Kei Matsumaru
Saxophonist, composer, improvisor. Though born in Japan in 1995, Kei Matsumaru was raised in a small village in the highlands of Papua New Guinea where he calls home. From there, he moved to Boston to study music at Berklee College of Music in 2014, whereafter graduation he relocated to Japan in late 2018.
Kei is currently based in Tokyo where he has been active in various parts of the music scene. He has also increasingly been collaborating with artists from other creative disciplines, such as contemporary dance, visual arts, and various media arts.
In 2021, he participated in the band led by Jim O'Rourke to perform Christian Marclay's graphic score "To be continued" as part of the "Christian Marclay Translating" exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. At the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (YCAM) in 2022, he took part in “Echoes for unknown egos–manifestations of sound”, the final presentation of a collaboration project by percussionist Shun Ishiwaka and YCAM which utilized AI and other technologies.
Kei is a member of SMTK, a rock/free jazz/instrumental band, as well as mºfe (em-doh-feh), an electro-acoustic ambient/avant trio. In 2020, he released Nothing Unspoken Under the Sun as his quartet's first album. He regularly participates in various groups including Takuro Okada's band, Urakami Souki's "Urakami Souki Band Society", hip hop trio Dos Monos, and Eiko Ishibashi's band, to name a few. In late 2022, he joined Dos Monos on their first Europe tour opening for the band Black Midi, after which he joined Eiko Ishibashi on her solo performance at King's Place, London, both as a supporting musician.
Kei periodically presents "dokusō", a series of live 90-minute acoustic solo saxophone performances through which he explores the relationship between time, space, body, and instrument and how the performance affects cognition and perception of these elements in both the audience and himself. He also performs solo sets using various electronics.
Recent collaborators include: Eiko Ishibashi, Jim O'Rourke, Tatsuhisa Yamamoto, Otomo Yoshihide, Takuro Okada, Dos Monos, Urakami Souki, etc.
Kei's 2nd album The Moon, Its Recollections Abstracted was released Oct. 2022.
He has a role as an actor for the first time in the film Between the White and Black Keys, scheduled to be released in theaters in October 2023.
2014 - Berklee College of Music - full tuition scholarship
2015 - Berklee Global Jazz Institute (2015-2018)
2016 - Yamaha Young Performing Artist - Honorable Mention
2017 - YAMAHA scholarship (2017-2020)
2018 - Downbeat magazine, Winner, Undergraduate Small Combo - Kei Matsumaru Trio
2018 - Berklee College of Music, Bachelor of Music, Performance (Summa Cum Laude)
Studied with Tiger Okoshi, George Garzone, Terri Lyne Carrington, John Patitucci, Joe Lovano, Danilo Perez, Ben Street, Adam Cruz, etc.
2019 - THINKKAISM (disk union)
2020 - SMTK 1st EP SMTK (apollo sounds)
2020 - SMTK 1st album SUPER MAGIC TOKYO KARMA (apollo sounds)
2020 - Kei Matsumaru 1st album Nothing Unspoken Under the Sun (disk union)
2021 - SMTK 2nd album SIREN PROPAGANDA (apollo sounds)
2021 - mºfe 1st album 不_?黎°pyro明//乱 (l°fe / de°th) (song x jazz)
2022 - Dos Monos Europe Tour
2022 - Kei Matsumaru 2nd album The Moon, Its Recollections Abstracted (disk union)
2023 - Apple Vinegar Music Award 2023 - Winner
2023 - film Between the White and Black Keys as an actor
松丸契
サックス奏者・作曲家。1995年生まれ。パプアニューギニアにある標高1500メートルの人口400人程度の村で育ち、そこで高校卒業まで楽器を独学で習得し、音大で学びを深めるため2014年に渡米。音大卒業後2018年より日本へ拠点を移し、以来東京近辺を中心に様々なアーティストと共演や録音を重ねている。ダンスなど他分野のアーティストとのコラボレーションも行っている。
2021年東京都現代美術館「Christian Marclay Translating」展の一環として、ジム・オルーク率いるバンドでクリスチャン・マークレーのグラフィックスコア「To be continued」の演奏に参加。2022年山口情報芸術センター(YCAM)にて人工知能等の技術を用いた石若駿+YCAMパフォーマンス公演「Echoes for unknown egos ―発現しあう響きたち」に参加。
メンバーとしてSMTK（石若駿・マーティホロベック・細井徳太郎・松丸契）で『SIREN PROPAGANDA』などの3作品をリリース、m°fe（高橋佑成・落合康介・松丸契）で『不_?黎°pyro明//乱 (l°fe / de°th)』をリリース。2020年に自身名義による1stアルバム『Nothing Unspoken Under the Sun』を発表。
上記に加え、岡田拓郎、浦上想起「浦上想起・バンド・ソサエティ」、Dos Monos、石橋英子、 などをはじめとする様々なバンドやグループに定期的に参加している。 2022年にはblack midiのオープニングアクトとして帯同したDos Monosのヨーロッパツアーとその後の石橋英子のロンドン公演にサポートミュージシャンとして参加した。
2020年より90分のアコースティックな即興演奏を通して空間と時間と楽器と身体の関係性を探る「独奏」を活動の一環として開始。エレクトロニクスを使用したソロセットも頻繁に行っている。
バンド活動と並行して以下のアーティストと共演多数：石橋英子、ジム・オルーク、山本達久、大友良英、岡田拓郎、Dos Monos、浦上想起、荒悠平、Aokid、etc.
2022年秋に最新作『The Moon, Its Recollections Abstracted』をリリース。Apple Vinegar Music Award 2023 大賞受賞。
2023年10月公開予定の映画『白鍵と黒鍵の間に』では役者として出演するなど活動の幅を広げている。
2014 - 全額奨学金を得てボストン・バークリー音楽大学に入学
2015 - 特別育成機関Berklee Global Jazz Instituteに加入
2016 - Yamaha Young Performing Artist - Honorable Mention
2017 - ヤマハ音楽奨学支援奨学生（’17〜’20)
2018 - 米Downbeat誌で自身のトリオ・オリジナル作で優勝
2018 - ボストン・バークリー音楽大学首席卒業 (Summa Cum Laude)
タイガー大越, George Garzone, Terri Lyne Carrington, John Patitucci, Joe Lovano, Danilo Perez, Ben Street, Adam Cruzに師事
2019 - THINKKAISM (disk union)
2020 - SMTK 1st EP SMTK (apollo sounds)
2020 - SMTK 1st album SUPER MAGIC TOKYO KARMA (apollo sounds)
2020 - Kei Matsumaru 1st album Nothing Unspoken Under the Sun (disk union)
2021 - SMTK 2nd album SIREN PROPAGANDA (apollo sounds)
2021 - mºfe 1st album 不_?黎°pyro明//乱 (l°fe / de°th) (song x jazz)
2022 - Dos Monos Europe Tour
2022 - Kei Matsumaru 2nd album The Moon, Its Recollections Abstracted (disk union)
2023 - Apple Vinegar Music Award 2023 大賞受賞
2023 - 映画『白鍵と黒鍵の間に』役者として出演
photo by Chikashi Suzuki