Open Reel Ensemble | TEDxTokyo 2012
In 2009, composer Ei Wada and four musician friends―Kimitoshi Sato, Takuya Namba, Yu Yoshida and Tadashi Yoshida―had a wacky retro idea: Let’s mix analogue sounds generated from old rolls of magnetic tape on open reel decks with computer-digitized samples! The crazy concept worked, and the Open Reel Ensemble was born. Open Reel collaborated on the TV commercial that won the Excellence Prize at Japan Media Arts Festival 2009, and the group began getting massive attention.The ensemble played at TEDxTokyo yz ver. 1.0 in 2010, and drew global attention in 2011 when they took the grand prize in the Entertainment Division at the 15th Japan Media Arts Festival. Open Reel shows feature four decks, but they also frequently toss in guitar and bass licks, percussion, their own vocals, old CRT TVs and even a vacuum cleaner as sampling sources, sequencing everything live into pulsating and progressively complex tracks. The ensemble just released its first full-length album―plus a bonus DVD for the full effect―featuring guest artists such as Yellow Magic Orchestra’s Yukihiro Takahashi and Sotaisei Riron lead vocalist Etsuko Yakushimaru.