ogurusu norihide general press
URB
– april 2003 “next 100 issue”
-
martin
turenne
sleaze
nation – september 2002
who
the hell is?...ogurusu norihide
not
many bedroom producers can legally write “superior level shinto priest” on
the inland revenue form where it says “primary job description”.
ogurusu
norihide is a 25-year-old from
“when
I was a child, I think I will be a shinto priest vaguely because I lived in a
shrine,” he admits. “it is same
feeling when I am listening to good music as the feeling when I am in the woods
in a shrine. good music makes good
space.”
by
now you may be expecting some far out new age nightmare, full of bells,
chanting, poetry and nature samples. but
while norihide may remix the occasional stream, his music is as modern as his
religion is old. fusing laptops with
acoustic guitars and found sounds norihide sees no contradiction between his
life as a producer and his life as a priest.
quite the opposite, in fact.
“i
recognized various kinds of silence after I studied shinto and introduced this
sense to my music. In many rites, we
use sound like hand clap – kashiwa-te
– that makes more refined silence space.”
and
how does he balance it all in a typical day?
“after
I graduated from shinto school in march, I have made music all day.
wake up, stretching my fingers and wrist, practice percussion, bass,
guitar, piano; each instrument an
hour. then i make music.
and sleeping.”
-
chris hatherill