Pearls by Neo Archē

Neo Archē explores new possibilities for ancient Japanese instruments only used in Gagaku ceremonial music (the shō mouth organ, the gaku-biwa lute, and the uchimono percussion set). We use the tuning, some melodic segments, and the modes of classical Gagaku, which often date back to almost a millennium, but with a contemporary sensibility, and a large part of our music is improvised. In Pearls they continue these experiments in improvised world/ambient music, this time with the contribution of guest artists (musicians, a poet, and a painter) from the US, Japan, and Italy. The result oscillates between free jazz and contemporary classical music, with touches of progressive rock.

This project was born out of lockdown. We use elements from Gagaku (the ancient music of the imperial court of Japan), some more than 800 years old, combined with ambient, minimal, contemporary, and world music, in a context of free improvisation.