another artist that i am happy to have found via active suspension is a japanese singer songwriter – or folk ‘guitar sorcerer’ if the AS website is to be believed – called shugo tokumaru. active suspension are french but they have a few japanese connections, one of the members of the konki duet is japanese too. from the AS website:
please try to list the 5 things you like most in life: making music. movie. milk. Kyoto. UFO.
i like milk too!
an endearing message left in his myspace profile: THERE’S ONLY ACOUSTIC INSTRUMENTS THAT HE PLAYED WITH SOME SIMPLE EFFECTS. shugo has supported an impressive list of modern hippies (m ward, animal collective, iron & wine, why – he’s also a member of damo suzuki’s international network) so i’m kind of surprised i haven’t heard of him before, but i don’t think his material has any distribution in australia (please someone prove me wrong). a friend of mine would describe his music as “folk +1″. but hey all i need to tell you is to look at that photo up there – i know you can’t resist a cute japanese man with an acoustic guitar.
3 comments:
Hi Faux… I just realised I am going to see this guy play with Damo next week. How interesting. I thought I would let you know.
Amber
yeah he totally plays with damo’s network. i read the other day in the damo newsletter that his band in melbourne this time around included not just dave and ed from augie march, but also nick seymour from crowded house and tony buck from the necks. crazy. and ollie olsen aka max q. mmm.
it was cool to read damo’s thoughts on melbourne too, he basically calls it his second home. made me feel proud of our town (well, my town, not your town “the bash”)
anyway i’m jealous. i’m really enjoying shugo tokumaru at the moment.
I am a very big fan. I got his records when I was in Tokyo the year before last… I can see why you’d like him too.
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