acoustic music made with machines

SAMI ELU – KAZE WILL BE OUT SEPTEMBER 04 ON ALL PLATFORMS

Sami Elu

If you want to know how a DIY piano made of chopsticks sounds like, then you will find the answer here. Sami Elu builds his own instruments in Japan and creates a very personal music that no one else can make. For many years the composer and performer has been building various zithers, kotos, banjos, chimes, cowbells, and all kinds of sound makers.

With his chop stick piano called „Pixiecord“, which is amplified by electric pickups, Sami Elu plays in the streets of Tokyo or on the subway in New York City.
On a very early Sunday morning Sami Elu played a concert outside at the most famous crossroads of the world in Shibuya Tokyo directly in front of Henrik Schwarz‘ hotel. On the way home from a gig Henrik stopped and listened fascinated for a long time. But hear for yourself …
 
 

 
Sami Elu:

The pieces in 「kaze」 are all performed on the pixiechord and foot percussion. “風” [Kaze] (Wind) The opening passage of broken chords came to me at a nature park on the eastern mountain overlooking the city of Kyoto. The melodic lines came from playing it out on the streets, namely Kawaramachi station. Winds drove me to other places. A free section, mysterious drone beat, and a 5/8 pattern, improvised in the New York subway, came further into focus after performing off the cuff at a greenhouse art gallery in Tokyo with a dancer friend of mine, Kenjiru Bien (always an inspiration). It became a 20 minute extended piece. “For the People” is a staple song of mine that I’ve played probably hundreds of times since it was written in 2013. “Amrita” is a piece from 2019 inspired by a collaboration with a dancer and a film maker.
 
 

 
 
 

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