Armen Nalbandian (Piano), Akiko Nakayama (Alive painting), Shinpei Ruike (Trumpet), Hiroshi Yamazaki (Drums)

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Armen Nalbandian Piano

Armen Nalbandian is an avant-garde and experimental composer and pianist whose practice seeks to expand the possibilities of sound and performance through spontaneous group composition, prepared piano and Fender Rhodes, and electronically layered improvisations.

With a prolific recording discography, Armen has collaborated with several notable musicians including Chris Corsano, Tatsuhisa Yamamoto, Jeff Parker, Toshimaru Nakamura, Alex Cline, Steve Lehman, Han Bennink, Chris Speed, Dave King, Eric Revis, Nasheet Waits, Guillermo E. Brown and Makigami Koichi, whilst pursuing multidisciplinary collaborations with writers, visual and performance artists.

In 2023, Armen co-founded the distributed strategy practice Outlyr-e, a distributed strategy practice aiming to create the conditions for creative thought applied to organizations in the arts.

https://www.armennalbandian.com/

 https://armennalbandian.bandcamp.com/

Akiko Nakayama Alive painting

Born in Japan, works in Tokyo



Akiko Nakayama Born in 1988, is a painter who depicts beauty of convey energy metamorphosis through several media such as installation, photos and performance. Combining the energy of movement and the vibrancy of colors, Akiko Nakayama brings pictures to life. Called “Alive Painting”, Akiko depicts the resonance between shapes and textures by using different types of liquids, each with a unique characteristic. In recent years, She is energetically engaged giving her performance “Alive Painting” SOLO & Collaborations in various cities. Solo Performance for New ARS ELECTRONICA (2019) Austria Linz, TEDxHaneda (2015) Tokyo , DLECTRICITY ART FESTIVAL (2017) USA Detroit, LAB30 Media Art Festival (2018) Augsburg, TECHNARTE Art and Technorogy (2019) Bilbao Spain, MUTEK Montreal 2019, Tokyo 2020 Olympic Closing Ceremony.

https://www.akikopainting.com/

https://youtu.be/07BgHns6ln4?si=Z3Rmg4IWIc11HAw0

Born on 27 April 1976 in Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, Japan.
Discovered the trumpet in a brass band at the age of 10. Exposed to the music of Miles Davis in high school, which opened his eyes to jazz. After graduating from high school, he played trumpet in the Maritime Self-Defence Force Band for six years.

After leaving the Maritime Self-Defence Force, he made his major debut as a member of the jam band group 'urb' on Sony Jazz in 2004. He attracted attention by performing at the Thailand International Jazz Festival.
After the break of 'urb', he formed his unit 'the Ruike Shinpei 4 piece band'. After a change of members, they became the 'RS5pb (Ruike Shinpei 5-piece band)' and released their third album 'RS5pb' in 2020 under the band name.

In 2018, they performed at the OCT-LOFT Jazz Festival in Shenzhen, China.

He has participated in Otomo Yoshihide's 'ONJQ', 'Naruyoshi Kikuchi Dub Sextet', 'DCPRG', and 'WUJA BIN BIN', led by former Beat Crusaders' member Keitaimo and the unit led by 'LUNA SEA' guitarist SUGIZO.
He has also played on recordings by artists such as Gen Hoshino and Sakura Fujiwara.
He has performed with many veteran jazz musicians, including Yosuke Yamashita, Fumio Itabashi, Takeo Moriyama and Isao Suzuki.

https://ruikeshinpei.com/