The Tokyo composer and acoustic researcher joins us through an interpreter to discuss ‘Anechoic,’ his EP in the lineage of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s late work, and the ambient music for airlines and resorts that he backs with medical evidence.
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This week we’re putting The Tonearm’s needle on Tokyo composer Bajune Tobeta, who met Ryuichi Sakamoto through his audition radio show and has since written practical, environmental and his own artistic music.
We talk about why distance between artists leaves room for imagination, music made for people who aren’t listening, and the Sergio Mendes records his father played at home. It’s also our first conversation here through an interpreter, Miki Hirai.
(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are "After the Silence" with Christian Fennesz, "Anechoic," "Gymnopedie (AOKI takamasa Remix)," and "Satie’s Dream" from Anechoic, and "Agua de Beber" and Febian Reza Pane’s "The Look of Love" from Sergio Mendes Tribute)
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00:00 Introduction
01:26 First Hearing YMO and Sakamoto
02:23 The Radio Sakamoto Audition
03:15 Sakamoto’s Ear for New Talent
04:25 Anechoic in the Line of async and 12
05:55 Learning From Sakamoto Without Copying Him
07:36 Murakami’s Noisy City and Walled Town
10:33 Ma and the Sound of the City
11:49 Working With Fennesz From Tokyo
13:36 Distance, Subtraction, and Imagination
15:17 Handing Tracks to AOKI takamasa
18:14 Collaboration as Playing Catch
19:38 Satie’s Furniture Music
21:45 Music for Takeoff, Landing, and Sleep
23:13 His Father’s Sergio Mendes Records
26:50 The Path Forward
28:21 How Does Sound Enter the Body?
29:25 Medical Evidence for Functional Music
31:26 Music Made to Be Heard
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Visit Bajune Tobeta at → https://bajune.com
Purchase ‘Anechoic’ and ‘Sergio Mendes Tribute’ from Bandcamp → https://bajunetobeta.bandcamp.com
or Qobuz → https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/interpreter/bajune-tobeta/366163
and listen on your streaming platform of choice → https://lnk.to/cSQvVn1q21
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