o.blaat

"Art of Disappearance" continues. - Sound artist, composer, powerbook musician, o.blaat (keiko uenishi) is known for creating various interactive audio environments such as 'beat piece (with Ping-Pong game)', 'audio coat check', 'cash register piece', 'coupier', 'fillip'. All of which resulted from her ceaseless pursuit of ways to erase performer's presence and ultimately alter listening situation altogether.

After performing with an unique hand-made electronic sound system ëtapboard.effector.soundsystemí for several years (See Interview at pinknoises.com, link below), Uenishi has been exploring the mobility of the powerbook and its least distracting state of being. Her first composition effort with powerbook has been commissioned and presented by Galarie Wieland (Berlin) as a part of its exhibition "Songs of Love and Hate (side A)".

She has toured extensively in Europe: Rhiz (Vienna) & Phonotaktik Festival in Austria; NBI, Bastard, Staatsbank (all in Berlin); A-Musik (K–ln), U60311(Frankf¸rt); festival EMO-SON (Bourges), Le Lieu Unique (Nantes), Zoobizarre (Bordeaux), La Machine · Coudre (Marseille) in France; STEIM (Amsterdam), WORM (Rotterdam); RAS gallery (Barcelona); and the What Is Music? festival in Melbourne and Sydney.

Her sound has been described in Wired magazine as 'Unleashing an enchanted sea of sound: Fuzzed-out birdcalls flit through submarine drones, and scratchy beats crackle like a thousand records skipping as one'. Her powerbook performance have appeared at many music venues/events/museums in New York including; Tonic, The Cooler, The Kitchen, SHARE at openair, Whitney Museum of American Art, P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, American Museum of Moving Image, UnityGain, phonomena, Rhizome.org's openmouseô, audibleview (in which she programmed & performed audio-light interactive patch) at White Columns, NYC, Vox Populi Gallery in Philladelphia, PA.

She has collaborated numerous artists including: Ikue Mori, DJ Olive, Lloop, Miguel Frasconi, Timeblind, Eyvind Kang, Sachiko M, Tetsuji Akiyama, Aki Onda, Toshio Kajiwara, Zeena Parkins, Christine Bard, Kaffe Matthews, Georg Zeitblom, Ralph Steinbruchel, G¸nter M¸ller, Norbert Morslang, Anthony Coleman, Kurt Ralske, Lukasz Lysakowski, Eric Redlinger, among others. She was a member of Marina Rosenfeld's 17 piece guitar/powerbook orchestra, 'Sheer Frost Orchestra 2000', and was also a member of "laptops-and-electronics" quartet with Ikue Mori, Kaffe Mathews, and Marina Rosenfeld, recorded with a commission by STEIM, Amsterdam, Holland, 2001.

links

http://share.dj/press.html (has many press coverages on o.blaat)
http://wigged.net/html/news/oblaat.html (interview ‚ most recently conducted & issued on 1/1/03)
http://home.iprimus.com.au/ltuttle/oblaat.html (interview ‚ by ëRocket in the Pocketí, 12/02)
http://pinknoises.com/oblaat.shtml (interview ‚ tapboard period)
http://wnyc.org/shows/spinning/episodes/11152002 (wnyc ëspinning on airí live)
http://www.wildlifeanalysis.org/media/lukasz/ps1.html (live documentation of collaboration with Lukasz Lysakowski at P.S. 1)