Sugai Ken
Kagiroi
I met Sugai Ken a few years ago in Tokyo, outside the Dommune radio studios. His personality and music, a very special brand, touched me. His music is a coded vision of a dream world. A trade that is progressive yet traditional - in the most positive sense of the word. Recently out of the blue, Sugai San sent me a collection of personal field recordings he made of folklore groups and public performances in Tokyo, Toyama, Kanagawa, Kyoto, Tottori, … The close listener already knows that Sugai San…
Tone River
Caught somewhere between environmental sound studies and surrealist sonic architecture, Sugai Ken helps mark the 30th release of Field Records with an ambitious new album. Commissioned by the Dutch Embassy in Tokyo, Tone River is the product of a year's intensive work between artist and label, created in part to examine the relationship between Japan and the Netherlands with regard to water management. While its doors to the Western world were closed during the 17th and 18th centuries, Japan kep…
UkabazUmorezU
"Sugai Ken follows in the vein of RVNG Intl’s Visible Cloaks release with an exquisite meditation on traditional Japanese percussion and 4th world electronics ruptured by unpredictable runs into more abstract terrain.UkabazUmorezU works like a stage set or a variegated series of sonic scenarios, at once smartly demonstrating his compositional versatility as well as a dilated vision of the connections between Japanese tradition and western-rooted electro-acoustic practice. In a way it resonates w…
On The Quakefish
Sugai Ken is an electronic musician based in Kanagawa, Japan. He combines synthesis with recordings of his daily surroundings to conjure the subtle and profound ambience of the Japanese nightscape. His music evokes a nocturnal peace, reflecting the intangible qualities of his memory and dreams. A brilliant debut vinyl release 鯰上 - On The Quakefish is an immersive exploration displaying a rugged invention, compressed into short bursts of electrifying genius. The release represents a romanti…