Tectonics 2024 Artist Profile
Eiko Yamada
Born and raised in Tokyo/Japan, Eiko Yamada has lived and worked continuously in Germany since 1984.
Since studying Music in Berlin between 1979-1981 (1979-1980 as a scholarship beneficiary of the Japanese Ministry of Education and Culture), she has been looking for different and new musical forms and their aesthetic foundations. Considering improvisation as an important opportunity for this, Yamada gains experience in this area in various international formations (solo to large ensembles such as Ensemble X), also in collaboration with visual artists, dancers and poets, as well as in connection with various materials and architecturally specific environments of space, and this particularly in the work of the Berliner group Ex Tempore, which has developed a special type of music performance called “sound action”.
Her ongoing desire to discover and develop more authentic, personal sounds with her instruments is based on the sensitivity she has acquired through experimental and cross-disciplinary works for years.
Her new album “This Summer…” (released by Ftarri in December 2023, Hitori-995), for example, brings her musical thoughts and attitude to life.
Traces of Air (Kiseki気跡)
In the time and space that she shares with the audience, Eiko Yamada tries to make the air around us experienceable as a sounding figure.
Air.
This is a given for us.
Something that is usually outside of our awareness.
However, it is inextricably linked to playing the recorder.
The air becomes sound material by exploring, deepening and refining it using the playing techniques developed by the player herself. This sound material then takes form in real time
through the constant dialogue between the player and her instrument.
Traces of air will be left behind.
