Sound artist and composer FUJI||||||||||TA shares his latest work on the pipe organ, opened by contrabass clarinet duo, John McCowen & Madison Greenstone.
FUJI||||||||||TA ’s latest set, A School of Sardines in the Pipe is a minimalist exploration of airwaves using just two organ pipes and an airbrush. While it marks a clear departure from his previous drone-approach, his commitment to acoustic sonic expression remains intact, and now pushed even further toward an extreme and highly personal style.
John McCowen & Madison Greenstone have been working together as a clarinet duo since 2016—exclusively performing John McCowen’s Mundanas works. Mundanas VII-XI (Mengi Records, Winter 2025) is a work inspired by the earthquake vibrations preceding the Fagradalsfjall volcanic eruption of March 2021 near John’s home in Reykjavík, Iceland where he recorded the demos for the album in his basement studio. For John, the earthquake’s rolling vibrations unconsciously shaped the music of Mundanas VII-XI, as recording was interrupted by a persistent pulse for weeks leading up to the eruption. The incredibly low, sine-like tone of the earthquakes created an incredible ever-increasing, visceral vibration. The parallels between this experience and the music are unambiguous — two contrabass clarinets emanating low, sine-like tones with shifting harmonics activated by these rumbling swells, emerging a wave of combinatorial frequencies — an acoustic stream of almost tactile sound.
A livestream will be available free of charge at 8pm on the day of the performance and archived for future viewing.
FUJI||||||||||TA is a sound artist and composer based in Japan. He creates unique sound art and music as an extension of his interest in wanting to hear unknown sounds and noises. In 2009 Fujita hand fabricated an original instrument, a pipe organ. Since then, he has released a number of different minimal sets where the sound of air is used as a common thread. The release of his 2020 album iki on Swiss label Hallow Ground led to wider recognition beyond Japan, particularly in Europe and North America. Since then, he has performed in a wide range of venues and festivals internationally.
When he build his pipe organ, he had no knowledge of the experimental organ scenes in Europe, North America, or any other context. It was precisely this lack of awareness that gave rise to his unique approach one that emerged from a personal and intuitive place, outside of any established musical context. This approach remains central to his practice today, as he continues to prioritize personal exploration and curiosity over convention, pursuing a highly individual style and a deep commitment to his own sonic sensibilities.
His works have been presented at Unsound Festival(PL), Rewire Festival(NL), Big Ears Festival(US), Send+Receive(CA), Variations Festival(FR), Volume Festival(AUS), MODE(UK), Waking Life(PT), Bourse de Commerce(FR), Pioneer Works(US), and more.
FUJI||||||||||TA’s body of work also features collaborations with ∈Ｙ∋ (Boredoms), Keiji Haino, Rashad Becker and others. His albums are “iki” [Hallow Ground], “KŌMORI” [Boomkat Editions], “NOISEEM” [33-33], “MMM” [Hallow Ground].
John McCowen’s musical life is rooted in an obsession with discovering a polyphonic language on a historically monophonic instrument — the clarinet. This has led him to a unique acoustic vocabulary that is akin to a shifting soundscape of electronic feedback. John’s multiphonic approach embraces drones, difference/combinatorial tones, and beating harmonics as a means to showcase the compositional potential within a single, acoustic sound source. His work has been described by The New Yorker as “the sonic equivalent of microscopic life viewed on a slide” and “an astonishing demonstration of pure sound and human will” by The Wire. Recorded documents of this practice have been released by Edition Wandelweiser, International Anthem, Astral Spirits, Dinzu Artefacts, Superpang, and others. John has been Artist-in-Residence at Headlands Center for the Arts, ISSUE Project Room, & Lijiang Studio. John has collaborated extensively with the founder of The Art Ensemble of Chicago and Roscoe Mitchell (member of Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians). He has orchestrated, arranged, and transcribed Mitchell’s works for orchestras and other ensembles, as well as performing as a duo of bass saxophone and contrabass clarinet.
Madison Greenstone is a clarinetist, writer, and composer based in Brooklyn known for their ‘revelatory’ (Pitchfork) performances. Their solo practice exstatic resonances explores ‘shatteringly intense’ (Nowhere Street) instrumental expressions that give rise to a ‘thrilling rawness’ (The Wire) as the clarinet is treated as a site of generative instability. Exstatic resonances draw on ongoing studies in phenomenology, self-generative music, Jewish mysticism, and acoustics. Their approach embraces and instigates chaotic timbral actions, difficult-to-reign sonorities, and harmonically rich and noisy resonances that have a vivid inner life and movement.
