Asakawa Maki – Perfection on vinyl!
Avant-garde
/ˌavɒ̃ˈɡɑːd/
Favoring or introducing new and experimental ideas and methods.
Used as a synonym for “Modernism”, nowadays this term denotes a throwback to the second half of the twentieth century. The origin of this word comes from the French military jargon, but as a concept, we can find it in the 1825 essay entitled “L’artiste, le savant et l’industriel” by Benjamin Olinde Rodrigues, but actually Avant-garde term started to be popular in music only from 1945 when the Austrian composer and conductor Anton Weber died when he violated the curfew. Created to go beyond the boundaries of the art, this new genre tried to use the seven notes to establish a new musical language independent from the traditional tonality.
Pieces like “Sweet” by Louis Andriessen, “Gesti” by Luciano Berio, or “Periferisch-Diagonaal-Concentrisch” by Frans Geysen have still considered milestones of the Avant-garde music thanks to different usage of the musical instruments, and the hybridity of the score that mixes western and eastern tunes into something new.
Avant-garde Music = Experience the new
Japan is probably the country with the biggest number of Avant-garde artists since the end of the 1960s, due to the opening of the Expo’70 in Osaka when a lot of musicians reached the Land of the Rising Sun to present their pieces heavily influenced by Japanese tradition; unexpectedly these intercultural works have been the fuse that led to the explosion of the genre.
Living and working in a period of protests; personalities like Ishii Maki, Hirose Ryohei, and Shinohara Makoto, abandoned the common way of music to realize something that could shake the souls of the audience, we can say that all of them played a pioneering role to bring the Avant-garde concept in Japan. Introducing a syncretic music that mixes violins, trumpets, dadaiko (giant drums) & shomyo (Buddhist chants), they could build from the roots new tonalities that left an incalculable impact on generations of aspiring composers.
New music changes the world!
Excluding Ishii, Hirose & Shinohara, we can say that another major figure in both the Japanese Avant-garde multiverse and the underground counterculture was without any doubt the one and only Asakawa Maki!
Born on January 27, 1942, in the Ishikawa prefecture, she still is one of the greatest artists of the underground counterculture.
Always wearing black clothes, sunglasses and smoking a cigarette; she released more than 30 albums between 1967 and 2010 collaborating with artists like Sakamoto Ryuichi, George Harrison, and Bobby Watson, 12 years after her death, she’s still considered the greatest incarnation of the underground counterculture.
Through the decades, Asakawa-san continued to push jazz ‘n blues genres beyond their limits; establishing new links even with the most radical experimental fringes of the country. An innovator like very few artists around the world are; Asakawa Maki albums can be enjoyed on our record player. If you don’t know her, this is the perfect chance to [re]:discover her music where Avant-garde ideas flirt amiably with the pop culture mainstream!
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