Laraaji at WWW X, September 13th 2018

Inside the venue the curtains were shut. The stage was empty. In the middle of the floor, surrounded by cushions for people to sit, there was a set up that included a couple of mixing boards, a gong, lots of different types of drumsticks, brushes and mallets, a bow and, wrapped in an orange cloth, a zither.

This modified autoharp hypnotic sound became the stuff of legends with the release of Days of Radiance, the third album in the Brian Eno ambient series. It infused psychedelia to the unobtrusive ambient concept, in what it’s probably the best album of the series.

The mastermind of that one and many other recordings, Laraaji, visited Japan for a series of shows in Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. This one, the first of those dates, was billed as Balearic Park, a night that gathered a number of fellow minded musicians and sound explorers.

Walking into the venue we were welcomed by Chee Shimizu, who was setting up the mood for the evening behind the turntables. The mood was a meditative one reinforced by the stage setting, with the audience sitting on the floor, surrounding the artists.

A seamless transition, built effortlessly between Shimizu and the next artist on the bill, 7FO, led us to the latter’s set without any pauses. 7FO sat behind a mixing desk, guitar in hand. A series of ethereal sounds were followed by some more, in comparison, beat oriented electronic music. This was no hardcore dance, though, it was muted and minimalistic. The added guitar licks and the constant build up that ended in a shrieking note, contributed to an exceptionally crafted and captivating set.

A short pause segued into Unit aa (Yoshida Daikiti and Kyuri) a duo of electric sitar and tabla joined by Chihei Hatakeyama on electronics. I’m still not sure if that was an electric sitar, to me it lacked the psychedelic droning edge associated with that instrument. In fact, this set was the most traditional sounding of the night. Not to say that the artists were out of place, they definitely provided a more beat oriented balance to the ethereal atmospheres we experienced the rest of the evening. Their music leaned more towards the World music tag, but I thought it was a solid set.

Shimizu came back to the mixing deck for about 15 minutes, While Laraaji was making sure that all his gear was ready and, most importantly, while reaching a meditative state. After the watery nature sounds faded out, he slowly did some kind of hand motion before plucking the first notes on his zither. For the first part of the set he plucked and strummed slowly, creating a subtle droning effect, reaching for that hypnotic mood. Then switched to the brushes, raising the pace, interpolating chanted verses. “I walked into the peace garden, eternity was everywhere” he sang.

And he laughed. The lines were delivered as spoken word interjections and bookmarked by a truly contagious burst of laughter that got me smiling from ear to ear throughout the whole set. Halfway through it he stood up and banged the gong a few times. He then would use a mic (with an orange foam cover, of course) to produce a tenuous feedback by placing it really close to it. The clarity of this venue’s sound system was otherworldly.

He then went back to the zither, used some mallets and small drumsticks this time. Resumed the chanting adding more singing flourishes. He has a terrific singing voice. He finished the one hour set by hitting the finger cymbals and turning off the electronics until the last fading note from the zither floated in the air. Came back for a brief encore and it was over. Challenging any notions of irony, it was a magical set imbued with a sense of calm serenity and optimism.  

In this cynical times a smile could be seen as a sign of weakness, doubtfulness or ingenuity. 20th century art turned happiness into a delusion. Gloom and despair became the preferable choices. Laraaji, coming from an unabashed experimental mindset, reclaims joy as a symbol of strength and as a channel to achieve higher consciousness.

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