Otomo Yoshihide & Chris Pitsiokos (USA/JPN/DEU)
Friday, May 19, 2023 / 8 p.m.
Jewish Cultural Center „Oneg Shabbat” (Jevrejska 16)
The concert is organized with the support of the Goethe-Institut Belgrad and the City of Belgrade.
Chris Pitsiokos & Otomo Yoshihide (promo photo)
OTOMO YOSHIHIDE AND CHRIS PITSIOKOS’ collaboration began in 2018, when Otomo invited Pitsiokos to perform in Sapporo International Art Festival in Japan. There the two were immediately united by their shared musical interests, or to put it differently, their shared interest in music as a whole, without a concern for genre.
The music that Otomo (guitar, turntables) and Chris (saxophone, electronics) make follows suit, sliding intuitively between noisy abstraction, free jazz, improvised music, and musique concrète – from dense and emotive squalls of sound to quiet restraint.
Since their first meeting in Japan, the duo of Otomo and Chris has taken them to New York and to Europe on three tours.
Otomo Yoshihide (Yokohama, Japan, 1959) is a pioneer of electroacoustic improvised music. As a musician and producer, he is very active in the field of free improvisation, noise, pop… He has been experimenting with electronics for a long time, and his compositions draw inspiration from a wide variety of musical styles. Otomo has long been a member of the experimental rock band Ground Zero. After Ground Zero disbanded, Otomo’s sound markedly changed. His current sound embraces simplicity and texture over dynamism and instrumental virtuosity, in sharp contrast with the distinctive plunderphonics of his earlier style. He composes for film, television and other visual works.
Chris Pitsiokos (New York, USA, 1990) lives in Berlin. He is a world-renowned saxophonist, improviser, composer and multi-instrumentalist. Chris performed intensively throughout North and South America, Europe and Japan. He has developed a unique voice on the alto saxophone, expanding the expressive range of the instrument. Lately, Chris has developed interactive electroacoustic systems of saxophones and computer. He also composes music for film. His list of collaborators represents a who’s who of the luminaries in 20th and 21st century improvised music, experimental music and free jazz.
