Saturday, April 19th at 8pm, ISSUE Project Room and AvanTokyo proudly present the world premiere of Respira, a groundbreaking collaboration between pioneering electronic musician Eucademix (a.k.a. Yuka Honda) and Butoh dancer azumi O E. The performance will take place at ISSUE’s 22 Boerum Pl. theater in Brooklyn.
The evening will begin with a solo set by Eucademix, showcasing Honda’s signature approach to sound—navigating unpredictable musical landscapes with fluidity. “I draw on an extensive library of sound palettes from countless genres, improvising transitions that feel natural yet surprising,” Honda explains. This methodology traces back to her experience performing John Zorn’s Cobra in the mid-’90s, where musicians responded to cues like “EYES” or “cartoon trades,” producing sounds in rapid, unexpected succession—like flipping TV channels. This concept also shaped her genre-blurring compositions for Cibo Matto’s Viva! La Woman.
The solo performance will expand into a deeply immersive collaboration between Honda and O E. Though both Japanese expatriates and longtime New York residents, their artistic paths only recently converged. Their first duo performance, enhanced by O E’s lighting design, revealed an undeniable chemistry. Rooted in abstract communication, Respira reflects on the tension between silence and chaos, stillness and eruption—ideas drawn from their shared connection to Zen philosophy. The title, meaning “to breathe,” suggests their instinctive synchronicity in performance. Or perhaps Respira is akin to Aurae, the invisible wind nymphs of Greek mythology—perceived only through movement and force. It also evokes the primordial transformation of Earth: when the planet was shrouded in gas, devoid of oxygen, Respira symbolizes the breath that introduced life-sustaining air, shaping the environment for evolution.
Experience this evocative premiere—where sound, movement, and elemental forces converge.
Yuka Honda is an electronics instrumentalist, composer, and producer (though she enjoys calling herself a “decomposer”). She often performs solo electronic music as EUCADEMIX. She calls her music “Sensory Music.” Yuka is primarily known for founding the band Cibo Matto in the 1990s. They released two LPs and one EP on Warner Brothers Records. As a producer, she has produced albums by Sean Lennon and Martha Wainwright, among others. Recently, Yuka created a multi-media opera titled “No Revenge Necessary,” which tells the story of a post-apocalypse world in which humans survive and coexist with A.I. entities. It was performed at National Sawdust (Brooklyn, NY) in 2019, where Yuka was an Artist In Residence. She has won multiple awards including the London International Animation Festival’s Best Sound Awards for the music she composed for the animation film “Anxious Body” by Yoriko Mizushiri, which premiered at Cannes 2021 Director’s Fortnight. Other current projects include a duo with her husband Nels Cline (Wilco) called CUP, and also a duo with YoshimiO (Boredoms, OOIOO) called Mycorrhiza.
The raw value of live performance is what fuels Butoh dancer azumi O E. Mesmerizing, shocking and playful movement is choreographed with meticulous timing, conspiring a visual relationship between the inner and outer human dimensions. Azumi wields her physical form as an expression and exploration of full individuality routed by the notion of collective oneness.Following eight years with New York-based company Vangeline Theatre and as Assistant Choreographer/Principal Dancer for Butoh Master Katsura Kan, azumi O E makes a continuous effort to exceed artistic constructs. She regularly develops experimental projects through solo pieces and collaborations with artists of various mediums. Notable co-operative works span video art and live performance with contemporary visual artist MARCK; composer Takuya Nakamura, “Impulsive Instrument” with Bassist Sean Ali, and upcoming duo with bassist Tim Dahl. She had an artist residency at the John Hopkins PEABODY Institute in 2023 and was a 2024 NYFA/NYSCA Artist Fellow in Choreography.
