Hello, Tujiko Noriko

You can’t say we didn’t tell you about it in advance: the opening of sonic art festival Fete dela WSK last Nov. 19 was, indeed, a mind-blowing affair, involving experimental musical performances, a variety of visual vistas, and even a literal and figurative sound-kitchen, culminating in “a climax of exquisite culinary and sonic delights.” A huge part of the kick-off’s success was due to a very special guest: Japanese avant-pop artist Tujiko Noriko, who performed her beguiling brand of enigmatic electronica to an enthralled audience.

We were fortunate enough to speak with Tujiko Noriko before her performance. Though still recovering from the two days of air travel it took to get here from her home (she has been based in Paris for the past eight years), she was a gracious, accommodating and genuinely charming interviewee.

“Maybe it’s because of me or maybe it’s because of Paris,” she muses, but these days, “I work less.” This is quite surprising, considering that she has — counting collaborations — released no less than 13 albums since the year 2000 (nine of those since the move). Paris, as opposed to Tokyo, she says, is possessed of a kind of “slow mood.” Also, since she moved there (“Because of the love story,” she says, referring to her partner and the father of her daughter), much of her energy has been spent in quiet invisible adjustment, to a totally different set of circumstances. “I am not a productive person,” she insists. “My ambitious life is going really slow.” When asked to explain her prolific output, she says, “When I make music, it’s quick to make one track, it doesn’t take so long. And also I did many collaborations.”

Tujiko Noriko played to an enthralled audience of stacked white boxes, as well as humans.

Asked about what inspires her music, she says, “Oh, everything — but especially when I move, in a vehicle. Not so much in an airplane. So in a car, or a train, or in a bus... a lot of stimulation.” She talked a bit about one of her earliest efforts, when she was helping a friend out with vocals on a song. “The big label was telling us this song is too dark, nya nya nya,” she says. “It was never released.” Soon after, she thought, “I can make music by myself. It’s fun, more personal.” She started to tinker with “an old synthesizer” that her boyfriend at the time had, and soon enough, her unusual and internationally acclaimed career had begun. “He never really made music with the synthesizer, but I did,” she laughs.

It’s her first time in Manila: she talks about the joy of new places and new audiences, about the delicious tension when neither party knows what to expect of the other. “When I played in China, it was funny,” she says. “I had to play in a bar, and there was a striptease before me!” While she claims to be a fan of striptease, she never had the chance to share a venue with strippers before, and relishes the experience as “something new,” even though she says her “nerdy computer” setup was completely mismatched with the place. “It was really nice,” she grins.

And which of her 13 albums would she recommend to the beginner? After thinking the matter over carefully — at one point even exclaiming, “Hmmm... I don’t know!” — Tujiko Noriko says, “I recommend two: ‘Shojo Toshi,’ and ‘From Tokyo to Naiagara.’”

Through the wires: Tujiko Noriko, being a typically quirky Japanese artist

Or you could wait for the new one. She swears that she will come out with a brand new solo album by next year. I ask her if it will be “funky,” citing an earlier interview where she admitted an interest in that musical direction. She laughs and thanks me for the reminder, and says, “Yeah, I try. Noriko funk, which is maybe not understandable as funky.”

Tujiko Noriko has flown back to Paris, but the second and final weekend of Fete dela WSK goes into full swing tonight, Nov. 26 at 9:30 p.m. There’s a concert/party featuring “free-form noise... from Japan, intense breakcore from Prague, experimental hip-hop from local hitters, cutting-edge dubstep from Germany,” and more. More concerts and screenings follow on Nov. 27, and it wraps up on the 28th with a “silent disco” (yes), followed by the closing party at B-Side. Thanks to the talented and ubiquitous Brendan Goco for the Noriko/WSK pix. For more details on WSK’s slew of not-to-be-missed events, go to www.wskfete.com