Japanese-German Artist Dialogue

Participating Artists

• Gebrüder Teichmann

  Brothers Andi & Hannes Teichmann, aka Gebrüder Teichmann, are electronic musicians, DJs and cultural activists, rooted in Berlin‘s techno underground and DIY-culture since the late nineties. The duo have performed at Berlin‘s premiere clubs including Berghain/Panorama Bar, WMF, Watergate, Bar25 and have hosted regular nights at Suicide Circus Berlin since 2009.
  
  Over the years the brothers have collaborated with numerous artists across a variety of genres. Collaborations have included hip hop, contemporary, traditional and experimental music with collaborators including Ensemble Modern, Decoder Ensemble, Embryo, Joachim Irmler & Gudrun Gut, Foremost Poets, rRoxymore, Teknotika, Jahcoozi & Modeselektor or their father, multi-instrumentalist Ulrich Teichmann. Andi and Hannes have put together several projects in cooperation with the Goethe-Institute, like TEN- CITIES, BLNRB & SOUNDCAMP in Sri Lanka, Pakistan & Mexico, and established the intercultural electro ensembles KARACHI FILES (Pakistan/Europe), BLNRB (Nairobi/Berlin) & MONDMASCHINE (Mexico/Central America/Europe).
  
  With their label NOLAND they are compressing this diversity. Their musical activities from DJing, giving workshops and playing live sets have taken them to over 60 countries as far as Afghanistan, Honduras, Sibiria or Angola. Their label NOLAND, founded in 2015, encapsulates this journey from the underground to the interground.
   

• Susanne Fröhlich

  a recorder player whose artistic practice extends beyond early music to encompass contemporary music, free improvisation, comprovisation, and innovative concert formats. She regularly performs and leads workshops around the world. As a former founding member of the recorder quartet “Quartet New Generation (QNG)”, she is active both as a soloist and in a wide range of chamber music ensembles. In addition, she is involved in interdisciplinary productions spanning visual arts, music theatre, and opera. Her artistic collaborators include Saâdane Afif, Wojtek Blecharz, Ari Benjamin Meyers, andcompany&Co, Constanza Macras/dorkypark, and Opera Lab Berlin.
  
  Since the beginning of her studies in Amsterdam, Susanne Fröhlich has premiered numerous new works at renowned concert venues and international festivals. She has collaborated with ensembles such as Ensemble Adapter, Figura Ensemble, Ictus Ensemble, LUX:NM, Marc Sinan Company, Trickster Orchestra, and Zafraan Ensemble. 
  
  Her work has been recognized through international awards, distinctions, and fellowships in cities including Berlin, Darmstadt, Kraków, New York, and Rotterdam. Since 2004, she has been based in Berlin, where she is also active as a lecturer and has held a teaching position at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) since April 2010. Her discography includes releases on internationally acclaimed labels such as ECM Records, NEOS, GENUIN classics, and Pantopia Music. 
   

• Yumiko Tanaka

  (Gidayū Shamisen / Electric Taishōgoto)
  Yumiko Tanaka completed a master’s degree in musicology at the graduate school of Tokyo University of the Arts. As a disciple of the distinguished Bunraku master Takemoto Koshiji Dayū IV, she studied Gidayū shamisen and Gidayū-bushi under Nozawa Kinshi IV, Tsurusawa Shigeteru, and Takemoto Komanosuke, and received training in the classical tradition under the professional name Tsurusawa Yumiko.
  
  Her artistic activities span a wide range of fields in Japan and abroad, including contemporary Japanese music, contemporary classical music, fusion, rock, free jazz, noise, improvised music, theater music, film music, and media art. Her collaborations include Yuji Takahashi’s ensemble Ito, Otomo Yoshihide’s band GROUND ZERO, Ulrike Ottinger’s film Unter Schnee, Heiner Goebbels’ music theater work Hashirigaki, Basil Twist’s contemporary puppet production Dogugaeshi, and the soundtrack for the Hollywood drama series SHOGUN. She has performed in more than thirty countries worldwide.
  
  As an improviser, she has collaborated with numerous leading musicians, including Carl Stone, John Zorn, Ned Rothenberg, Elliott Sharp, John Russell, Jim O’Rourke, Axel Dörner, Roger Turner, Yuji Takahashi, Masahiko Satoh, Akira Sakata, Kazutoki Umezu, Yasuaki Shimizu, Naruhiko Kikuchi, Keiji Haino, Otomo Yoshihide, Kazuhisa Uchihashi, Seiichi Yamamoto, Motoharu Yoshizawa, Yoshisaburo Toyozumi, Norimitsu Ichiraku, Tatsuya Yoshida, Yasuhiro Yoshigaki, and Koichi Makigami, among many others.
  
  In the field of contemporary music, she has performed works by composers including Minao Shibata, Yoshiro Irino, Hikaru Hayashi, Michio Mamiya, Minoru Miki, Makoto Moroi, Yuji Takahashi, Michio Kitazume, Masahiro Miwa, Makoto Nomura, Dai Fujikura, Kyo Mukai, and Akira Sahara.
  Her recordings include the CDs Tayutauta and Yumiko Tanaka and Roger Turner at OTOOTO, and the DVD Yumiko Tanaka Music Performance. She is also the editor and author of The Complete Shamisen Book and co-author, with Ryuichi Sakamoto, of Schola Vol. 14: Japanese Traditional Music.
  
  Her awards and honors include the Minister of Education’s New Artist Award (1990), the Seieikai Encouragement Prize (1993), the Special Prize of the Japan Music Competition Committee (1999), an Asian Cultural Council Grant (2006), and a special overseas research fellowship from Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs (2008). In 2009, she was designated a holder of Japan’s Important Intangible Cultural Property through her membership in the Gidayū-bushi Preservation Society.
  
  Her recital “Yumiko Tanaka Recital 2024: The Acoustic World of Gidayū Shamisen” received the 24th Keizo Saji Prize from the Suntory Foundation for the Arts. She is a former Associate Professor at Hyogo University of Teacher Education and a former collaborative researcher at the Research Centre for Japanese Traditional Music, Kyoto City University of Arts.
   

• Ami Yamasaki

  A voice artist and visual artist, she perceives her own vocalizations and their resonances, recognizing space through a method akin to echolocation. Through performances and installations, she transforms the acoustic shadows and textures inherent in spaces, questioning how the world is generated and perceived.
  Drawing on dialogues with astrophysicists, particle physicists, and astronomers, she is currently developing a new work on the theme of the creation of the universe for the new project “TMT Gear” at Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre (2025–).
  
  Her achievements include the ACC Fellowship (2017), the Japan Foundation Fellowship (2018), participation in “100 Years of the Universe: The Observing Eye, the Singing Voice”, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the relocation of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan to Mitaka (2024), direction and scenography for Salvatore Sciarrino’s Lohengrin at Kanagawa Kenmin Hall (2024), “JAPAN. BODY_PERFORM_LIVE” at PAC Milano (2022), and participation in the 15th Shanghai Biennale (2025).