Ken Ikeda, Rie Nakajima

Edition of 200. Japanese-born and London-based sound artist Ken Ikeda has previously appeared on the label’s project “Quark: How Does Invisible Sound?” (Q06). He now teams up with Rie Nakajima and Makoto Oshiro for a series of collaborations included in this CD alongside his solo opening track. The album title is borrowed from the 1959’s movie by Yasujirō Ozu called Ukikusa (Japanese word for Floating Weeds).
Motors, sound objects, automated gestures, mixed materials as opposed to synthesizer-generated sounds meet up, overlap and create dialogues. An exceptional way to have three of the most interesting contemporary sound artists united in a record and a picture of today’s Japanese sonic research all at once.

The album contains three different recordings, a solo concert by Ken Ikeda called “Early Spring” recorded in Fukuoka at Konya 2023 as part of Duenn’s Experimental Forum event; the second track “Middle Spring” which sees Ken Ikeda and London-based Rie Nakajima collaborating for the Resonance FM broadcast, curated by Gwait Swan at Aces & Eights in London; and the last one “Late Spring”, in which Ikeda and Tokyo-based Makoto Oshiro recorded a liveset at Iklectik in London for the ‘Ya No Bi with KILT’ event.