Imai Kazuo + Tatsuhisa Yamamoto

It would be difficult to overstate the impact of legendary improvisor Kazuo Imai on the past 50 years of Japanese free music.

With his beginnings as Masayuki Takayanagi's longtime guitar protege and his subsequent work with Takehisa Kosugi and the Taj Mahal Travellers, Imai aligned himself early on with the most singular voices from the 70s free music scene. Over the past three decades, despite withdrawing from public performance for years at a time, he has garnered a name for himself playing with everyone from innovative Dutch drummer Han Bennink to Japanese noise superstars Incapacitants.

On this evening he'll be joined by Tatsuhisa Yamamoto on 'drums and metal', whose recent outings with Alan Silva, Jim O'Rourke, Mitsuru Tabata and local indie greats Natsumen are quickly making him the 'chosen one' for many a drum gig.

A chance to see both these great musicians in a perfect setting: stripped down and hell-bent on tumultuous sound.

Kazuo Imai

Tatsuhisa Yamamoto

L?K?O + Kelly Churko + Keiichi Nakano

I've often wondered if the were in fact two L?K?Os. Seemingly everywhere at once, you'll find him featured at noise/grind gala Murder Channel, hiphop nights at Rock West, belly-dancing bonanzas, and even Thai festivals, sometimes all in the same night. This aptly sets the stage for his improvised turntable work, which is fresh, perceptive, and above all, the work of a musician with extreme peripheral vision.

Joining the lineup will be improvising guitarist and composer Kelly Churko, who besides moonlighting with heavyweights like K.K. Null, Zbigniew Karkowski and Akira Sotoyama, remains at the helm of Tokyo grind heroes AKBK (with Naoto 'Araking' Araki of King Goblin fame).

Finally, fresh off a US tour with his two-man powerhouse 2UP, drummer Keiichi Nakano will no doubt be stoking engines with his unhinged and gold-encrusted skin & cymbal massage. Make sure to wear loose clothing.

L?K?O

Kelly Churko

Keiichi Nakano (2UP)

aen + Cal Lyall + Keigo Iwami + Kaoru Suzuki

Putting musicians into completely new contexts is always a hit-or-miss affair, but the potential rewards are just so darn exciting that we simply keep doing it.

In what could be a somewhat ungodly sacrifice to the gods of free jazz, we present a collision of superheated musicianship courtesy of AEN (aka Yasufumi Suzuki of Commune Disc and Soundroom) on molten electronics, Cal Lyall (Tetragrammaton, Jahiliyyah) on unprepared guitar, Keigo Iwami (Oncenth Trio, Zycos, Midori) on uber-contrabass and Kaoru Suzuki on panoramic drum duties.

This might be the future of freaked-out (and very loose-limbed) dance music.

Yasufumi Suzuki (Commune Disc)

Cal Lyall

Keigo Iwami

Onnacodomo (Visuals)

Taking their inspiration from moments and objects from everyday life, visual unit onnacodomo make the ordinary decidedly extraordinary. Eschewing computer-generated graphics or recorded material, the three members (DJ Codomo, Yasuko Seki and Ruka Noguchi) perform in real time using a video camera to capture their spontaneous creations.

Shimmering projections are created using water, mirrors and an array of lights, while a world of fantastic images is constructed with found photos, kitchen utensils, toys, stationary and improvised artwork. Kaleidoscopic, absurd and unreal, onnacodomo takes you into a slightly-unhinged world that is absolutely original in its conception.

Onnacodomo

Evil Penguin

Grand wizard of vinyl and interstellar treasure hunter, the Evil Penguin extracts the tastiest gems from his cosmic vat of recordings long forgotten. Pure listening pleasure.