Dito e Feito # 32 Yasuhiro Morinaga – For a Friend, To a friend, … Our Memories of Southeast Asia

Morinaga has been known for his ethnographic field recordings around Asia. He produces works that explore the origin of musical instruments and music culture of ethnic minorities from the perspectives of art and music anthropology. Morinaga’s works serve to encompass listeners and encourage awareness towards sounds that tend to go unnoticed.

Major exhibitions include his 3D immersive audiovisual installation Pollinators featuring beekeepers from the Hmong ethnic group in Northern Vietnam (Saitama Triennale 2020), and 3D sound concert for the silent film Setan Jawa, directed by the Indonesian film master Garin Nugroho (Japan Foundation Asia Center, 2019). Morinaga has also worked as a music director and sound designer for a number of films, performing arts and media installations that were presented at the festivals such as Cannes Film Festival (France), Venice Biennale (Italy), Berlin Film Festival(Germany), Wiener Festwochen(Vienna), Salone Internazionale del Mobile Milano (Italy), etc.

Morinaga currently lives in Lisbon, Portugal.

Artist: Yasuhiro Morinaga
Dramaturg: Yudi Ahmad Tajudin
Text: Gunawan Maryanto
Voice: Gunawan Maryanto and Bambang Mbesur
Sound Technical Advisor: Tecy Hirai
Binaural Mastering: Mine-chang
Special Thanks: Theater Garasi Indonesia
sound post-production: Sara Morais
original song from generic: Raw Forest
production: Teatro do Bairro Alto

This track is specially dedicated to Gunawan Maryanto who passed away in 2021. He was one of the most prominent poets in Java, Indonesia. Morinaga encountered him 5 years ago and since then, Morinaga worked and collaborated with Gunawan for a number of project.It is also dedicated to the talented voice artist from Surakarta, Bambang Mbesur who also passed away in 2020. So, this radio piece is dedicated to two of the mastery Indonesian artists.

NOTE: The texts in the track were created for the sonic theater project , “Gong ex Machina”, by Yasuhiro Morinaga+Yudi Ahmad Tajudin.

Use headphones for a better experience.

TEXT 1
(Be my back
I am a turtle traveling in time

The pounding gong composes the body we inhabit
Composing the islands we live in
Composing I
Composing you.

The vibration of the sound harbors the memories of a far and lengthy travel
That pounding gong
Reverberating time)

TEXT 2
[in the beginning was sound. A bang: be!
And then, vibration, a long hum that creates a wave
Creating space, and also: time
And then nebula, partly clumping up, hardening,
becoming planet.
Some infinite numbers of planets,
some trillions of galaxies.
And among them all a little dot,
so little it is insignificant: Earth: Us

In the beginning was sound
A bang and a long hum that create everything within
seven days)

TEXT 3
“Do you hear me?
Do you really hear me?
Do you understand me?
Really understand me?”

List of track:

Javanese instrument, Gender for Ruwatan rituals
[recorded in Yogyakarta, Indonesia]

Voice by Gunawan Maryanto & Rizman Putra
[recorded in Tokyo, Japan]

Threshing by Ede-Bih group
[recorded in Dak Lak, Vietnam]

Meras Gandrung by Haidi, the Osing group
[recorded in Banyuwangi, Indonesia]

Saggeypo by Kalinga group
[recorded in Luzon, Philippines]

Pinwheel by Ede group
[recorded in Buon Ma Thuot, Vietnam]