Next December will take place in Tokyo the 8th edition of the Japanese section of the Mutek electronic music festival. Since its inception, the initiative has contributed to nurturing and strengthening exchanges between players in the experimental electronic scenes here and in Japan. Moreover, the poster of this 24th edition in Montreal, in progress until Sunday, testifies to the strength of the links that have been created between the two communities over the years. Many Japanese creators have been invited to our house and, among them, the composer and singer Hatis Noit. This one will possibly offer the most unique performance of the festival on Saturday evening, at the Théâtre Maisonneuve, in that the only sound material she will use will be her own voice.
If we lived in the universe of superheroes, the story that Hatis Noit tells us would be what is called his “origin story” – the story of the creation of his character. From London, where she has lived for six years, she tells us: “I was 16 years old. My mother is a teacher, and she had agreed to go give Japanese lessons in Nepal, so I accompanied her. For a few days, we went to visit the village of Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha, according to tradition. We were staying in a very small temple administered by nuns. In the early morning, I heard someone singing…”
Attracted by the sound of the voice, Hatis got out of bed to find its source, the song guiding her into a small room in the monastery, “like a small chapel”. “And a single woman was there. You know, Buddhist chanting is very different from Japanese spiritual chanting, which is more cadenced, more rhythmic, whereas his was very melodic. It was so beautiful, so frank, so strong, she alone, without a choir… I then had this revelation: the human voice is a truly special instrument. I instantly wanted to use my voice in this way. To find my own voice. »
Although I greatly appreciate the Japanese musical tradition, I remember that my teacher misunderstood my approach; he didn’t see why I wanted to mix these different traditions.
Originally from the island of Hokkaido, Hatis Noit grew up in Osaka, then studied philosophy in Tokyo. She learned music on her own, except for a class given at university on hōgaku (traditional Japanese music), “but which was not about singing, more about history, the type of instrumentation, the dance too”. The musician creates a work whose main material is her own voice – worked in the studio, but above all steeped in different traditions of vocal art: traditional Nepalese, Japanese and Bulgarian songs, Gregorian chant, operatic chant.
“I am also drawn to the music itself and to the spiritual dimension of these songs,” recognizes Hatis Noit, who composed a prayer (Inori) dedicated to the memory of the victims of the tsunami that hit the Fukushima region in 2011. “ Although I greatly appreciate the Japanese musical tradition, I remember that my teacher misunderstood my approach; he didn’t see why I wanted to mix these different traditions. […] I admit that it made me anxious: everything I do, I do it with the greatest respect for musical cultures, that’s why I always specify the origin of my influences. »
Following his first mini-album, released in 2018, the English record company Erased Tapes (Nils Frahm, Ólafur Arnalds, Woodkid, Rival Consoles) released his first album last summer, entitled Aura, a reference to a concept describing the foundations of the artistic gesture as articulated by the German philosopher Walter Benjamin (1892-1940). The reviews were rave: through eight long original compositions recorded in Berlin just before the pandemic, Hatis Noit touches the heart with his chameleon voice, his mysterious and melodious tunes and the refinement of his orchestrations.
In concert, the Japanese performs solo, with audio equipment reduced to a bare minimum. “It’s basically just my voice, and a device I can loop sample it with, the BOSS RC-300 Loop Station, which also lets me change the shape and sound of it with a few effects, but I don’t only use one. »
The question then arises: what are you doing at Mutek, a festival devoted to electronic music, since your instrument is acoustic and your work celebrates the timbres and infinite emotions of the human voice? “Indeed, I must say that I was surprised to be invited to this festival, especially since I only work with one gadget! I would say that the reason why I was invited is that the festival is not only interested in technologies, but also in the relationship between these technologies and the human being. My way of making music using technologies is not so different [que celle des créateurs technos], insofar as this technology is basically a creative tool. »
“And in concert, if I use so few electronic instruments, it’s to try to be focused on the present moment and the places, to create the most tangible link with the audience. »
To see in video
2023-08-26 04:01:27
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