Kei Matsumaru
Saxophonist, composer, improvisor. From a small village in the highlands of Papua New Guinea where he calls home, 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 and frequent collaborators / supporting bands include: Shun Ishiwaka, Eiko Ishibashi, Jim O'Rourke, Tatsuhisa Yamamoto, Otomo Yoshihide, Takuro Okada, betcover!!, Dos Monos, Urakami Souki, Geordie Greep, 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, released in theaters in October 2023. Forbes JAPAN 30 Under 30 2023 recipient.
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出身。
パプアニューギニアの村で育ち、高校卒業まで楽器を独学で習得。米音大卒業後、2018年より東京を拠点に活動中。
'20年自身名義による1stアルバム『Nothing Unspoken Under the Sun』をリリース。
‘21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作品の演奏に参加。
‘22年山口情報芸術センターにて人工知能等の技術を用いた石若駿+YCAMによる公演「Echoes for unknown egos ―発現しあう響きたち」に参加。
'22年秋black midiと帯同したDos Monosの欧州ツアー、更に同時期に石橋英子のロンドン単独公演にサポートとして参加。
'22年秋『The Moon, Its Recollections Abstracted』をリリース。
'24年SOUND & CITYとのコラボレーションによる3部構成のソロパフォーマンス「Playing with Ghosts」をHANEDA INNOVATION CITYにて開催。
'25年Geordie Greepの日本ツアーにバンドメンバーとして参加。
2020年より90分間のソロ演奏を通して空間と時間と楽器と身体の相互関係を探る「独奏」を開始。プロジェクトblank manifestoを2019年より不定期に開催している他、エレクトロニクス等を用いたソロ演奏も頻繁に行なっている。
以下のアーティストと共演多数：石若駿、石橋英子、ジム・オルーク、山本達久、大友良英、岡田拓郎、Dos Monos、betcover!!、浦上想起、Geordie Greep、etc.
映画『白鍵と黒鍵の間に』(2023年)に役者として出演。Apple Vinegar Music Award 2023 大賞受賞。Forbes Japan 30 Under 30 2023 受賞。
photo by Chikashi Suzuki
