"Keyboard alchemist Motoko Honda, whose mix of piano and electronics is a sonic adventure all her own."
Chris Barton-Los Angeles Times
"Virtuoso technique paired with her intensely imaginative mind"
"constantly shifting sonic landscape of striking beauty"
Susan Dirende-LA Splash Magazine
"Embodiment of a Muse"
"At times she puffed up some Matthew Shipp storm clouds; at times she pounded wit ha grandeur and structure worthy of Prokofieve; her spare strokes on a tiny synthesizer added subtle dimension....Honda is a treasure"
Greg Burk-Metaljazz.com
"Imagine Radiohead teaching Franz List how to rock a KAOSS pad; or John Cage facing off with Bud Powell over prepared piano"
Matthew Duersten-Stompbeast.com
“Motoko Honda is a truly gifted and versatile artist. Her solo performance last year at the South Pasadena Music Center was truly one of the most stirring, beautiful, and eloquent things I have heard in years.”
Nels Cline-Wilco, The Nels Cline Singers
"Motoko's music is a direct, real-time expression of the Cosmos, the Mystery, whatever It is. To be able to feel this so strongly from a single human playing a grand piano is a moving and unforgettable experience."
Matt Piper-Musician, Author
"Motoko combines clear precision with a nuanced interpretation to animate a composition's personality."
James Grigsby-Composer
Composer/Performer
-Ms. Honda utiilizes acoustic piano with extended techniques and 21st-century technologies, effortlessly working with visual artists and dancers alike.
Compositions
For more info, click
Electroacoustic Solo/Duo
Solo (electronics, digital and analogue synthesizers, circuit bend keyboards and toy pianos)
Duo with Emily Hay (Flute. Vocal)
Duo with Joe Berardi (Drums. Electronics)
Duo with Matt Piper(Computer, Guitar)
Interdisciplinary Arts/Sound Arts
M-Rare Trio, Jesse Gilbert and Carole Kim
Japanese-Flamenco Dancer Midori Makino
Butoh Dancer Miyuki Kobayashi
Butoh Dancer Oguri
Kio Griffith (Visual Art)
Kamal Kozah(Vocal, Poetry, Art)
Fumiko Amano (Artist)
Nduku Roger(Poetry, Drum)
Group/Band
Sound Escape Project
Trio-Joe Berardi, Steuart Liebig
Trio-Jeff Gauthier, Maggie Parkins
Trio-Takafumi Kosaka, Eddie Brnabic
Electronic Music
Recordings/CD/Films
HERE
Classical/Contemporary
New Music/Jazz
-Armed with a formidable mastery of improvisation and music technologies, Ms. Honda is considered to be a leading interpreter of contemporary and new music. Equipped with training in classical techniques from a young age, she continues to be a passionate performer of classical and chamber music.
Classical/Contemporary/New Music
Solo
Los Angeles Piano Unit with Misuzu Kitazumi(piano) and Masumi Urakami (piano)
Duo with Tiffany Lin (piano)
Jazz/New Music
Duo with Yukari Black (vocal)
Chamber Music
Piano Accompaniment
I do not promote simply "to play the music", but the creative mind itself,
"to be playful" and "to have creative vision" which is going to reflect in
every aspect of our lives.
Motoko Honda
Education/Community
Working with the non-profit organization Angel City Arts, Ms. Honda is developing an innovative music-appreciation program for Los Angeles public schools. She also offers outreach workshops and educational consultation to the community.
Angel City Music Experience Program
with Angel City Arts , www.angelcityarts.org
Workshops/Consultaions
Community Outreach
CLICK HERE
PAST PERFORMANCES
Ford Theatre, Los Angeles, CA.
REDCAT/MOCA at disney hall, Los Angeles, CA.
Barnsdall Gallery Theatre, Los Angeles, CA.
Jazz Bakery, Los Angeles, CA.
The Stone, New York, NY.
Angel City Jazz Festival, Los Angeles, CA.
Spark Electronic Music Festival, Minneapolis, MN.
Boise Creative Music Festival, Boise, ID.
Outsound Music Summit, San Francisco, CA.
