Voice of Session House 2020 — Under the Paris Sky, Itaru Oki Departs for Heaven

Under the Paris Sky, Itaru Oki Departs for Heaven

Itaru Oki (沖至), a musician who actively worked across genres, passed away last August in Paris, where he was based. He was 78.
Active as one of the pioneers of free jazz since the 1970s, he was also called the poet of the trumpet for his tone, like a butterfly dancing, and performed with many butoh artists and dancers.
Since Session House’s founding, he had also performed here with many dancers, including Naoko Ito, Akira Kasai (笠井叡), Taiju Matsumoto, Mitsutake Kasai, Naoka Uemura (上村なおか), Mika Furuzonoi (古園井美果), Mademoiselle Cinema, and four eurythmists from Tenshikan (天使館). His session with Ryohei Kondo four years ago was his final collaboration here.

 

In “Dance of Remembrance,” a video work produced last December for Shinjuku City’s cultural and arts support program, the music playing behind the eight dancers was performed by Oki, making it a moment of remembrance as well.

Excerpt from Voice of Session House 2020

 

From Kagurazaka Session House: “Dance of Remembrance”

During the novel coronavirus pandemic, live performances with large audiences became difficult, so Session House has held many performances through online streaming. In doing so, we discovered a new form of dance expression that can convey the details of bodily movement through the camera. As the fruit of that work, many dancers active at Session House, including Ryohei Kondo, came together. With the trumpet music of Itaru Oki, who died far from home in Paris during the coronavirus crisis, resonating around them, they savored the memories contained within the bodies they have nurtured over the years, and danced with the desire to overcome this calamity and move toward the future. This is the dance session we bring you.