Yukitomo Hamasaki - The Heart of the mAtter
A well-kept secret until now for those who weren’t both fluent in Japanese and keyed in to Tokyo’s DJ subculture, Yukitomo Hamasaki is poised to emerge to the rest of the world as an influential designer and sound sculptor thanks to the launch of mAtter, his new cross-disiplinary label. More than simply an independent label for distributing CDs, Yukitomo envisions mAtter as a platform to foster his broader interest in sound and its relationships with architecture, image-making and design, by producing projects at the intersection of these disciplines. The label’s debut sound release, Yukitomo’s own stunning “d+p”, provides the perfect opening argument for this expansive approach.
INMYX: You use very high frequencies in “d+p” that cause quite specific effects in the ear, a sense of presence which shifts when the listener moves through space. I’ve also read an online review that describes the reviewer’s fascination with listening to “d+p” on headphones while riding his bike, because of the way it shapes and distorts all of the surrounding environmental noise. To what extent do you think about space when you are making sound?
Yukitomo Hamasaki: I definitely think about the sound within particular spaces, and when I say that I'm including music, other sounds, and the choice of no sound as well. When I was making “d+p”, there was a period where I was thinking about these layers of sound as being representative of the shadows and light coming from the walls and windows of my home studio. For instance, when the plants that I have in my studio would move as a slight breeze caught them, it would result in a kind of visual interplay between their movement and the linear aspects from the window and in the room. So there is this kind of deep relation between high-frequency linear sounds, like the sinewaves in “d+p”, and sound consisting of several layers of movement.
B.G.M. / communication-Before Gonna Mind, video and 16 channel sound installation, Tokyo, with Miyuki Suzuki and Gentaro Saegusa © photo Yukitomo Hamasaki
INMYX: As you mention, light is a unifying aspect of your work as well: in another mAtter project you collaborated with architects Shin Tsuchiya and Tetsuo Iwaoka to design the WA offices at Ebis in Tokyo. That project uses light to define space, as does your recent video and sound installation “BGM”. What is your relationship with light and image work?Yukitomo Hamasaki: Light is, of course, a very important element for me, and whether I'm using it to make a work directly, or simply thinking about it when creating, I tend to use this idea of light in a number of different ways. Indeed, the linear quality of light holds a great amount of beauty for me. The purpose of the BGM installation was to examine on what level sound and light would operate on one's perception unconsciously, to what degree these works were affecting people whether they were attending to them or not. That is why the work was placed in the public space of a café and not a gallery. I was heavily influenced by the artist James Turrell. I came across several of his works that I felt I should try to move into a musical milieu.
WA office at Ebis, Tokyo, designed by Yukitomo Hamasaki with Shin Tsuchiya (Shin Tsuchiya Architects) and Tetsuo Iwaoka (m-form), 2007 © photo Yukitomo HamasakiINMYX: You first gained acclaim in 2000 as a DJ, but since have evolved to a much more abstract form of electronic composition based on programming environments like Max/MSP. Do you still see your experience as a DJ coming through in your electronic work? They seem like very different styles, but your sense of timing in the “d+p” work feels like it's coming from a DJ's ear. Is that accurate?Yukitomo Hamasaki: I don't think there is a direct intentional influence from my DJ style. However there could be some influence, in such things like the timing you mention, at an unconscious level. But at the same time, I've also made a conscious effort to lose the potential influence of my DJ work when I'm composing.
Link:www.matter.jphttp://center.moonlinx.jp/matter (Sound link)
