KRAAK FEST 2026 HIGHLIGHTS: Sugai Ken
Sugai Ken, die voor het laatst in Europa te zien was in de tijd vóór de pandemie, keert nu langverwacht terug naar het continent en doet KRAAK Fest aan voor weer een raadselachtig optreden vol duisternis en geluid. De producer maakt op speelse wijze gebruik van geëlektrificeerde vertolkingen van folklore en natuur, en is gespecialiseerd in het nabootsen van insecten- en vogelgeluiden met puur elektronische middelen om zo de mysterieuze sfeer van de Japanse nacht op te roepen. Meer over wat hij heeft gedaan:::::
Can you tell us a bit about your background? When and how did you start making music?
First of all, I used Google Translate, so I apologize if the sentences are strange.
Influenced by my older brother who is a skateboarder, I became interested in street culture when I was in junior high school. Later, I formed a hip-hop group with some childhood friends from my hometown and performed live (I was a DJ). I remember that I started making music around the time I left that group.
You cite nature and Japanese folk as influences and sources for your compositions. How do you incorporate them in your music? What are your current obsessions?
Yes.
Nature, human activities, and especially Japanese culture are my biggest inspirations.
There are so many different ways to incorporate it that it is difficult to explain, but I try to remember the words of Kenkichi Tomimoto, a Human National Treasure of Japan, who said, "Don't create a pattern from a pattern."
I believe this words is especially important in today's world, where information is readily available. Since the Industrial Revolution, humanity has been consumed by the "disease" of "convenience" and "efficiency," but perhaps it's time to break away from this.
I created this work( https://emrecords.ocnk.net/product/129 )21 years ago (released in 2016), but at the time I didn't even know about software like MAX MSP, and I created it with just my ideas and enthusiasm. Looking back now, I think that my ignorance enhanced the purity of the work.
In recent years, I have become interested in truth and fiction, based on the mimicry behavior of living things and the study of lies in folklore.(https://www.ycam.jp/events/2024/day-program-1-of-audio-base-camp-3/ )
Related to the above, my current obsession is the intentional misuse of impulse responses. ( https://faitiche.de/blog/2025/12/06/sugai-ken-jan-jelinek-this-is-my-kitchen )
What is your current performance set up like? How has it evolved over the years?
As always, my performances make extensive use of darkness, which is an antithesis to the modern world that is overly dependent on visual information. Also, I place importance on the ”situational immediacy” of the performance. ( https://realtokyo.co.jp/en/performance/sugai-ken/ ) On an overseas tour, the equipment that can be carried is quite limited, so there are many restrictions, but I will do my best to perform at each venue! (If possible, I would love for the audience to see also my performance in Japan...)
Whether it has evolved or not is not for me to decide, it's for the audience to decide, but ideally I would like it to deepen rather than evolve.
It's been a while since you've toured Europe. What have you been up to in these years, and how do you think your music has evolved since last time you came?
Yes, It's been 3 years since my last EU tour.
Raising a child from 2020 almost destroyed my mental health, but I managed to hold on. It was like "peaceful hell"...
This experience made me realize once again how precious time is to be able to concentrate on production.
Over the past three years, I have been fortunate to have many opportunities to create work at some of Japan’s leading venues related to sound art, such as the NTT InterCommunication Center (ICC), Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (YCAM), and the Kyushu University Special Acoustic Laboratory. Through these experiences, my perception of “sound” has been profoundly renewed.
But The state in which my creativity is being threatened by the burden of excessive daily household chores has not improved. For this reason, the time I spend in Europe is a precious time for me to be free from all that. I hope all readers will come to the venue on the day to guess the struggles I face on a daily basis in Japan…(lol)
It seems like you've worked on many exciting collaborations over time, and we hear you have more coming up (Jan Jelinek!) Can you tell us more about these, how they came to be and what we can expect from them?
Readers, please be sure to check this out. https://linktr.ee/SUGAIKEN_rce
I deeply appreciate each of those.
About 90% of cases, the request comes, and I then create the work.
By the way, In situations like these, there is one principle I always strictly adhere to. It is advice I received many years ago from an artist I deeply respect, Tadaomi Shibuya( https://www.instagram.com/tadaomishibuya/ ).
He told me,
"Don’t become a 'mere hired hand', it’s steadily important to refine and cultivate your own distinctive style."
It requires patience and perseverance, but I still believe now it is extremely important.
Thank you for the interview. I appreciate Kraak festival team!
Meer Sugai Ken::: Instagram // Bandcamp
Sugai Ken keert terug naar Het Bos voor KRAAK Fest 2026 op zaterdag 14 maart ~ tickets hier!
