Whether it’s western music or improvisation, I don’t think that the music that today’s DJ, Yuichi Kishino, is playing right now would be considered great in a fundamentalist way. But an event like today’s is great. And what makes it great is different from how classical western music or improvisation is evaluated. For example, I think it’s a very western aesthetic for a story to be completed within an album, which is a fixed form of work. But music doesn’t just complete within an album. It’s a language that we use to feel and interact with one another.

At some point, my interest shifted in this direction and I started to think about how music works in a community. And this also meant to think about how music changes depending on the community. I take part in a group based in Kobe called “Otoasobi no Kai” (The Otoasobi Project) in which children with disabilities play music among other artists. I continue to be in this group not only because the sounds that they play are delightful, but also because my music changes as we play together. In this year’s (2019) Bon dance performance by Ensembles Tokyo, the fundamental elements like the rhythm and tempo were created through the collaborative work of the participants. The organic process of creating the rhythm of our Bon dance, without following an instruction from a musician or tradition, is something that hardly makes it onto a CD.