Henrique Iwao English Page

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§1. About Myself: I was born in 1983, in Botucatu, Brazil. As a kid, liked to draw collections of monsters and animals (one for each country / each region / each specialty). I was very quiet. Would listen to vinyl records by sitting on a pillow, facing the turntable, standing up just when on side was over to ask an adult to change it. My mom had to check if I was alive. In school, a decade later, somehow I combined playing Magic the Gathering, piano (Bartok’s Microcosmos) and in-line Hockey. That sport gave me bad wrist injury at 14. At that time I stopped with video-games as I discovered I could compose / make music (anyway, art performances were much more agonistic than pressing buttons). I still like to write reports (at 8, there was an interesting one about a cockroach). And little chronicles. My involvement with rock was unsuccessful, but the search for some of the energy of it still holds.

At university, studied musical composition, a bit of percussion and half of the statistics course. Would also do soundtracks for dance (Icatupe, Juliana França, Nina Giovelli), play in the overtly pretentious but quasi-band O “Mundo” entre aspas (The Quote Unquote “World”) and keyboards/piano improv in a trio with Lucas Araújo and Mário Del Nunzio. There I was one of the founders / organizers of the ENCUn (National Inventive Music Meeting / ex-National University Composers Meeting) and member of an anarchist radio (for real): Rádio Muda. Going to São Paulo at 2007, I did soundtracks for videos by Dalton Sala and dances by Luiz Fernando Bongiovanni (having to bow in the Theatre Municipal SP) and J. Gar.Cia and others. I continued to play with Del Nunzio and we founded Ibrasotope, a center for experimental music,  in december 2007. I was part of it till 2012. These years I wrote a master musicology dissertation on musical collage at USP and started the digital collections and alphabetical reordering projects (which also involved workshopping sound editing for people). Then went to play abroad 3 times (writing reports of how it was) and started to develop my current instrumental set (amplified table etc), with help of Marcelo Muniz. In the meantime I did some photo work (with a broken camera), video (daily life stuff, but with strange points of view) and installation (apart from scenographing with stuffed animals several concerts).

My money got short and I had to get a regular job. It was in Belo Horizonte, at a school of art and technology, Oi Kabum! were I taught sound art, recording and soundtrack from 2013-6. I got very into philosophy and wrote reviews for the online magazine Linda. Together with Matthias Koole, started playing and organizing the QIs (Wednesdays of Improvisation), with up to now more than 110 editions, aiming to inviting every and all artist and weird non-artist of the city as collaborator. There was a group of musical games, Coletivo D’Istante, where I played and conducted Cobra, by John Zorn. I managed to combine lights and noise in the duo with J.-P. Caron Epilepsia. Started learning japanese and french and grinding my coffee. After more than 10 years, feel like learned how to dance in Contact Improvisation Jams. Alas, Seminal Records was born in 2014, in collaboration with him, Koole and Sanannda Acácia etc.

§2. Chaos-Patch my Career: my current CV and portfolio should be available in pdf. My relevant art works are probably on item 3. What I can offer as services on 4 (performances, exhibitions, lectures, workshops). My double 2016 artist statement is already outdated; it is too centered on “music” (whatever that is) and, just maybe, the whole joke on curatorship in the right column is not so funny. About writing: I have still to translate texts to english, sorry, but I will 頑張ろう. My old style blog (chronicles, comments, daily life sound recordings, whatever) is portuguese based, and the only section of my  馬鹿巌 that is being translated is the one about anime (which may not be so helpful).

I have organized my complete discography at bandcamp. It includes my best yet album Digital Collections (musical collage) and also the two compilations of video works of mine (Vídeos 2003-2013 (rough and unpretentious) and Harry and Tom (video collage)). It includes my albums with former experimental pop band O “Mundo” Entre Aspas (2004-8), the contemporary music/improvisation duo with Mário Del Nunzio (2006-12), lightsystem-noise duo Epilepsia (with J.-P. Caron, 2013-), solos (I am Sitting in a Room remade, Beatles all at once, some organized silence, some protest performance banging pans), collaborations (early electroacoustic music) and lots of compilations in which I took part. Also: soundtracks for Dalton Sala’s videos (2007-8) and the short animations by Ismael Vaz de Araujo (2014), together with Koole and Scarassatti (for whom I mastered two albums; (in that matter, I am proud of the work on Valério Fiel da Costa‘s albums and Herbert Baioco’s debut). Unfortunately, me, Koole and Del Nunzio never released albums together, as Infinito Menos (but played here and there, including pieces by composers for the strange combination of electronics, two guitars and objects).

