YPAM

Marginal Consort

Kazuo Imai, Tomonao Koshikawa, Kei Shii, Masami Tada

A project for collective improvisation that begins with an impulse to emit sound

• Japan
• Sound/Music

Marginal Consort is a collective improvisation project initiated in 1997 by members who studied with Fluxus member and Merce Cunningham Dance Company music director, Takehisa Kosugi, at the Bigakko school of aesthetics in the 1970s. Performers gather without meeting or rehearsal, bringing self-made instruments or devices for emitting sounds made of various materials and are positioned at spatial distances. They share a duration of three hours, finding momentum for development in repetition of a sound, unusual texture and new phrasings, while avoiding formation of an “ensemble,” customary interplay between individuals, or isolated indulgement in one's own actions. It is up to each audience member whether to perceive moments when sounds generated from an individual's actions merge with sounds of others and constitute a collective soundscape, and then the collective soundscape might become “music.” Movement within the venue—with different positions and postures, you will hear totally different soundscapes—and re-entry during the performance are unlimited.