Concierto: Waterbowls - Tomoko Sauvage [Japón]

WATERBOWLS

Water, hydrophones, porcelain and glass bowls, stones, shells and electronics.

Sauvage has developed her original musical instrument, Waterbowls, by initially drawing inspirations from the traditional South Indian instrument, Jaltarang. Her long-term experimentation, enlivened by a tactile research on properties of materials, transformed water-filled porcelain bowls into an aqueous electroacoustic instrument. She animates the inanimate through tuning water and vessels, making them vibrate and magnifying their tiny sounds that are otherwise quasi-inaudible. In her amplified waters, Sauvage plays with water drops and waves, clay, stones, shells and glass objects as idiophonic or membranophonic instruments and often in combination with bubbles that are used to create a kind of underwater aerophones. Sauvage’s active use of acoustic feedback, a phenomenon generally considered troublesome, has led her to engage in an encompassing approach to the architecture, the acoustic space and the presence of all matters within. Her role as a performer can be interpreted as a gardener who controls the controllable, leaving the chance to unfold the rest.

Supported by La Pommerie/ CRAFT (creation of the porcelain bowls, Limousin, France) and Aquarian Audio (Hydrophones, USA).

Story of waterbowls

Born and raised in Yokohama, Japan, Sauvage moved to Paris in 2003 after studying jazz piano in New York. Through listening to Alice Coltrane and Terry Riley, she became interested in Indian music and studied improvisation of Hindustani music. In 2006, she attended a concert of Aanayampatti Ganesan, a virtuoso of Jalatharangam – the traditional Carnatic music instrument with water-filled porcelain bowls. Fascinated by the simplicity of its device and sonority, Sauvage immediately started to hit China bowls with chopsticks in her kitchen. Soon her desire of immersing herself in the water engendered the idea of using an underwater microphone and led to the birth of the electro-aquatic instrument.

Tomoko Sauvage is a Paris-based Japanese composer and artist who is best known for her long-time musical and performance practice on her original instrumentarium assembling water, ceramics and electronics. She animates the inanimate through tuning water and vessels, making them vibrate and magnifying their tiny sounds that are otherwise quasi-inaudible. Her work centers on tactile materiality of vibrant objects, metaphorical listening and the use of the chance as a compositional method. For two decades, she has been performing internationally at institutions and festivals such as Barbican Centre (London), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Maerz Musik (Berlin), Musée d’art moderne (Paris), Haus der Kunst (Munich), Nyege Nyege Festival (Uganda) and Wonder Cabinet (Palestine). Her installation and video works have been shown at Sharjah Art Foundation, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art.