"stunning to look at... mesmerising musical sequences”
Frances Morgan - Sight and Sound

"A stunning new British documentary”
Jasper Sharp - Writer and film curator, Midnight Eye

"A mysterious and compelling meditation on sound, song, story, ritual,
performance, nature, tradition and Japanese Buddhism."
Gaetano Kazuo Maida - Executive Director, Buddhist Film Foundation, Inc.
30.06.11
Audio-Visual ReIndications

somewhere in a cave near Moscow

The film has been morphing into new forms in recent months thanks to the amazing warping talents of amoeba. Initially, in May, footage from the film was used as part of his audio-visual installation at Jugendkultur in Moscow.

A still from one of the many loops created manipulating the original film

And then, on Saturday 18th June, we performed audio and visual remixes of the film together as part of the Brighton Japan Festival – many thanks to Nicholas Rohl from MoshiMoshi and Diana Holford from Melting Vinyl.

 

30.06.11
Poster Design

We recently completed work on a poster image for the film. Many thanks to Rob Lynam of Inmo Design / Multilink Magazine for help and advice on this, and for inspiration and support throughout the project.  His website is truly a treasure trove, and anyone interested in images of exceptional quality presented in the finest style  should think seriously about getting hold of a copy of the fantastic Capsule Art Book.

23.06.11
“to give birth to a dancing star”

“When the eyes turn to Japan, four facts are immediately apparent. The first is that the period of the arrival of Buddhism, and with Buddhism the arts of developed civilisation, corresponds approximately to that of the Christianization of Germanic Europe; so that whereas both India and China may be looked upon as intrinsically fulfilled…Japan is young, still dreaming, and able, as Nietzsche would say, “to give birth to a dancing star”…

…at the time of their entry upon the stage of history (the Japanese) were still endowed with that primary sense of the numinous in all things that Rudolf Otto has termed the mental state sui generis of religion.”

Joseph Campbell, Oriental Mythology: The Masks of God, p.461

23.06.11
In Association with The SRK

We are very happy for this film to be presented in association with The SRK. The new look for this website is indebted to one half of this dynamic duo, Ryo Sanada, and we are very grateful to both him and Suridh Hassan for their practical and moral support throughout the long years of the project. You can check some of their documentary film work in the showreel below (all featuring the editing talents of  iloobia), which also happens to include a previously un-seeable section of KanZeOn. But that wouldn’t tell you the whole story because they are doing all sorts of  other things as well -books and stickers and music and more – so take a look at www.thesrk.com for the full picture. We are delighted for KanZeOn to be part of their cultural force…

21.06.11
Post-production completed

We are very happy to say that all post-production work has now finished on the film.

We are very grateful to Paul Pascoe at Church Road Studios for being a fine guide and partner during 8 days in the dark mixing the sound.

composite-audio-studio4

And then everything was sealed onto a magnetic strip forever on a blustery day in Soho.

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20.12.10
Special Private Screening at Birkbeck College / Presentation at The Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures

On Monday 29th November there was a Special Advance Screening of the film at the cinema of Birkbeck College, attended by an audience of around 60.
We are very grateful to Dr Nicola Liscutin and The Centre for Media, Culture and Creative Practice for this opportunity and for organising this screening. We would also like to thank everyone who battled adverse weather and a tube strike in order to be there, and for providing us with valuable feedback and taking part in the Question and Answer session after the film.
Image of Birkbeck Cinema by Killian O’Sullivan

Then on Friday 17th December we were invited to take part in an academic conference at the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, University of East Anglia on the topic of Narratives in Visual Culture: Beliefs, Rituals, Stories and Art.

We showed two sections of the film containing Shingon Buddhist rituals, accompanied by the following presentation explaining the connection between some of the ideas underpinning the film and the topic of the conference.

We are very grateful to Dr Nicole Rousmaniere, Dr Simon Kaner and Kazuko Morohashi of the Sainsbury Institute for this invitation and for all of the organisation that went into the conference.

