Minor Musics Japan opens with Ché-Shizu, a revolving improvisatory ensemble founded in 1981 by Chie Mukai. Tonight's lineup features Mukai with longtime participants/collaborators Tori Kudo, Tsukasa Takahashi joined by NYC's Che Chen on bass. Mukai also appears in a special first-time duo performance with LLILW GRAY, alias of No-Neck Blues Band's Keith Connolly.
Ché-SHIZU is an improv-folk group led by Chie Mukai (向井千恵) and a shifting cast of musicians that has included Tori Kudo (Maher Shalal Hash Baz), Masami Tada, Masami Shinoda, Yuriko Mukojima, and Ikuro Takahashi among others. Chie Mukai got her start in experimental improvised performance in 1975, when she and other students of Fluxus violinist-composer Takehisa Kosugi at the Bigakko Art School of Tokyo convened as the East Bionic Symphonia. The group featured a combination of recontextualized folk instruments and electronics in spontaneous action, a motif that continues to occur in Mukai’s musical philosophy to this day. Mukai started Ché-SHIZU in 1981, and the group released their debut LP I Can’t Promise in 1984 on Zero Records. Ché-SHIZU’s music embraces simplicity in their compositions, led by the melodies of Mukai’s voice and erhu. The group’s naivist leanings result in a music that is lyrical, compelling, and endearingly unpolished.
