translation by Masayuki Tsuzaki.
http://chiten.org/archive/archives/70
*3 Live collaboration with ECD
Distributed as a donation album
ECD+Kukangendai
Live at Waseda 2010
https://kukangendai.bandcamp.com/
Jun. 2015 at SuperDeluxe
Photo: Maezawa Hideto
Jan. 2017 at Soto
Photo: Katayama Tatsuki
Oct .2016 at Area Sismica, Italy
Photo: Ariele Monti