Cattedorale di Siena, Siena, Italy
Accademia Dei Rozzi, Sala Degli Specchi-Siena, Italy
19th San Quirico Estate Festival-San Quirico, Italy
Cortile Del Podesta -Siena, Italy
53rd Anniversary Concert of the Liberazione di Ponsacco-Pisa, Italy
Cattedorale di Pienza, Pienza, Italy
Montecatini Terme, Pistoia, Italy
Horti Leonini, San Quirico D'Orcia, Italy
"Ro", Nara, Japan
Maiden Voyage, Koube, Japan
Cafetin, Ohsaka, Japan
Bistari, Sendai, Japan
El-Park Sendai, Sendai, Japan
Asian American Jazz Festival, Los Angeles, CA.
Museum of Neon Art, Los Angeles, CA.
Park City Music Festival, Park City, UT.
Ear Jam Music Festival, Los Angeles, CA.
Hugely Tiny Music Festival/Pasadena City College, Pasadeana, CA.
Sonic Circuits, Washington, DC.
Resbox, Los Angeles, CA.
Musicians Union Hall, San Francisco, CA.
Line Space Line festival, Los Angeles, CA.
Lilian Theater, Los Angeles, CA.
Cafe Metropol, Los Angeles, CA.
Eagle Rock Cultual Center, Eagle Rock, CA.
Echo Curio, Los Angeles, CA.
Club Tropical, Los Angeles, CA.
Comet Pingpong, Washington, DC
UndergrounDNUOS/Amoeba Music, Los Angeles, CA.
Los Angeles Harbor City College, Los Angeles, CA.
MORE
South Pasadena Music Center, South Pasadena, CA.
Highway Performance Space, Venice, CA.
ResBox, Hollywood, CA.
The Chapel Performance Space, Seattle, CA.
Prospector, Long Beach, CA.
Shojin, Los Angeles, CA.
Pharaoh's Den, Riverside, CA.
Thread, Los Angeles, CA.
The Smell, Los Angeles, CA.
Poobah Record, Pasadena, CA.
Dangerous Curve, Los Angeles, CA.
Sandzen Gallery Museum, Lindsborg, KS.
Raid Projects, Los Angeles, CA.
Lawrence Asher Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.
Folly Bowl, Altadena, CA.
Muddy Waters Cafe, Santa Barbara, CA.
BACK
PRESS
Featured Article:
Reviews, Interviews, Articles
Concert preview by Downbeast.com, February 5th
CD Review Andrea Centazzo West Coast Trio
LA Weekly
Los Angeles Times
Angel City Jazz Festival gets bigger, smaller
August 3, 2010 Article
Live review: Wadada Leo Smith and his Golden Quartet
April 4, 2010 Article
Downbeat Magazine
>>LA Weekly Pick of the Week
Rock Picks: Daedelus, Beth Thornley, Yeasayer - Also, Ohioan, Hepcat, Vivian Girls and others
By L.A. Weekly Music Critics on 02-03-10
Brick's Picks: Angel City Jazz Festival, Sweet & Hot Music
By Brick Wahl on 08-27-08
Brick's Picks: Savina Yannatou, Janis Mann, Tony Bennett and more - Getting found in the music
By Brick Wahl on 09-10-08
Brick's Picks: (Far) Eastern Swing
By Brick Wahl on 10-28-09
Brick's Picks: Festivals of Nations
By Brick Wahl on 09-02-09
Brick's Picks: Dancing Hearts
By Brick Wahl on 02-03-10
A World of (Jazz) Music
By Brick Wahl on 08-05-09
Brick's Picks: Little Earthquakes
By Brick Wahl on 12-07-07
Rock Picks: Camper Van Beethoven, Cass McCombs, AC/DC - Also, Twilight Circus Dub Sound System, Magda, Hedgehog, Mos Def and others, Also, pianist Wayne Horvitz's extraordinary Gravitas Quartet, pianist Motoko Honda and butoh master Oguri
By L.A. Weekly Music Critics on 09-02-09
Downbeast.com
Pianist Motoko Honda is the walking definition of the phrase sound sculpturist. She stands as much as she sits during her performances: either to direct her ensembles with a sweep of the hand or stabbing point of a finger, or to just lean into her open piano to perform some sort of bewitching skullduggery on its prepared stringsall the while working her (bare) foot pedals to create loops of electronic squiggles and sighs. Not content to simply compose and make music, Honda, in the sage words of Greg Burk, colors the air.
