Although he originally hails from Japan, Sato Yukie (you know, 佐藤行衛) has been a crucial figure in a small but tight knit circle of Seoul experimentalists. For one, he organizes one of the few regular experimental showcases in town, Bulgasari. He also happens to be Seoul's finest exporter of whacked out noise. His improvisations usually involve an electric guitar played with chopsticks, a rotating cast of rubber ducks, light up guns and anything else with a cheap speaker to feed through his pickups. All this crowds a few dozen pedals and electronic devices. The result comes out something like a zany retelling of Kagel's Acoustica plus updated electronics, psyched out wah and tape speed manipulation.
Sato Yukie - Yeoboseyo
The above track is a 2000 recording from the "Solo 1977-2000" CD on the now defunct
Jabrec label. The phone call which ends the recording was actually unplanned. Yukie "
was practicing acoustic guitar at home, and suddenly somebody called me. So I picked up the phone and said hallo! In 2000 we had no place to play noise/experimental music in Seoul, so I usually played at home." His earlier recordings from this CD reveal Yukie's roots in harsh noise and his unusually early fascination with experimental improvisation. Yukie has continued to perfect his act in the live setting (often at Seoul's experimental venue Yogiga) with more visual elements added. Below is a portion of a live set recorded in the Netherlands last year. More clips from the same show and other shows can be found here.
You, sirs and ladies, have been Dardosed! As in, you are now official winners of the Dardos Award. That's how much I enjoy and admire your blog and what you're trying to do with it.
"The Dardos Award is given for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing. These stamps were created with the intention of promoting fraternization between bloggers, a way of showing affection and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web."
There are rules, however:
1) Accept the award by posting it on your blog along with the name of the person that has granted the award and a link to his/her blog. (You can get the image from my blog.)
2) Pass the award to another five blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgement, remembering to contact each of them to let them know they have been selected for this award.
Take your bows!
Jeff
(The Easy Ace)
Posted by: Jeff | January 29, 2009 at 08:20 PM
Very nice, Nash - I love how you can find this.
so I usually played at home - I like the implication that there ought to be a 'place' where one can go and rehearse experimental music. Fir me it's got to be the 'home' or the nasty, big ol' big ol'.
Posted by: Gwilly | January 31, 2009 at 03:13 AM
The videos are not showing up on Firefox again...
Posted by: Penelope | February 01, 2009 at 01:54 PM