Ryo Murakami / YPY

Ryo Murakami, a leading figure in Japan’s deep underground, and YPY, a prominent Japanese musician active internationally, return to Fukuoka after several years away.

Originally active as a producer of minimal and tech house, Ryo Murakami began developing a sound that combines a sense of the sacred with tension through his industrial ambient work Depth of Decay. He continues to deepen his distinctive approach to drone. Joining him is YPY, the solo project of experimental musician Koshiro Hino, whose work across goat, GEIST, KAKUHAN and bonanzas continues to make a powerful impact on Japanese music with each new release. The lineup also brings together Kyushu-based artists whose delicate sounds reach into deeper layers of listening.

Ryo Murakami

Ryo Murakami runs the forward-thinking label Depth of Decay, whose recent release of 1729 (Iryoku)’s outstanding mixtape Deux enfants sont menacés par un rossignol is still fresh in memory. His background includes releases on Baud and Styrax, as well as running Pan Records. He has also appeared on Boiler Room alongside AOKI Takamasa and YPY.

His industrial ambient work Depth of Decay unfolds through dark, noisy sounds reminiscent of corroded iron. Continuing to deepen his own approach, his recent drone works combine visceral strings, quietly lustrous piano and environmental sounds, bringing together a sense of the sacred and an underlying tension.

YPY

YPY is the solo project of Koshiro Hino. He runs Birdfriend, a cassette label releasing underground musicians from Japan and abroad, and NAKID, a label dedicated to contemporary and electronic music.

In the year preceding this event, his experimental band goat celebrated its tenth anniversary and completed a successful European tour. His appearance at DJ NOBU’s Future Terror is another memorable part of his recent activity.

His projects continue to make a powerful impact on Japan’s music scene. These include GEIST, a concert piece in which groups of wind instruments, percussion and other instruments are dispersed throughout an unusual space and simultaneously follow a set of performance rules; and KAKUHAN, his experimental music duo with Yuki Nakagawa, which brings a wide range of disparate elements into collision.