Kukangendai
A three-piece rock band based in Kyoto. It was formed in 2006 by Junya Noguchi (guitar and vocals), Keisuke Koyano (bass), and Hideaki Yamada (drums). Its music is characterized by the distinctive displacements and pauses that arise when the three share and repeat a short phrase and then deliberately remove notes from it. In 2016 the band moved its base from Tokyo to Kyoto and opened Soto, a studio and live venue, in Sakyo Ward.
Formation
In 2006 Junya Noguchi, then a third-year student at Waseda University, had the idea and invited two younger students, Keisuke Koyano and Hideaki Yamada, to form the band. Noguchi was at the time attending the lectures of the critic Atsushi Sasaki.
Musical style
The basic structure is the repetition of a particular rhythm or phrase. According to Noguchi, the band distributes a short phrase among its members and repeats it while deliberately removing notes, a method they call "hanuke" (missing teeth), with the aim of producing pauses that make neither the players nor the listeners feel it is simple repetition, but give them a moment of "hm?".
Kyoto and Soto
In September 2016 the band moved its base of activity from Tokyo to Kyoto, and in the same year opened Soto, a studio and live venue, in Sakyo Ward, Kyoto, which has been its base ever since.
Works and collaborations
Its albums include Kukangendai (2009), Kukangendai 2 (2012), and the live album LIVE (2014). With the theater company Chiten it has collaborated on Fatzer (premiered 2013), Mystery-Bouffe (2015), Romeo and Juliet (2017), and others. It has also performed with a wide range of musicians, directors, and dancers, including ECD, Norimizu Ameya, Keiji Haino, and Phew.
To verify
- The exact opening date of Soto
- Works released since 2014
References
- Mentioned in
- none
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