iSummit attendees are invited to the SPECIAL DANCE PARTY featuring Oki Dub Ainu band and Marewrew Live Showcase on 30 July at 20:00, sponsored and organised by Digital Garage, Inc. The concert will be held at Jasmac Plaza Zanaedu (Minami 7 Nishi 3, Chuo-ku, Sapporo), and admission is free, though iSummit attendees need to bring their nametags to enter the event.Oki Dub Ainu band & Marewrew is a special rock band which revived tonkori, a traditional musical instrument of the Ainu. The Ainu are the indigenous people of the Hokkaido area, read more about their history and how their traditional art inspired the iSummit '08 logo in this blog post.
Sutekh is a electronic music artist based in San Francisco, who will be playing the Tenori-On. Tenori-On is a new digital musical instrument collaboratively designed by media artist Toshio Iwai and Yamaha.
DJ Toby and VJ Overheads will be performing during the concert as well.
The live event will be blending the old and new, analogue and digital, with musicians and performers. Meet the entertainers:
OKI DUB AINU BAND
Oki Dub Ainu Band is a Japanese/Ainu prog-rock. Oki, the band leader has popularised tonkori, the traditional string instrument of the Ainu, the native tribe in Karafuto. The sound of the ancient instrument is boldly electrified, strengthened by the heavy live sound of the bass and the drums mixed up with upopo (Ainu traditional songs) and rimuse (Ainu dances). It is a borderless fusion of Afro-groove, reggae, rock and minimal sound. In 2007, they performed at WOMAD (Singapore), the greatest music festival in the world and went on a world tour, visiting countries in Europe, such as German, Portugal and Spain. In February, 2008, they also performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. Having given great performances in overseas festivals and received enthusiastic recognition around the world, finally they will make a landing in Japan for the iSummit '08.MAREWREW
Marewrer is a group of four women, who perform traditional songs (upopo) and dances (rimuse) of several areas of the Hokkaido island. They are a very rare and valued band who can accurately reproduce Ainu trolls such as upopo, which are composed of various patterns of rhythm and referred to as natural trance music. They performed in Washington DC in February, 2008. They jointed "Japan tour 08" with Dub Ainu Band and performed at three live shows in Hokkaido island as guests. At present, they are considered the most remarkable band who attract much attention from artists and creators all over the world.
From 1997, San Francisco-based Sutekh has released electronic music under labels such as Soul Jazz (UK), Leaf (UK), Force Inc./Mille Plateaux (Germany), Orthlorng Musork (USA). Using computers, samplers, synthesizers, and various acoustic instruments, he has created everything from deep, minimal house and techno to dense, dissonant noise collage. His live performances have taken place at festivals, museums, and night clubs in more than 20 countries on four continents. Sutekh established Context Free Media and its associated record label in 1999. In his live show, he will give a performance playing Tenori-On.