Like her colleagues in L.A.s creative-improvisational community with whom shes playedquite a a few, like Vinny Golia, our fearless leader Jeff Gauthier, Steuart Liebig, April Guthries, Alex Cline, Emily Hay, Ben Wendel, Joe Berardi, Kris Tiner,Andrea Centazzo, Ivan Johnson, Jesse Gilbert, Fumiko Amano and Carole Kim, are from the Crypto extended familyHonda marries classical, jazz, avant-garde, Pacific-Rim textures and 21st century technology into musical soundscapes that reflect Obamanian visions of a seamless mix-and-match between colliding world cultures.
(To underscore this point: shes from Yokohama, Japan by way of Lindsborg, Kansas.)
A student of far-out trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and percussionist Dean Kranzler, Ms. Honda refers to her holistic musical approach as one thats intended to affect the skin, organs and minds of the listener instead of simply being heard as rhythmic and harmonic themes. As much performance art or a living art installation, an evening with Motoko offers no boundaries on where or when the music begins and ends. She also incorporates tenets of avant-garde composers like Terry Riley and John Cage in using the very spaces and environments of performancethe creaks and shifts of concert-hall walls, the abrupt coughs and muffled ringtones that comes from the audience, the sirens of the city outsideas instruments in themselves.
At last year's inaugural Angel City Jazz Festival, Honda debuted her ambition to a rapt crowd: a 13-part suite "Images of Los Angeles" that was as dynamic and unpredictable as the city we've all grown to...uh, respect. For this year's programme, the artist continues her dance with chance and composition--literally, a duet between her andbutoh frieze-master Oguri.
"Oguri and I are going to perform a collaboration work "Memories and Seasons." It is not final and we are still working on the internal structure. During this August we are planning a field trip to the Ford Amphitheatre itself, so we can incorporate and reflect the theater's atmosphere and structures into our conception of music and dance. I'm most likely to use Prepared Electro-Acoustic Piano (I use electronics, but all generated by piano itself, preparation is mostly done inside of the piano), and use the advantages of being outside, taking the ideas from the sound of nature and it's surroundings."
by Matthew Duersten on August 4
Concert review: Oguri/Wadada Leo Smith/Motoko Honda at Barnsdall Gallery Theater, October 20.
Up on eastern Hollywood Boulevards Charles Lloyd Wright Hill, a hundred young olive trees danced in the blustery Santa Ana wind and you could see miles away anything with a light on it. Show promoter Rocco Somazzi had ordered the tree frenzy as a contrast to Oguris granulated butoh moves; it was art all right.
The three-cornered improvisation began with Oguri groping in tiny increments along the wall behind a jean-jacketed Wadada, who as a kind of fanfare explored the functional theaters sonic perimeters via trumpet muting into the floor, raising the bell for ear-boxing blasts that actually hurt. To the left, Motoko Honda in white gown conjured a ghostly fog by reaching into her piano to stroke the low wires.
While you"d expect Wadadas sound to influence Oguris movement and vice versa, the relationship was oblique. More unexpected and more specific was the physical relationship: Oguri orbiting Wadada as Wadada rotated with him; Oguri hiding behind Wadadas still presence; Wadada shooting Oguri in the back with a trumpet dart from behind the curtain. When they crouched and rose together with a horn punch at one point, it was enough to snap your neck.
Wadada filled every corner with shocks and whispers, his tone variety infinite. Oguri in endless individual slow progress of two hands, two feet, one head, one mouth, crumpling his unstructured Robert Longo suit, turned himself inside out, committed hara-kiri cupping guts in hands, climbed a wall upside-down, froze in midstep an inch off the floor, transformed from a toothless old man screaming in silent pain into a schoolboy standing in humble defiance. This was discipline of a kind few can imagine, executed for freedom.
