Pan Asia Sounding Festival
Yuka C Honda's "No Revenge Necessary"
6pm doors • 7pm show
About
The Pan Asia Sounding festival offers a fresh perspective on a vibrant continent with groundbreaking performances that focus on the ever-evolving present and future of Asian music and art. Too often, Western presentations of Asian artists focus exclusively on ancient cultural traditions. Curated by Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Du Yun, the Pan Asia Sounding festival explodes this biased lens by presenting new works on the cutting edge of contemporary performance.
The festival continues with No Revenge Necessary, an original multimedia opera hailed as the “newest adventure in mind-melding sound wizardry” (Observer) by Japanese-born composer, librettist, and director Yuka C Honda.
From the composer:
No Revenge Necessary is a story about humans surviving in an environmentally scarred future. The story contains a surprise that awakens us to the quality and beauty that we as humans possess.
The setting takes place in a future where conditions on Earth have become dire. World leaders rely on Artificial Intelligence (AI) to calculate what the best means for human survival are, which has resulted in AI creating a colony in outer space. Humans are faced with a choice, and many choose to leave, departing in a massive spaceship to a new home. The humans who elected to stay—in a sense, to be sacrificed—are told by the AI that they are actually the ones who will save Earth, as they possess the character and inner strength required to do so – a surprising revelation.
To cope with and survive the poisonous atmosphere, these remaining humans elect to become hybrids. These hybrids must also contend with two Earthlings who refuse to change their biology, thus living in isolation.
Performers:
Jaiko (hybrid) — Jaiko Suzuki
Akio (hybrid) — Akio Mokuno
Rebecca (human) — Rebecca Wright
Greg (human) — Greg Fox
Echo (AI anima) — Satomi Matsuzaki
Prism (AI anima) — Kahimi Karie
Chai Neeloo (AI anima) — Niki
Uture (AI anima) —YoshimiO
Baku (eats dreams) — Buttercup
Musicians:
MD, electronics — Yuka C Honda
Drums, triggers — Greg Fox
Guitar — Nels Cline
Artistic Team:
Film Director — Yuka C Honda
Director of Photography — Satoshi Tsuchiyama
Director of Photography — Joseph Patrick Conroy
Film editing — Christian LeMay
Face painting — Michael Arthur
Max programming help — Akio Mokuno
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
Tickets
The Artists
Yuka C Honda is a musician, producer, composer, and performer. Born in Tokyo, Honda spent part her childhood in Dusseldorf, Germany, and in a small village in Denmark. She feels that having lived in different countries and learned different languages before her foundation was formed had a major influence on her music, in which her major interest is in the integration of elements which may initially seem foreign. As such, her work naturally defies the concepts of genres and borders.
Currently residing in New York City, Honda is best known for the band Cibo Matto, which she co-founded with Miho Hatori in 1994 and in which she created a unique one-man-band sound by triggering samples live. Honda has released three solo albums (on the Tzadik label) and has produced recordings by Sean Lennon, Martha Wainwright, YOKO ONO PLASTIC ONO BAND, and Cibo Matto.
She has recorded and performed with a wide range of musicians such as Yoko Ono, Esperanza Spalding, Bernie Worrell, Marc Ribot, Laurie Anderson, Sean Lennon, YoshimiO (of The Boredoms), Kimbra, Thomas Bartlett, Trixie Whitley, and Nels Cline, among others.
Honda’s current projects include: Cup with Nels Cline (guitar); Revert to Sea with Nels Cline (guitar), Alex Cline (drums, percussion, voice), Zeena Parkins (harp), and Devin Hoff (acoustic bass); and Limbs with Susie Ibarra (percussion), Kazu Kumagai (tap dancer), and Andrew Nemr (tap dancer). She also performs as a solo electronics artist which she named EUCADEMIX.
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