Interview with KK Null

Forced Entertainment’s 2013 show The Last Adventures comes to Warwick Arts Centre for its UK premiere on 1^st-3^rd October as part of Fierce Festival. Boar Arts caught up with live guest musician KK Null, a front-runner in Japanese noise music and founding member of Zeni Geva, to discuss his musical career and his work with Forced Entertainment.

KK Null, real name Kishino Kazuyuki, has worked with a wide variety of performers since the 80’s. He finds it hard to pick a performer that stands out specifically as they’re “all different- all good” but says that working with Fred Frith and Steve Albini was especially memorable. Similarly, because he’s “still young, growing up, in the middle of long journey”, Kazuyuki can’t choose any career highlights. However, he’s found the loss of his loved ones a distinct challenge. As well as his parents, Kazuyuki lost his “most beloved” Chihuahua Maru-Chan last summer. Pictures of the adorable black Chihuahua, who also has a Facebook page, can be found on the official KK Null website.

The opportunity to work with Forced Entertainment on The Last Adventures came about when Lebanese sound artist Tarek Atoui, who created the original sound for the performance, asked Kazuyuki to join as a guest musician. They have worked together several times before on projects such as Visiting Tarab in Sharjah and La Nuit Blanche in Paris.

Using Atoui’s music as a base, the music for The Last Adventures is prepared using programming software and performed live with “some improvisation”. Kazuyuki describes the process as “like drawing a map, using my creativity and imagination”. He is “so excited with to be sharing the stage with twelve performers which (he hasn’t) experienced yet”. “Working with Tarek’s music, the concept and scenario of the piece simultaneously will be an intense, thrilling challenge!” Until the whole team rehearse The Last Adventures two days before the show begins at Warwick Arts Centre, it isn’t completely clear what role KK Null’s music will play in the performance.

Besides The Last Adventures, there are several other collaborations with which KK Null is involved; working with Japanese Shamisen player Yumiko Tanaka and composing new songs for Mark Stewart of The Pop Group. Percussionist and composer Uriel Barthélémi, who has also performed in The Last Adventures, will be performing concerts with Kazuyuki in Poitiers, France in November.

As well as performing around the world, KK Null plays guitar in prog-rock band Zeni Geva. Although around 15 years ago he “felt (he) had done enough experimenting and improvisation with guitar”, prompting a shift in musical styles towards electronica, he still enjoys playing guitar and reassures me that “sometimes (he) comes up with some ideas to experiment with”. His influences? “Cosmic vibration, entropy, gravity… and everything.”

Commissioned by INA-GRM and premiered at the Festival Presences Electronique in Paris, Cryptozoon X is KK Null’s first surround piece. Subsequently it has been performed at various other festivals in Europe including Festival für Zeitgenössische Musik in Hamburg, Germany. The Cryptozoon X DVD & CD EP will be available in late autumn. For more information or to pre-order the album, visit http://kknull.com. When asked if he has a noteworthy goal for the future, Kazukuki replies, “no, because I believe everything in every moment of your life forms part of your journey.”

Catch The Last Adventures at Warwick Arts Centre from 1^st-3^rd October, with a post-show discussion on 1^st October.