PIANIST AND COMPOSER KOKI NAKANO

Oceanic Feeling is a new album by Japanese pianist and composer Koki Nakano. This work explores the search for harmony between his personal, intimate self and the big world outside, between the electronic and classical, ambient and melodic.

For Nakano, who has played the piano since he was three-years old, music has always been his way of finding balance in the world. It’s a very physical experience of music – one which acknowledges the bodily tensions of movement and gravity. Nakano has collaborated with famous choreographer Damien Jalet for this last release, and will be again be working with renowned dancers and performers such as Tess Voelker from the Netherlands Dance Theatre and Marion Motin known for her work with leading female musicians Madonna and Dua Lipa, on Oceanic Feeling.

Hello Koki, could you please tell us more about your greatest inspirations or influences?

Contemporary dancers I work with always show me an infinite variety of gestures, playing with basic limitations which all human beings equally have, such as body limits, gravity, velocity, time... I believe that movement and sound are closely interrelated, it is crucial to me to properly acknowledge the energy required by the body when in movement.

Choreographic ideas directly inspire my music, working with such talented dancers and choreographers like Damien Jalet, Tess Voelker, Nicolas Huchard, etc, give many hints to my composition.

Tell us a bit about your creative process? What was important for you while creating „Oceanic Feeling”

When I had finished my last album ‘Pre-Choreographed’, a general picture of « Oceanic feeling » had already popped up in my mind.

I wanted to pursue the path I opened previously, as an extension of this pre-choreographic research, diving into more ample and wide soundscapes. From this point, I started to focus on writing music on a topic which may be characterized as ‘maternity’. Following this pre-motion idea, I could not stop myself thinking of the very image of a baby in the womb, as a half-determinate state of an identity which was perfectly echoing my concerns. This allowed me to explore in-depth the question of the boundaries between the pre-born child floating in the water inside another human being. How can we perceive this boundary? Thus, I glued myself to this image while I composed the album, also thinking of an embryo’s picture from Lennart Nilsson, a Swedish photographer especially renowned for his works about fetal development, which I always kept beside me during the time I composed.

Thinking of this, I may say the album is an attempt to remind of the vague state and feeling of the prenatal period we all experienced in the water, linked to the mother by the navel cord.

What are some themes you touch on with your new work/music?

‘Oceanic Feeling’ is the word coined by French poet Romain Rolland to express his sensation for infinity or oneness. For this new album, my pieces are intended to express the significant ambiguity contained in this term, which can simultaneously evoke contradictory feelings… By the fact that all of us have the capability to conceive notions like unicity and vastness when on the other hand, our individualities are grounded by many boundaries.

Japanese philosopher, Tetsuya Kawano’s consideration resonates with me:

'At the first glance the skin seems like it has a role to protect muscles, bones, fats, organs. it's of course right. Although if our 'existence' means to maintain the boundary between the world and oneself, rather muscles, bones, fats, organs these all seem to exist for protecting the skin itself. '

The Phenomenology of Boundaries, 2014

Being shaken up inside this unstable milieu, makes us incessantly look for a balance to stand. For me, the composition process is like feeding plants which are rooted in this milieu and while waiting for it to bloom, there is an infinity of ways and shapes to flourish.

How has this year changed your creativity and how do you see the world changing moving forward?

Needless to say we are standing at a very urgent moment for environmental issues, whether all human beings can survive or not in this world, in the very near future.

Do you think the art world needs to change, and if so how can it be improved?

As a Japanese-born person, I must say we didn't have the word ‘art’ in our language. Instead, the Japanese word ‘Geijutsu’ we use now for 'art' occurred as a translation of the English word ‘liberal arts’ in the 19th century. Nevertheless, I can find so many rich, refined creations in our history. Creativity or the very will to materialize our inner self, to express it in many senses are so fundamental for all human beings.

We witness so many creations happening in different contexts, this naturally requires us to expand the notion of 'art' from centuries. If I could interpret the word ‘art’ it would be by sharing the question of 'how you touch or you want to touch the complexity of the world'. This is very fascinating for me.

What does wellbeing mean to you?

I'm so thankful to live in this world every day.

Thank you very much for joining us today Koki.

Photo credit Camille Pradon