Ryoko Akama
2 Compositions
I have collaborated with Bruno Duplant on various projects over the last three years since I participated in Presque Rien (Rhizome-s) in 2013. Only a few people have met actual Bruno, and I have only worked with him via virtual exchanges. It was when I was feeling the limitation to pursue compositional projects only in the net that the idea of this collaboration was brought up. I immediately reacted with hesitation but Ko emailed me; "It would be very interesting to record materials like this. I…
sisbiosis
*In process of stocking* Erstwhile presents sisbiosis, collaboration album by Clara de Asís and Ryoko Akama, mastered by Taku Unami. Photography by Clara de Asis (black and white) and Ryoko Akama (color). Six-panel digipak.
Clara de Asís - electronics, percussion, field recordingsRyoko Akama - amplified objects, field recordings
Track 1, 2: recorded and mixed by Clara de Asís in Leymen, France in May 2022
Track 3, 4, 5: materials recorded by Ryoko Akama and Clara de Asís in Leymen, France and Ho…
Songs For a Shed
Songs for a Shed is a testament to the creative evolution and gentle inventiveness of Ryoko Akama, realized in close collaboration with the musicians of Apartment House. The album unfolds as an engaging exploration of timbre, space, and melody, moving with characteristic restraint and an ear for sonic nuance. Rather than leaning into complexity for its own sake, the music privileges clarity, attentiveness, and an affection for the understated beauty of ordinary sounds.
Central to the album’s ide…
Places and Pages
Places and Pages gathers fifty text scores from Ryoko Akama, performed by an ensemble comprising Akama herself, Cristian Alvear, Cyril Bondi, D’incise, Stefan Thut, and Christian Müller. Each miniature acts as a sonic experiment - many lasting under a minute, some stretching further - where single instructions (“strike one page,” “listen to the laces slowing down,” “roll a ball until it stops”) yield fragile, ephemeral performances. The project, realized in Switzerland, embraces open instrumenta…
immobilite
Although living in separate European countries, Akama (electronics) and Duplant (organ, electronics) have forged a strong musical bond on a handful of collaborative releases, often with titles related to nothingness, which, in turn, mirrors the minimal, contemplative drone pieces contained therein. As its own titling suggests, immobilité (“immobility”) extends their musical concerns, and distills them in an extraordinarily rich way. More textural than event-based, these pieces are exquisitely pa…
Next to Nothing
Next to Nothing brings together Ryoko Akama (VCS3 synthesizer), Dominic Lash (double bass, clarinet, laptop), and Bruno Duplant (percussion, tone generator) for four works devised as text scores. Recorded in Sheffield, the album explores the hyper-minimal edges of sound, asking what music remains when nearly everything is removed - when process, gesture, and form are pared to their limits. The trio’s approach is not about the absence of activity, but about amplifying the tiniest events: tones, t…