02.12.10
"Its ultimate goal may be spiritual rather than musical"


“a Japanese lesson is ritually and intellectually structured in such a way that its ultimate goal may be spiritual rather than musical.”


William Malm,
Six Hidden Views of Japanese Music, p.23

26.11.10
KanZeOn ReIndications: Far Side Radio on Resonance FM / Tradition and Innovation Event at Barbican Art Gallery

On Wednesday 25th November we joined Paul Fisher on his Far Side Radio show on Resonance FM to play a few exclusive previews of tracks from the KanZeOn ReIndications project.

You can listen to the show here.

KanZeOn ReIndications on Far Side Radio, Resonance FM by KanZeOnReIndications

Please check out www.farsidemusic.com to find out more about Paul’s work from over 20 years introducing music from Japan, Okinawa and other East Asian countries.
>You can listen to Resonance FM online at http://resonancefm.com/listen – the world’s first radio art station…

Then the next day, we played some more of the ReIndications tracks at the Tradition and Innovation Event at the Barbican Art Gallery. Many thanks to DJ Supermethod for the opportunity to play amidst the future beauty of Yohji Yamamoto, Rei Kawakubo and Issey Miyake…
23.11.10
The fear of a first screening…

Making his first appearance here on the blog, some words from Mr Tim Iloobia about our very first screening of the film to an audience last Friday…

“it is easy for good intentions to get lost under pressure!

At our first test screening of KanZeOn in a good friend’s wonderfully atmospheric Brighton basement, we had planned to take lots of photos to archive the event…

However after a few technical obstacles left us slightly nerve-wracked and with the intense stage-fright of screening for the first time, all that was managed was one blurred, rather abstract image!



But hopefully it goes some way to giving a hint of the atmosphere and setting….

In total, there were about 30 or so in the audience and thankfully the response was really positive as the end titles rolled….

So, a massive thanks to the wonderful crowd who came on Friday night, who sat so patiently through the film and gave such thoughtful and honest feedback afterwards.

Also of course a massive, massive thanks to Sophy and Gary who generously gave up their house and basement and hosted such a great after screening party!

A joyous and exciting start to what we hope will be a very exciting journey for the film as it goes out into the world.”

17.11.10
The Audio Dojo Dream

The sun was going down as we drove across the plateau towards the peaks of mountains at the edge of the world’s largest volcano caldera. Suddenly, and unexpectedly, our guide Tatsumi, (who as well as being a DJ priest is also an excellent driver), took a sharp turn up a narrow road while a mischievous grin spread across his face. He said he had a surprise for us, and a few hair-raising corners later, there we were getting out of the car as the moon started to appear through the pines of the forest around us. Following a short walk up a dirt track we arrived at what looked to be a largely decrepit old building. However, as we walked through the door we saw



The Audio Dojo – an old sword-fighting training hall converted into the personal museum of this fine gentleman.



An artist of all trades – his prowess as a painter, sculptor, and electrical engineer were just a few of his undoubtedly many talents that he displayed to us. But given our particular focus of making a film about sound, we felt we had hit some kind of jackpot upon seeing his incredible collection of analogue audio equipment.

An array of antique stylus 
A very proper valve amplifier
One of at least three speaker stacks that could compete in any Sound Clash



More amazing things than it would be possible to describe – there was even a small Ukiyo-e collection hidden away on the top-floor. And the quality of his various SoundSystems was simply astonishing – at one point he played a Bach Chorale that literally made my whole body tingle.

So after a dazed look around we enjoyed some traditionally frothy green tea while marvelling at the incredible amounts of junk and treasure surrounding us, feeling sorry that we couldn’t stay for hours in order to examine it all properly.

Now it almost feels like the whole experience was a dream – I wouldn’t know how to get there again or what it was called or what the proprietor’s name is, and Tatsumi seemed happy to leave it that way to make his gift of the surprise even more special. But somewhere out there in deepest Japan, there is a mind-blowing experience waiting for anyone who can find it, that could be known as The Audio Dojo…

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