76. Asuna

Illustration by Lani Morrison

Asuna is a Japanese sound artist and musician who has been performing and releasing albums since the turn of the century. I first became aware of Asuna’s music when his album “Organ Leaf” was released as part of the Sparkling Composers series in the early aughties via Lucky Kitchen Records, whose founders Alejandra and Aeron featured back on Low Profile episode 48. In 2014, when I was on tour with LAKE, I asked our tour manager Koji about a handful of my favorite Japanese artists, and when I mentioned Asuna, he said we would be playing a show together in a couple nights, and later in the week we would be staying the night at his family’s farm house. The rest is history. Last year, he visited the USA as part of worldwide tour performing his immersive sound installation, “100 Keyboards.” With translation help from Mami Takahashi, we were able to record an interview at the Portland Institite for Contemporary Arts, which you are about to hear. We’re talking about his early works up to his latest projects, the logistics of traveling with 100 keyboards, his connection to the experimental music scene in the Pacific Northwest, and the blurry line between noise and ambient music.

Asuna has several releases for digital purchase on his bandcamp site. He also has a number of albums available on various streaming platforms.

100 Keyboards (performance excerpt)

100 Toys (Performance Excerpt)