Along with Dasha Rush, Kyoka is the female exponent of the recent catalogue from Raster-Noton, the prestigious label founded by Frank Bretschneider, Alva Noto and Olaf Bender and the flagship of minimalist experimentation, which this year celebrates its twentieth anniversary. This multidisciplinary Japanese artist divides her time between Tokyo and Berlin. Her highly unique style combines disjointed (but still danceable) rhythms with vocals, techno beats, and micro-sounds and glitches which are characteristic of Raster-Noton. Her most recent EP “SH” (r-n 2016) takes a more contained and minimalist approach to her ordered chaos, using a feverish abstraction which is close to deep techno dub.
Kyoka arrives after performing in festivals such as CTM-Transmediale, Volt and Sonar Tokyo, and after mesmerising starts like Ryuichi Sakamoto, who said of Kyoka: “Panic! It sounds like a toy box turned upside down. How can she make such pretty and chaotic sounds!? I love it!”.
Kyoka arrives after performing in festivals such as CTM-Transmediale, Volt and Sonar Tokyo, and after mesmerising starts like Ryuichi Sakamoto, who said of Kyoka: “Panic! It sounds like a toy box turned upside down. How can she make such pretty and chaotic sounds!? I love it!”.