Volume 04, Number 11

Diversions
By Owen Schaefer

The Tokyo Summer Festival brings the islands to you

From June 26 to the beginning of August, the Tokyo Summer Festival is inviting the world's islands to Tokyo. While the Arion-Edo Foundation's annual music extravaganza may not improve the local beaches, "Towards the islands—Sounds across the sea" will present a cross-section of classical performances (some more thematically related than others), and a diverse array of island music and performances representing Palau, Cuba, Haiti, Iceland, Tanzania, and the Izu Islands of Japan. There will be 18 main events along with a number of participatory and related performances, which include classical music, electronica, readings, and a piece of music composed using plants. I kid you not.

The opening concert will feature the Tokyo Philharmonics and Tokyo Opera singers under the baton of Dan Ettinger, along with Japanese piano phenomenon Shota Nakano, performing Mozart's Great Mass and Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 3 at Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall.

Moody music and sculptures of fog

When one wants to escape to the islands, it is not usually Iceland that comes to mind. But although the land of fire and ice seldom comes up as a summer retreat, it is no stranger to quirky music. If artists such as Björk and Sigur Rós are at all representative, Icelandic folks have a certain penchant for curious electronic beats and odd sounds. As a composer, Jóhann Jóhannsson is no exception. And if you've been to the Tokyo rendering of Ashes and Snow, you may have even heard his music already—the moody background to Colbert's "film haikus."

Jóhannsson's solo work combines live recordings of string quartet, piano, organ, glockenspiel and percussion all tied up with electronic backings, and his music is low, slow, and perhaps even a little haunting.

As if to increase the haunted effect, the performance will include "fog sculptures"—works in mist by wonderful Japanese artist Fujiko Nakaya, as well as live visuals by Magnus Helgason, and features Hildur Gudnadottir on cello, and Matthias Hemstock on percussion, which, if we're lucky, will include that glockenspiel.

Jóhann Jóhannsson's World (Jul. 10–11) Miraikan (The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation). Tokyo-Teleport JR Station. ¥5,000–¥12,000. 7pm. Tel. 03-5301-0950. www.arion-edo.org

Those who do the vodou

Still the victim of much negative stigma, the religion called vodou has followers in West Africa, the Caribbean, the southern United States and, perhaps most famously, Haiti, where it combined with the Catholicism of 17th century French colonists to create its own unique form.

Music and dance are key to vodou traditions, and La Troupe Makandal is a nine-member group devoted to bringing those traditions into a more favorable light. Including four drummers, four dancers and singers, and a manbo—a female priestess—the group consists largely of Haitian immigrants now living in New York. In 1999, Frisner Augustin, the group's leader, was awarded the National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Vodou Music and Dance of Haiti (Jul. 13–14) Sogetsu Hall. Aoyama Itchome Station (Metro). ¥4,800. Various times. Tel. 03-5301- 0950. www.arion-edo.org

Fast-talking islanders

Outside of ethnographic circles, few people are aware that there is a unique religion practiced on the tiny island of Aogashima. Boasting a population with fewer people than any given Yamanote train, the island has long been isolated and retains a unique cultural identity that stretches back for centuries. Now, for the very first time, a taste of that culture is coming to Tokyo.

The islanders celebrate a number of festivals and practices which are not officially Shinto, and adhere to a set of rules all their own. There is no official organization for the faith, which was once followed by people on neighboring islands as well, but has since vanished. Only Aogashima's relative inaccessibility has kept this rare folk tradition alive.

For this year's summer festival, island priests and locals will gather to perform a version of the Yomiage Festival, which will include reading from the saimon, or festival text, and “fast-talking”—presumably not of the con-artist variety. There will also be choral chants and dances, and adherents have been rumored to reach trance-like states, though whether this will happen here in the big city remains to be seen.

Local Religious Rituals and Folk Performance from Aogashima Island (Jul. 15–16) Sogetsu Hall. Aoyama Itchome Station (Metro). ¥4,500. 3pm. Tel. 03-5301-0950. www.arion-edo.org

Listings:

Dan Ettinger leads the Tokyo Philharmonic (Jul. 5) Dan Ettinger visits to lead the philharmonic, Tokyo Opera Singers, and pianist Shota Nakano in this Tokyo Summer Festival kick-off concert. Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall. Hatsudai Station (Keio Line). ¥3,500–¥12,000. 7pm. Tel. 03-5301-0950. www.arion-edo.org
The Music of Zanzibar: Taarab (Jul. 19) Traditional sounds from Tanzania's most famous island. Shibuya C.C. Lemon Hall. Shibuya Station (JR, Metro). ¥5,500–¥6,500. Various times. Tel. 03-5301- 0950. www.arion-edo.org
Cuban's Pride Vicente Feliu (Jul. 24) Vocal and guitar performance from the celebrated Cuban Trovador. Musashino Civic Cultural Hall. Mitaka JR Station. ¥5,000 (Students ¥3,000). 7pm. Tel. 03-5301-0950. www.arion-edo.org
"Patterns of Plants" (Jul. 27) Music composed by Mamou Fujieda, generated using bio-electric fluctuations in plants, then played on clavichord by Satoru Sunahara. Jiyugakuen Myunichi-kan. Ikebukuro Station (JR, Metro). ¥3,500. 7pm. Tel. 090-3295-6912. www.milestone-art.com
Arion Young Talent Series: Piano Double Recital (Jul. 26) Celebrated teenage pianists Ryoma Takagi and Tomoki Nakamura perform a double recital. Tokyo Kioi Hall. Yotsuya Station (Metro, JR). ¥3,800. 7pm. Tel. 03-5301-0950. www.arion-edo.org