Honda, meanwhile, colored the air. At my elbow, the eminent aesthetic critic Deborah Drooz couldnt stop talking later about the elegance and precision with which Honda plucked the exact two internal wires she wanted, spread classically tonal melodies across the keyboard, got discrete percussive effects from objects placed on strings, and extracted loops, echoes and pitch shifts from a small complement of electronic devices. Exuding a quietly intense demeanor, working the pedals with naked foot, she was the embodiment of a Muse. And when she took her bows smiling, she glowed.It was a microcosm of human interaction -- not as we are, but as we ought to be.
Greg Burk, Metaljazz.com
LA Splash Magazine
"The Sound of Silenve Moving" Review
by Susan Dirende
The Sounds of Silence Moving performance on October 20 at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre was a spectacular display of free improvised music and dance. Wadada Leo Smith and Motoko Honda both used extended techniques on their instruments to express a wide variety of inspired musical ideas. Often departing from conventional rhythms and harmony, but always retaining an acute musical sensitivity, they provided the perfect score for Oguris dramatic butoh improvisations.
The resulting performance was a virtuoso deconstruction of virtuosity. Presented as inviting a transcendental reflection on space, time and life, the performance featured three masters of their respective arts collaborating in an emotional improvisatory denial of narrative in music and dance. From jazz musician Wadada Leo Smiths opening salvo of trumpet notes, impossibly disjointed and almost assaultive in its recital of the range of sounds produced by the instrument in the hands of a master, the audience received a stream of music that was, to borrow from Wallace Stevens, without human meaning, without human feeling, a foreign song.
Joined by pianist, Motoko Honda, the two musicians improvised a fusion of sounds with consummate skill that somehow managed to never permit a melody to cohere. Just as a pattern would begin to emerge, it would be abandoned before rising to melody or motif. The result was an auditory scrubbing of the meaning-making categorical mechanisms of the mind.
Accomplished in both classical and contemporary piano works, Motoko Hondas virtuoso technique paired with her intensely imaginative mind generated a constantly shifting sonic landscape of striking beauty over which every nuance of Leo Smiths otherworldly trumpet tone and soul stirring phrasing resonated powerfully though the room.
Ms. Honda played the piano by striking the keys, plucking and hammering the strings, and selectively altering the sounds of the strings by adding objects to them. It was startling to see a pianist stand and reach into the belly of the grand and still continue to make music. There was a quality of fairy tale or fable about it, with the small delicate woman taking full charge of the giant, wooden musical beast.
Behind the two musicians, butoh master Oguri appeared and came slowly to the center, every muscle down to the smallest toe exquisitely controlled. Butoh is a form of dance that came out of postwar Japan aimed at expressing intense emotion outside the framework of traditional Eastern and Western dance. Oguris movements deconstructed the meaning of human gesture in much the same way that the musicians pushed their instruments to the boundaries of what was possible. The only limitations on his movements were the limitations imposed by the connections of his joints. After the concert, my mind kept returning to the childrens song, The hip bones connected to the thigh bone/ The thigh bones connected to the knee bone... Watching him, the natural sequence and semiotics of gesture was rendered meaningless, the great language of the body silenced.
The interaction between Wadada, Motoko and Oguri was never plain and straightforward but rather subtle and unpredictable. Balance seemed more important than synchronicity, as if the three elements of sound, silence and movement were connected by an invisible elastic string. Each performer seemed acutely aware of their role in the dynamics of the show without loosing their individual expressive freedom.
Live review: Emily Hay-Brad Dutz-Motoko Honda Trio at Café Metropol, September 13.
What fun to hear a trio do stuff you never woulda thunk.
Theres Brad Dutz with his drum kit and pointy little beard over on the right, and Emily Hay with her buncha flutes in the middle -- Dutz says hes been interacting with Hay practically since McCain was in prison, but hes never before teamed with pianist Motoko Honda (on the left), whos been pulling new dimensions out of so many locals for the last year or two. The three score instant chemistry, as Honda and Hay tiptoe into a delicate call-and-response before Dutz launches a tri-tone mantra on the steel-drum head hes thoughtfully brought along, and Honda picks up on it, and she and Dutz knock notes back and forth with increasing vibratory similarity across the net of Hay, who finds herself roughly framed like an intense self-portrait, switching off in quick dialectic between her mini-operatic vocal commentary and the soft arguments of her big alto flute (ace technique on both voice and wind).
