Japanese-American keyboardist Yuka C. Honda gave a mind-blowing and moving rendition of various numbers from her project. Eucademix, as part of the virtual program Cross-border-New York, broadcast on Thursdays by the Music Directorate of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
The cycle is curated by musician John Medeski, recorded at Woodstock Studio in New York. It is about disseminating musical projects generated in different parts of the world, through audiovisual presentations made especially for an online audience.
In this regard, Medeski points out that the current Covid-19 pandemic has been “very difficult for musicians. We haven’t had much opportunity to play in public ”. Medeski included some of his favorite New York musicians, including Marc Ribot, Zeena Parkins, Jen Shyu and Honda, as well as a special ensemble featuring Medeski, Billy Martin, Charlie Burnham and Allison Miller.
Honda, a composer of electronic and experimental music, performed the works Shapeslifting Orbit, Shapeshifting Chromosome Y Shapeshifting Melanin, of different lengths and complexities. Throughout 29 minutes, the “audio visual” artist was not still for a second, but was always aware of her electronic-sound equipment, while moving absorbed by the music she produced. The last piece even featured special effects.
Eucademix is a solo project by Honda, co-founder of the band Cibo Matto, which she founded in 1994 together with Miho Hatori, which stood out for its big band sound, although she was the only instrumentalist.
Born in Tokyo, Honda spent part of her childhood in Germany and Denmark. He attended school in Aix-en-Provence, France, before moving to New York in November 1986. Although he had some classical training, he never thought he would be a musician. When he arrived in New York, he was writing for a Japanese food magazine.
In 1988 he made his debut at the New York club CBGB’s as a keyboardist, alongside Greg Cohen and Michael Blair. A year later, she started the band The Flaming Hoops, with her then husband Dougie Bowne, EJ Rodríguez and Erik Sanko, and recorded an album.
When performing a remix of the song Talking To The Universe, From Yoko Ono, Honda met Sean Lennon, with whom she related from 1996 to 2000, at the same time that she produced her album Into The Sun. After the dissolution of Cibo Matto in 2001, Honda’s work focused more on the New York scene and collaboration with musicians from that city.
In 2009 she worked as an assistant producer at Between My Head and The Sky, Yoko Ono album. At the end of that year and beginning of 2010 he participated as a member of the reformed Plastic Ono Band with which he gave concerts in Tokyo and New York.
Medeski is a keyboardist and composer for the avant-garde New York jazz scene. The Woodstock Studio has produced albums for Amanda Palmer, The New Pornographers, Blondie, King Crimson and Medeski, and Martin and Wood.
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