Posts Tagged ‘electronic’
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, January 5th, 2009
Solo artist Yoko K. blends classical training with modern sound
By Willona M. Sloan
So much more than techno: Yoko K. syncs synth with more traditional stylings such as voice, classical instrumentation and various other ‘organic’ influences to perfect a sound that’s a hybridity all her own. Courtesy of Yoko K.
Yoko K.’s ethereal voice levitates above electronic beats that somehow manage to soothe while invoking an insatiable desire to dance. As a solo artist, as well as the composer and lead singer for experimental electronic music ensemble aphrodizia, Yoko K. masters a clear understanding of the interplay between her voice and the rest of the group’s “hypnotic soundscape.”
Born and raised in Japan, Yoko K. is a classically trained musician who began studying music at a very young age. Despite her interest in various genres, including jazz, she said it wasn’t until she discovered electronic music that she found her “home.”
Yoko K. describes her original sound as existing within the genre of “organic electronica,” which relies on electronically produced rhythms and melodies geared to maintain a richness in quality and texture. “Electronica is the central aspect of the sound of my music, as it uses electronic instruments and technology. It is organic because the music incorporates various nonsynthetic sounds such as voice, classical instruments—flute, sax, violin, percussion, et cetera—played by other musicians and field recordings,” she said.
The compositions are about more than mere beats and melodies, she stressed, adding that she strives to express through her music what she referred to as her whole being and soul: “I think of hybridity when I think of my expression through music. Having lived this life in contradiction and having struggled to learn how to embrace it, I believe that those who share this inner experience in any form—young or mature, American or Japanese, and particularly those who have sought for alternatives and who have ever thought, ‘There must be some other way than this’—echo with something being encoded in this music that comes through me,” she said.
The sound waves have clearly reached out and touched somebody, earning her numerous accolades. Yoko K., currently at work on a second album, was the recipient of the Young Artist Grant and New Media and Audio Grant by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and she won the 2007 grand prize award in the Artists Forum-Electronic Music Competition. She has made a name for herself within the D.C. arts scene by performing in such spaces as the Irvine Contemporary and the Corcoran Gallery of Art and also jams with Dust Galaxy, the solo project of Thievery Corporation’s Rob Garza.
To hear sample tracks, log onto www.aphrodizia.net.
(September 2008)