I am one of the founders and members of Seminal Records, a net label and a chaotic organization for experimental music, philosophy and arts. It has a bandcamp with lots of sound art/music albums from different artists. It has an archive, with auto-proclaimed bootlegs. It also has an youtube, with music videos, documental stuff and video works (some of them by myself). The events Quartas de Improviso (QI), BHNoise, Blitzkrieg Noise, Praça 6 and Avantgarden are organized under its name (by me, with help).

I play a lot of free improvisation gigs, with my self built instrumental set (amplified table, daily objects and toys). Other projects include G-Major, vaporwavy DJing as Daphine Jardin; maintaining that the 02nd of August is The National Day of the Fight Against Humanity; weird dancing and eye-performing in the multimedia work IMR; I compose concert music by demand (but most of it is almost infeasible). I am proud of some strange stuff like having dehydrated a watermellon (it took us 40 days), cultivating dead pixels and taking photos of rice and stuffed animals with a bended camera. etc.

If you think I am interesting enough in some way as to contact or follow, there is my facebook, my twitter or the mail [iwao at seminalrecords.org]

§3. Some Important Works by Year: presented as a list. For more information, photos and links to audio and video, link here.

2018. Blitzkrieg Noise. Series of videos of noise musicians playing at public spaces without prior arrangements.

2017. Manifestação Pacífica: Nada pode ter como seu destino outra coisa que não a sua origem (as hired sound artist). Multimedia art exhibition: 2 video loops, flyers, objects, sound collage (President Dilma’s impeachment votes), performance.

2017. Três-Tríade-Triângulo-Trio (with Infinito Menos: Del Nunzio-Iwao-Koole). Composition for 2 electric guitars, objects and electronics, with video score, circa 45 min.

2017. Dead and Dying Pixels. Video installation using a damaged projector with lots of dead and dying pixels, combined with colors which hide or show them. At the end the damaged pixels are draw on the wall.

2017. Rascunhos para Da Certeza (Drafts for On Certainty, with Matthias Koole). Reading of excerpts from Wittgenstein’s book, accompanied of electric guitar comments and slapstick sounds.

2017. Harry and Tom. 4 short movies, one feature, and 8 videos for installation using as material all appearances of the names of the hero and villain in the Harry Potter movies saga.

2016. Janela e Frestas. Series of photos of a very dirty window and of light gaps in a factory.

2016. Solo Discoteca. Vertical DJing of 48 to 64 playlists simultaneously, with solipsistic bonnets offered to the audience.

2016. Éter 3. Orange color fading to black, duration progressively longer. Three versions (10h06m, 55m, 34m).

2016. Mulheres. Sound installation using as material all women proper names appearing in Chico Buarque’s discography, sound-projected in a virtual 38 sound-source grid.

2015. Éter 2. Silent solo improvisation with long pauses and organization actions, sections defined by fading light. Has a silent album version – Éter (2015).

2015-on. Dia Nacional do Combate à Humanidade (National Day of the Fight Against Humanity). Creation of a date for performance and conceptual protests. For every August 02nd a text is made and a performance proposition to be executed.

2015. Desidratar uma Melancia (with Marco Antônio Gonçalves). Dehydrated watermelon as sculpture, photos of the process and music show of country music with noisy interventions.

2015. 31|01. Short movie combining the sound of Copacabana’s new year’s eve and images of the garbage disposed on the sand, as filmed at dawn, next morning.

2014. 13 Horas de Nada (Thirteen Hours of Nothing). Video with no image and no sound. Expanded and generalized version for visual or sound devices “24 Hours of Nothing” (2015).

2014. IMR (Inscrição-Memória-Rasura) (with Dorothé Depeauw, Mário Del Nunzio, Matthias Koole, Maya Dalinsky). Hybrid of contemporary dance, music, performance and video-art, using video-scores to determine actions and promote scenes such as the “dismembered body karaoke”.

2014. O Brasil Não Chega às Oitavas. Solo performance banging and destroying pans and utensils, while a period of a game of football is project, zoomed on the ball.

2013-on. QI (with Matthias Koole): “Wednesdays of Improvisation / Who Indicates”.  Series of free improvisation musical gigs + guests improvising or not so much, from artistic and non artist areas of action. More than 114 editions, mostly in Belo Horizonte.

2013. Praia: Antes… (with Kandyê Medina & Julia Salaroli). Video dance with 2 dancers in a beach, north of Brazil. Obtuse framings.

