music
If we could describe Tashi Wada’s music in just one word, dreamlike would perhaps be the most appropriate option. Using unconventional tunings, experimenting with the limits of instrument distortion and unafraid to venture into more pop song structures, the composer explores states of resonance and dissonance to awaken different emotional realities.
Based in Los Angeles, he grew up surrounded by the avant-garde Fluxus scene in New York. In the apartment next door lived the choreographer Simone Forti and upstairs the historical Nam June Paik. Marilyn Bogerd, his mother, is a visual artist and his father is the legendary composer Yoshi Wada, a key figure in minimal music. For more than a decade, father and son have formed one of the most interesting partnerships in experimental and liturgical music, which culminated in Nue (2018), an album they have presented all over the world.
More than five years later, Tashi Wada returns to releases with what is his most vulnerable and introspective work to date. Written and recorded during a period marked by the death of his father and the birth of his daughter with Julia Holter, What is not Strange? sees the composer reflecting on the dichotomy of being alive and mortality. Letting the music guide itself, this album has an almost surreal landscape in which dense shapes and contrasts thrive. Accompanied live by Julia Holter’s hypnotic voice and Corey Forgel’s percussion, Tashi Wada interweaves vocal layers, synthesizer effects and detailed arrangements, finding a balance between the introspective and the expansive.
tashi wada
keybords, bagpipes, misc
julia holter
voice, keyboard, misc
corey fogel
percussion
support portuguese republic – culture / directorate-general for the arts. rtcp – network of portuguese theatres and cinemas
