(photo by Sawako)
With apologies to those reading this and to Sawako’s other friends and colleagues, but whilst I know this post should be simply an attempt to detail her work and importance to various fields of sound, I cannot detach myself from either the simple enjoyment of her work, or the sadness that she has passed…
Walking from the village, we headed towards a small stream, with a bridge across it, to hunt for fireflies. We wanted to see them but also try to hear the sounds they might make, probably in the ultrasonic range. This was in 2012 when Sawako, Asuna, Hiroki Sasajima & myself had travelled from Tokyo to Matsudai to spend a few days recording and performing at an event for Gift_Lab during the Echigo-Tsumari Art Field festival. The previous year, having been aware of her work since the early 2000’s, I had first met her in person when we performed together, at Gift_Lab’s Tokyo space, at an event organised by them and Toshi Nakamura. After the concert Sawako handed me a handkerchief she had made, to give to my daughter, Pheobe.
On a recent trip to Japan, Pheobe and I planned to visit Sawako’s multi-channel installation at a garden in Tokyo, and to meet up again after a few years, but plans for our residency meant we were elsewhere in the country at the time. Next time I thought. Next time we think too often.
I think there will be people reading this who know Sawako mostly through her electronic music. Some might even recognise how field recording was part of her process, but I think many, especially outside of Japan, would be surprised at the range of her activities, as briefly detailed in the short biography on Sawako’s website.
Sawako Kato was born in Nagoya and studied piano and nohgaku theatre in her youth. She went on to obtained a Master’s degree in Interactive Telecommunications from ITP New York University. Her studies included Networked Expression, Algorithmic Composition, Physical Computing, Ambient Information, Post Linear Narrative and Audio Visual Studies. She then received a BA from the Environmental Information Department at Keio University, Japan. Starting in 2019 she was also a teacher at Ferris University, Yokohama, where she taught Media Art, Electronic / Computer Music and coding to female students. Alongside all of this she developed her own work, released numerous albums, contributed tracks and remixes to others, organised concerts, soundtracked films and fashion shows, helped visiting musicians as a translator and, quite simply, became respected and admired by everyone she worked with.
Sawako is an important artist in the history of creative field recording, electronic music, Sound Art and Japanese music culture more widely. I say that knowing that some reading this might not, yet, be familiar with her work, or might only have heard it in connection to some of the artists she collaborated with. Sawako-san was, for all the different work she crammed into her time, a person without an ego that chased fame or acclaim. She released albums that sometimes she didn’t send to any publications for review, and whilst she did tour outside of Japan a number of times she did so not to network or push for more profile, but to play to audiences, meet old and new friends, and to smile in the process.
It is a good thing that saying this will sound odd to readers under the age of thirty, but back in the early 2000’s, when Sawako started releasing albums, including on mini-cd-r’s, it was quite hard to find albums by non-western women releasing work using field recordings, or indeed female artists from Japan working with electronic music & Sound Art that could be accessed outside of that country. There were others of course, including in the noise genre or having been part of earlier scenes, but it took a few more years for an upsurge of interest in contemporary Japanese sound to translate into wider access. (As an aside, it still isn’t represented that well in publications, websites or in curation of events or exhibitions, even though there is such a lot of important work, across all genres, that deserves wider recognition).
There is a page collecting interviews, articles and other resources on Sawako’s work on ‘the leaf explorers’ website;
https://theleafexplorers.blogspot.com/2024/04/on-sawako-kato-most-of-these-are-online.html
Sawako’s early work, collected on two compilations available as digital downloads via her bandcamp page, included field recordings alongside works that reference her interest in electronic systems and what became known as ‘lower case’ music. Small or static sounds, selected to frame space or stretch it.
https://sawako.bandcamp.com/track/kf03
Most of her work appears on her bandcamp page, or that of the label she set up, TinyTinyPress. One release, unfortunately not currently available, was a postcard & download set, to which I contributed photographs and a contact mic recording of a large name sign on a hillside in Japan that Sawako and I had climbed.
During her time in New York, she connected with lots of musicians working with electronic music, ambient music and experimental sound, releasing work on labels such as And/Oar & Winds Measure.
In 2005 she released her first album on the 12k label ‘Hum’. She released two more on the same label; ‘Bitter Sweet’ (2008) & ‘Stella Epoca’ (2022)
‘Summer Tour (2002)’ is a collection of works based on field recordings collected during her first tour of Europe, & like much of her work, what comes across is her reaction to subtlety in sound. Another ‘Summer Tour’ release followed in 2007, and in 2015 ‘Textures of Tokyo Volume 1’, an album & pdf of field recordings from Tokyo, in spring.
https://sawako.bandcamp.com/album/summer-tour-2002
https://tinytinypress.bandcamp.com/album/summer-tour-2007
https://tinytinypress.bandcamp.com/album/textures-of-tokyo-vol-01
…I started writing this a few days ago. I wanted to detail all of Sawako’s albums, but it’s hard to fit words around them currently. I think about whether that is another reason that her music often didn’t get reviewed as widely as other artists; that her work draws a space that sits on the edge of itself. I am reminded that, for many, we work with sound, or other art forms, because there are things that we need to say in other ways.So instead here’s a playlist;
https://www.buymusic.club/list/jezrileyfrench-arigato-sawako-san
I hope there is a time when not only the histories of field recording, sound art, electronic music and other explorative sound cultures are less distorted, & I hope one where even current resources or projects more fully recognise all the work done by artists whose commitment to their art & contributions are considerable, on whatever geographical scale, but who aren’t as comfortable pushing themselves forward, or who give space to others.
Anyone who met Sawako will know her smile. I am reminded of it as I write this, & smiling back. Arigato Sawako-san.
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