Tatsuya Nakatani at Gardenalia

Tatsuya Nakatani is an avant-garde sound artist and master percussionist originally from Osaka, Japan. Based in the USA since 1994, he lives in Truth or Consequences, NM. Since the late 1990’s, Nakatani has released over 80 recordings in the USA and Europe and has toured extensively; performing solo, in collaboration with other artists, and with his large ensemble project - the Nakatani Gong Orchestra. He presents masterclasses, workshops, and lectures across the USA and around the world.

Nakatani’s approach to music is visceral, non-linear and intuitively primitive, expressing an unusually strong spirit while resisting genre. He creates sound with both traditional and extended percussion techniques. Utilizing his adapted bowed gong, drums, cymbals, singing bowls, metal objects and bells, as well as various sticks, kitchen tools, and his breath he manifests an intense and organic music that represents a very personal sonic world. His approach is steeped in the sensibilities of free improvisation, experimental music, jazz, metal and noise, and yet retains the sense of space and quiet beauty found in traditional Japanese folk music. His percussive instruments can imitate the sound of a trumpet, a stringed instrument, an electronic device…to the extent that it becomes difficult to recognize the source of the sound. He has devoted himself to a musical aesthetic where rhythm gives way to pulse, often in a way that is not always audible or visible, in currents that incorporate silence and texture. Nakatani’s primary music activities include solo percussive performance, his Nakatani Gong Orchestra (NGO), and collaborations with musicians and dancers both in live performance and recordings. ...

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Tatsuya Nakatani is an avant-garde sound artist and master percussionist originally from Osaka, Japan. Based in the USA since 1994, he lives in Truth or Consequences, NM. Since the late 1990’s, Nakatani has released over 80 recordings in the USA and Europe and has toured extensively; performing solo, in collaboration with other artists, and with his large ensemble project - the Nakatani Gong Orchestra. He presents masterclasses, workshops, and lectures across the USA and around the world.

Nakatani’s approach to music is visceral, non-linear and intuitively primitive, expressing an unusually strong spirit while resisting genre. He creates sound with both traditional and extended percussion techniques. Utilizing his adapted bowed gong, drums, cymbals, singing bowls, metal objects and bells, as well as various sticks, kitchen tools, and his breath he manifests an intense and organic music that represents a very personal sonic world. His approach is steeped in the sensibilities of free improvisation, experimental music, jazz, metal and noise, and yet retains the sense of space and quiet beauty found in traditional Japanese folk music. His percussive instruments can imitate the sound of a trumpet, a stringed instrument, an electronic device…to the extent that it becomes difficult to recognize the source of the sound. He has devoted himself to a musical aesthetic where rhythm gives way to pulse, often in a way that is not always audible or visible, in currents that incorporate silence and texture. Nakatani’s primary music activities include solo percussive performance, his Nakatani Gong Orchestra (NGO), and collaborations with musicians and dancers both in live performance and recordings.

Tatsuya Nakatani has spent the last 20 years traveling and performing extensively throughout the United States and beyond. His constant touring fosters the raw and fresh quality in his music which can only survive through an open willingness to share energy, culture, music and self on a global human scale.

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