“In a traditional concert, sounds move and the audience remains seated”
In “Symphony for 20 rooms”,
The sounds move, the audience also moves.
In my “Omnibus music No.1 (1961),
sounds sit down, the audience visits them.
In “Exposition of Music,
sounds sit, the audience plays with or attacks them.
In “Moving theatre’ in the street,
sounds move in the street and the audience encounters them “unexpectedly” in the street.
– From Nam June Paik’s “New ontology of music” –

Over Music is an experimental music festival exploring a notion of the “ontology of music” that breaks the boundaries between sound performances and the audience. The program is an extension of the exploration of avant-garde music practiced by Nam June Paik and shared with John Cage and Karl-Heinz Stockhausen, as well as a reinterpretation of Nam June Paik as a composer who mixed performance and music.

Nam June Paik’s performances and happenings blurred the boundaries between musician, composer and audience thus transcending traditional art and sound practices to offer a ‘surprise’ experience. Over Music focuses on Nam June Paik’s new approach to arts and sound as well as role in Fluxus music. The program is not simply a celebration of Nam June Paik’s pioneering interest in experimental sound art. In addition it will aim to further develop accompanying theoretical events along with performances based on thorough research of Nam June Paik, music history and theory.

Yamakawa Fuyuki, creator of sound/visual installations and improvised musical happenings, picks up and amplifies the sound of his heartbeat with an electronic stethoscope. At the same time this triggers the lighting of a series of light bulbs that oscillate simultaneously with the heartbeats, themselves cadenced to the rhythm of his ‘Khoomei’, a form of popular Tuvan (central asian) overtone singing in which Yamakawa excels, characterised by diplophonia, which is the contemporary emission of two sounds requiring total control of one`s breathing. Through his vocalisation, he controls his heartbeat`s speed and velocity.

While having his fascination with the functions of the human body, Yamakawa also has a storong interest in the relationship between voice and memory. In the installation piece “the Voice-over”, which was exhibited in Busan biennale 2008, it`s material was provided from the voice recordings of his late father Yamakawa Chiaki, a newscaster for Japan`s largest TV station. The “voice” used in installation symbolizes certain era in Japan`s history, and at the same time, touches a personal memory of the artist.

Both of Yamakawa Fuyuki`s works, performances and Installations, explore empathetic and emotional responses to organic phenomena of human body: such as heartbeats, breathings, and voices.