Taeji Sawai (1978) is a sound artist who uses the ephemera information and communication data to deconstruct our sense of sound as waves to be heard or vibrations to be felt. He amplifies and mixes our everyday ‘environment’ into extreme ultra or infrasonic frequencies, confounding our usual sense input systems.
 
He is one half of the avant-garde audio-visual performance group portable[k]ommunity, co-founded with Jun Horikiri in autumn of 2000. They explore the aesthetic qualities of software bugs and glitches. Using MaxMSP/nato0+ 55 on various PowerbookG4s, they build, intersect and develop sounds and images in real time. In various guises ([k]ommunity, p[k]) they also a develop sound and lighting software for showroom/retail applications, and appear asVJs. Potable[k]ommunity have collaborated with DJ Kensei, hoon (Ryuichi Sakamoto + Yoshihiro Hanno + yasaka), and appeared at events ranging from Ars Electronica to John Zorn’s birthday party.
 
In 2003, Japanese pop singer Aco, enlisted the help of portable[k]ommunity for her Björk-sounding album irony. Aco and Taeji Sawai continued to work together, forming the group Golden Pink Arrow, moving to Berlin in 2005. Sawai is also a member of a sound performance unit known as aeo, whose other members are Eye of Boredoms fame and Kazuhiro Jo (SWQ), which uses sensors triggered by body movements to produce acoustic sounds. Sawai has also collaborated with Aoki Takemasa to produce a deep, clicky minimal record for the Japanese label op.disc in 2005.
 
In 2006, Sawai performed mostly solo, appearing at a number of international festivals, such as Sonar, The Images Festival in Toronto, the STRP Festival at Eindhoven in Holland, and the Rader Festival in Mexico City.
 
> www.taeji.org
 
> YouTube Link Taeji Sawai at Sonar 2006
 
Appearances:
> CTM.07 > REACT