Then Honda soundtracks some noir as Dutz thumps his shallow kick and crish-crashes on his Dr. Seuss Xmas tree of little cymbals. Hay sneaks in some suggestive physical performance art with her flutes; Honda complements the mood with insouciant Satie-like plinks; they all get together for a spooky nighttime walk in tribute to the nearly full moon thats outshining the downtown streetlamps outside.
Dutz tosses ball bearings into his steel drum, swirls em and spatters around his kit; things get deliberately fragmented for a minute.
Which is just a setup for the spy movie: Honda and Hay flee down an alley; Dutz spurs em on with flappering Mission Impossible bongos and generously provides them with a train to jump on; Hay gasps breathless; rails clack; I-think-I-can I-think-I-can; but damn, the locomotive throws a rod and heaves to a halt.
Roll credits. The reel's gotta run out sometime.
Greg Burk, Metal Jazz, September 16th, 2008
"(Don't miss: A solo performance from local) keyboard alchemist Motoko Honda, whose mix of piano and electronics is a sonic adventure all her own."
-Chris Barton (Los Angeles Times)
-Matthew Duersten (Music Writer, Stombeast.com)
"At times she puffed up some Matthew Shipp storm clouds; at times she pounded with a grandeur and structure worthy of Prokofiev; her spare strokes on a tiny synthesizer added subtle dimension. Very stylish black dress, too. Honda is a treasure"
-Greg Burk (Music Critic, Metaljazz.com)
Matt Piper (Musician, Author, Propellerhead)
Motoko Honda is a truly gifted and versatile artist. Her solo performance last year at the South Pasadena Music Center was truly one of the most stirring, beautiful, and eloquent things I have heard in years.
-Nels Cline (Wilco, The Nels Cline Singers)
"Virtuoso technique paired with her intensely imaginative mind" "constantly shifting sonic landscape of striking beauty"
-Susan Dirende (LA Splash Magazine)
-James Grigsby (Composer)
"Thursday Wednesdy"- Original, Progressive Jazz, Ensemble
"Night Time Afloat ", Orignial, Out take of CD "Birthmark", Improvisation, Piano and Electronics, Contemporary, Solo
"Heavy Tickling", from CD "Birthmark", Orignial, Improvisation, Piano and Electronics, Contemporary, Solo
"Suite No. 3 from 13 Images of Los Angeles", Original, Live, Contemporary, Classical, Improvisation, Ensemble
"Suite No.4 from 13 Images of Los Angeles", Orignial, Live, Avant-Garde, Contemporary, Improvisation, Ensemble
"Soundescape", Orignial, Live, Contemporary, Progressive Jazz, Acoustic, Ensemble
"4 Seasons" from CD "Shiratori", Original, Improvisation, Contemporary, Classical, Acoustic Solo
"Heartbeat", from CD "Birthmark", Original, Improvisation, Progressive Jazz, Piano and Electronics, Solo
"Flight Over the Sea", lOriginal, Live, Avant Garde, Contemporary, Improvisation, Ensemble
"Morning Music "by George Crumb, Contemporary, Acoustic Piano Solo
CDs Coming up soon
"Birthmark"
Electroacoustic Piano Solo
Recorded in 2007 at Scott Frasor Studio
"Shiratori"
Collaboration work with singer, poet, and artist Kamal Kozah
Recorded in 2007 at Westlake Studios
"The Edge Study"
Collaboration work with Bruce Friedman, improvisation based composition by Bruce Friedman. Bruce Friedman on Trumpet, Motoko Honda on Synthsizer.
Recorded in 2005 at Scott Frasor Studio
CD release party on December 11th, Saturday, at Cafe Metropol _ 8PM, also featuring Christian Wolf's composition.
923 E. 3rd street, Los Angeles, CA. 90013
Free CD giveaway with admission
Guest Artist; Emily Hay(Flute, Voice), Rich West(Drums), Jeww Schwartz(Bass)
"Emily Hay Trio plus One"
Emily Hay, Brad Dutz, Motoko Honda, and Wayne Peet
Recorded in 2010 at Newzone Studio
SHOWS/CALENDER
