a review by Rachel Carvosso / freelance writer

Carefully weaving narrative and sound he gently leads us into a completely new space.
An ordinary straw is transformed from a branded cafe´’s expendable goods into a kind of flute, the dry sound echoing against bells and the sound of a gamalan ball.

Using a mixture of traditional instruments and everyday objects sound artist Mamoru creates performances of live looped “noise”. The delicate, mesmerizing and fragile sounds open our eyes and ears to the wonder of the ordinary. At a recent performance in Tokyo he spent a large part of the performing explaining his process and yet this had more in common with storytelling.

Sound is a non-verbal form of communication that can express and evoke emotions that are impossible to definitively tie to language. Sound causes vibration affecting our physical bodies. His performances skillfully move between two very distinct modes− the verbal and non-verbal yet they become complimentary ultimately occupy a space that is neither merely descriptive nor phenomenological. Through playing with meaning and deconstructing our expectations his performances share certain characteristics with the Fluxus happenings and the work of John Cage.

His work is expressive and sincere, nuanced and subtle. The “readymade” is re-established as an object open to personal re-interpretation. Our sense of discovery and childlike wonder in being here, now and are reawakened as the possibility of beauty in the most unexpected of places and things appears.