Friday 8/18/06 - 9:00PM
ELASTRO electro/acoustic series
Yuko Nexus6 and JASC Tsukasa Taiko featuring Tatsu Aoki
Eric Leonardson/Carol Genetti

Japanese digital sound artist Yuko Nexus6 is back to join Tatsu Aoki and his JASC Tsukasa Taiko ensemble for a concert that combines the powerful sounds, rhythms, and theatricality of traditional Taiko drumming and the Shamisen.

. Yuko Nexus6 is an awarding winning artist known for her sublime disarming humor, using laptop computer and cassette tapes to create unique electronic music. This concert will be the culmination of her two-week residency in Tatsu Aoki’s Tsukasa Taiko workshop. This event is one of her many ambitious projects on her summer North America tour.

Opening for Yuko Nexus6 and JASC Tsukasa Taiko will be Carol Genetti and Eric Leonardson. Their unique brand of free music, honed over nine-years is made from Genetti's wordless extended vocal techniques and the evocative sounds of Leonardson’s electroacoustic instrument invention, the Springboard.

The evening’s music will conclude in a group improvisation by Yuko Nexus6, Aoki, Genetti, and Leonardson: creatively mixing traditional and avant garde instrumental approaches to live music making.
For more information about JASC Tsukasa Taiko and Asian Improv aRts Midwest on the Web:
http://www.tsukasataiko.com
http://www.airmw.org

BIOGRAPHY
Yuko Nexus6 Kitamura is a prolific and internationally recognized sound artist whose compelling mixtures of evocative soundscape recordings, cheesy electronic muzak, and harsh noise loops range from the sublime to the hilarious. She has been the subject of numerous interviews and citations, including David Toop’s historical survey of electronic music, Haunted Weather (2004). In 2003 she received an honorable mention for digital music in Europe’s prestigious Prix Ars Electronica competition with Journal de Tokyo, her third solo album on Sonore Records. Nexus6 Song Book is her latest release on Sonore. Web page: http://www02.so-net.ne.jp/~nexus6/index.html
Tatsu Aoki is one of Chicago’s busiest jazz bass players, a record producer, and a respected experimental filmmaker who teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Aoki is Artistic Director and a teacher with JASC Tsukasa Taiko, and the founder and artistic director of the Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival, which debuted in October 1996 and has grown national in its scope: currently held in San Francisco, and Chicago. Aoki has recorded seven solo bass albums, eight duet albums with various other artists, 13 ensemble works, and has appeared as a guest artist on over 60 other albums internationally. With works ranging from solo to larger ensemble, from mainstream to avant garde, Aoki has worked with many musical legends, including Fred Anderson, Von Freeman, George Freeman, Malachi Favors Maghostut, Don Moye, Mwata Bowden, Jhon Watson, Sonny Seals, Eric Leonardson, Francis Wong and Carol Genetti. Web page: http://www.tatsuaoki.com/
Carol Genetti is among the few vocal artists in the United States who are solely dedicated to free improvised and experimental music. Mixing idioms such as jazz scat and Bulgarian folk singing with extended vocal techniques, Genetti’s non-verbal sound palette has a provocative depth and breadth. Her recent and upcoming solo and group projects include new CD releases, with concerts appearances locally, nationally, and internationally. Web page: http://www.carolgenetti.com/
Eric Leonardson is an electroacoustic composer, performer, and instrument inventor. He helped co-found the Experimental Sound Studio in the 1980s, the Midwest’s only non-profit public access sound studio. Leonardson is a composer and performer for Plasticene, an experimental physical theater company he co-founded in 1995, and a teacher at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Web page: http://pages.ripco.net/~eleon