2013. Microshows 001-019. Series of very short music improvisations with low intensity instrumental sets in several public spaces. Filmed and edited as a video work.

2012. This Song is Twice Occurred. Composition for 6 players and conductor, circa 17 min, dedicated to Paulo Dantas.

2012. Mini-Tábua (with support from Marcelo Muniz). Musical instrument: an amplified wooden board with a piezo (contact mike) and a guitar pickup, and in early versions, an electret mike. Played with daily objects, toys and combined with no-input mixer and electronic effects.

2012. Radio Radio. Series of radio programs involving improvisation together with sounds of other radio channels retransmitted.

2012. Dentro. Sound Installation + photos. In an enclosed room, a play solo experimental improvisations with toys, mini-table and electronics. Or is it a recording? On the locked door some photos of the action, performed nude, are affixed.

2011-2013. Epilepsia: Death Raving (with J.-P. Caron). Two albums and a series of structured improvisations in drone / noise music + light systems. Digital reworking of the lights: 2017.

2011. Panótico Dn. Composition for electric guitar and electronics, dedicated to Mário Del Nunzio, 11 min. Explores different ways of playing the same note and attempts to notate imprecision as a parameter.

2011. P-Blob VVA (with Marcelo Muniz). Show of amplified lights and toys with self-made dimmers and stuff. Used also as part of Trio (with Andreia Yonashiro and Mário Del Nunzio).

2011. Uma Pequena Coleção de Quedas (A Small Collection of Drops). Short movie compiling objects falling and their sounds, then desynchronizing one from the other.

2011. Copacabana 2011. Short movie made walking on the beach side, 20x zoom and shaking the camera.

2010-16. Tábua Mobile (with Marcelo Muniz). Wooden amplified board instrument played with daily objects, electronic devices and toys. In several occasions, with participation of VJ Danilo_b. Burned on purpose in 2016 (see videos).

2010. CMP/OEPEC. Multimedia composition for video, electronics and two musicians performing objects, 20 min. The video combines collections of photos with score cues, while in the electronics there is an attempt to show the musicians errors to the audience.

2009-17. Coleções Digitais (Digital Collections). Musical collage works using the formula “all x of y in the m order”. Example: “all baby (and babies) words appearing in Britney Spears discography presented in chronological-album order”. Published partly in 2017 as an album.

2009-11. Bended Camera Photos (exhibited as 22 Photos). Series of photos taken with maximum ISO settings in a malfunctioning camera.

2008-12. Ibrasotopers. Scenography for concerts organized by Ibrasotope, made with stuffed animals.

2008. Verossimilhança do Espelho (with Mário Del Nunzio). Composition for keyboards, electronics and electric guitar, circa 30 min. Change of effects by one player affects only the other or both.

2oo8. Primeiro Acorde. Composition for keyboards and electronics, circa 14 min. Structured improvisation interacting with samples of beginnings of hit-songs.

2003-08. Electroacoustic Music. Compiled in the albums: Dance Music and Música Eletrônica 2004. Particularly interested in glitch and noise and musical collage though not only.

§4. Services: so that arrangements can be made; hire me etc! or just call me to do interesting stuff.

Concerts: I can offer some concert programs, for different types of spaces (concert room, gallery, open spaces, small venues, reasonably silent bars). These include:

  • Arquipélago, a concert for headphones. Comprised of Cidade Arquipélago, by Paulo Dantas, followed by Solo Discoteca, by Henrique Iwao.
  • Epilepsia: Death Raving (with J.-P. Caron). Noise show with light system. Requires small dark venue.
  • Henrique Iwao Solo #1: performance of O Brasil Não Chega às Oitavas. With a video screening of 31|01 prior or not.
  • Henrique Iwao Solo #2: Éter 3 (34 min version) or Éter 2 (30 or 58 min version), followed by Solo Discoteca.
  • Henrique Iwao & Matthias Koole: Drafts for On Certainty. Reading of excerpts from Wittgenstein’s book, accompanied of electric guitar comments and slapstick sounds.
  • Infinito Menos (Del Nunzio-Iwao-Koole): Brazilian experimental composers, including pieces by André Damião, Luiz Eduardo Castelões, Paulo Dantas and Valério Fiel da Costa.
  • Infinito Menos: Três-Tríade-Triângulo-Trio, a composition by the group for 2 guitars, objects and electronics, using video-score. 3 Solo preludes, 3 sections reflecting each one the personality of each member, a complex section composed extravagantly by the trio, and a coda.
  • Infinito Menos + Dorothé Depeauw & Maya Dalinsky: Inscrição-Memória-Rasura (IMR: “inscription-memory-erasure”), a multimedia work with video-scores for dance, music and performance, 50 min.

