MUKAI, CHIE & CHE CHEN - 2.23.11

Edition of 166 in die-cut letterpress sleeves.Recorded live in Tokyo at Next Sunday on February 23, 2011.Chie Mukai: er-hu, voice, percussion, piano, dance Che Chen: violin, voice, percussion, sine wave generators"While Chie Mukai is pretty well known in Japan, elsewhere in the world she may need some introduction. Born in Osaka, Mukai spent a few formative years in art school workshops led by Taj Mahal Traveler, Takehisa Kosugi, before forming her own groups, Che-Shizu and Enkidu (with the Boredoms Seichi Yamamoto and French sound artist, Eric Cordier). She has also developed a deep and ongoing practice as a solo performer, mostly based around the kokyu (a bowed, two stringed fiddle used in the traditional music of Japan and China, where it is called the). At one of Mukais performances, one is pretty much guaranteed to hear her shredding on the kokyu and unleashing a series of wordless groans and cries in a voice that is both deeply primordial and unmistakably hers, but she also has a