With releases on Berlin’s Karaoke Kalk as well as the Glasgow label Geographic (run by Stephen Pastel of the iconic Scottish group the Pastels), Japanese experimental free-jazz ensemble Maher Shalal Hash Baz led by Tori Kudo have all the necessary credentials and will play at Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin this month as part of the “Japan Syndrome – Art and Politics after Fukushima” series of events.
The name comes from The Book of Isaiah and means “plunder quickly”. Tori Kudo, the conductor and leader of the band, fuses stray elements of pop, folk, jazz and experimental music into pieces of candid musical gestures – forgotten melodies played with a fragile trust.Bassoon, guitar, drums, trumpet, trombone, clarinet, glass percussion, organ, rocks and sticks are expanded by a sophisticated counter-repetition technique into an extensive tonal range of colors.
Maher Shalal Hash Baz | This Is Our Music
The effect is at turns serene, dissonant, enchanting, rockin’, and intensively catchy – kind of a Langley School kids Avant-Idiot Savant Orchestra with a Syd Barrett meets Charles Ives conductor. Maher Shalal Hash Baz fuse the most captivating elements of twisted jazz, psychedelic rock rebellion, and dreamy pop chamber music to form a most intimate and cohesive vision of the future of music on Planet Earth.
Maher Shalal Hash Baz | Peel Session
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=_MlvqKzInmk
The singer, guitarist and songwriter Tori Kudo is an avowed naivist. For his band Maher Shalal Hash Baz he is constantly seeking out new allies to interpret his marvellous melodies, if possible with no knowledge of their instruments.
Tori Kudo & Maher Shalal Hash Baz LIVE
Wednesday, 21 May 2014 | 21:00 CET
HAU 1 | Stresemannstr. 29 | 10963 Berlin/Kreuzberg
dominorecordco.com/maher-shalal-hash-baz | hebbel-am-ufer.de