Contact Improvisation gigs: I dance CI since 2007, so there is plenty of experience to participate dancing, organizing and playing.

Free Improvisation: since 2012 I play my own self-built instrument (a wooden board with contact mike and guitar pickup) + daily objects, electronics, no-input mixer and effects. Before that, I would play piano and then keyboards (starting in 2004) and sometimes laptop. At the moment preparing a solo improv album. Recordings available include bootlegs of almost all of the more than 100 gigs on the QI events. There is Also:

  • Henrique Iwao @ Usina do Gasômetro (2016), a track for the compilation Rust the Iron Cancer.
  • Henrique Iwao & Matthias Kool @ Eimas (2012): slapstick free-improv (video).
  • Henrique Iwao & Mário Del Nunzio: Trios e Quartetos (2012), with Antônio Panda Gianfratti, Cesar Villavicencio, Cristiano Rosa (Pan&Tone), Lucas Araújo, Matthias Koole, Matheus Leston.
  • Henrique Iwao & Marcelo Muniz @ Plano-B (2011), a video.
  • Henrique Iwao: Improviso Solo (a video, 2010).
  • Henrique Iwao & Mário Del Nunzio: Sem Título, 13/12/09, No. 3, a track for the compilation CCJ Experimental (2009).

Played nearing 200 times, with many people, but a lot with Matthias Koole and Mário Del Nunzio, and then withLucas Araújo, Marcelo Muniz and Marco Scarassatti . Also played with -notyesus>, Adriano Monteiro, Antônio “Panda” Gianfratti, Blu, Cadu Tenório, Erick Drescher, Franziska Schroeder, Henrique Vaz, Hrönir, J.-P. Caron, Luo Chao-Yun, Pan&Tone, Paulo Dantas, Peter Jacquemyn, Marcos Campello, Natacha Maurer, Otomo Yoshihide, O Grivo, Tiago d Mello, Thomas Rohrer, Vanessa de Michelis, Valério Fiel da Costa, Xenia Pestova, Zbigniew Karkowski etc. The list is actually much bigger if considering people not from music, as the ons participating in the up to now 115 QIs (as in this video). I can also play solo, though only for half a concert (20-40 min).

Mastering. Mostly experimental music and sound art related. Apart from my own albums, some examples include:

Mixing. Mostly experimental, electroacoustic and sound art related, though I do know how to work other things out. Apart from my works and soundtracks, I did:

Soundtracks: I compose soundtracks, specially for dance and video. Used to do that more. Some works include:

  • Documentaries, dir. by Dalton Sala A Coleção e o Museu (Nemirovsky’s art collection) and Casas Bandeiristas, which I worked on the didactical module.
  • Augury, a dance by Andrea Krohn (2017); Duas Ilhas (2012), a dance by Kandyê Medina & Júlia Salaroli; Nihil Obstat (2010), a dance by Jorge Garcia; Babel (2010), a play dir. by Alvis Camozzi, text by Letizia Russo; Contra-Dança (2008), a dance by Luiz Fernando Bongiovanni for the Corpo Jovem de Baile da Cidade de São Paulo.
  • Mar de Brita, 46 animations by Ismael Vaz de Araujo. Improvised music soundtrack, played with Matthias Koole and Marco Scarassatti (2014).

Workshops:

  • Musical collage and plunderphonics workshop. Teaching sound editing through exercises in musical collage. Stimulating the capacity to infer “the idea” from a piece, from listening to it.
  • Musical Games and Improvisation. Practices of instrumental improvisation using several games, developed by the author, as starting point. May include John Zorn’s Cobra, if desirable.
  • Sound Haikai. As developed while teacher at the school of art and technology Oi Kabum! Belo Horizonte. First, exercises in short poems, examples. Then, work in sound recording, editing and mixing for the audio versions (with and without the spoken voice).

Video Screenings:

  • Harry and Tom, the Movie (2017, 2h40m)
  • Videos 2003-2013, a selection, with the possibility of live soundtrack with guest musicians.
  • Henrique Iwao: video-art. A selection of videos including 31|01; Praia, Antes; A Small Collection of Falls; Copacabana 2011; Microshows 001-019 and Harry and Tom I.