Kazuyuki KISHINO biography
Kazuyuki KISHINO (aka K.K. NULL) was born in Tokyo, Japan 1961. Composer, guitarist, singer, mastermind of progressive hardcore band ZENI GEVA.
In 1981 Kazuyuki KISHINO studied at Butoh dancer, Min Tanaka’s “Mai-Juku” workshop and started his career by performing guitar improvisation at clubs in Tokyo. He continued by collaborating with MERZBOW for two years, and joining the band YBO2 (with Masashi Kitamura, the chief editer of “Fool’s Mate” magazine and Tatsuya Yoshida, the drummer of RUINS) and starting the improvised noise/rock trio ABSOLUT NULL PUNKT (with Seijiro Murayama, the original drummer of Keiji Haino’s FUSHITSUSHA).
In 1985 he established his own label NUX ORGANIZATION to produce & release his own works and subsequently the bands such as MELT-BANANA. He also produced the series of “Dead Tech” (compilation albums by Japanese bands) which heralded Japanese alternative music boom internationally from the early 90’s to date.
In the early 90’s he gained world-wide recognition as the mastermind, guitarist and singer of the progressive hardcore band ZENI GEVA, releasing five albums produced by STEVE ALBINI (two on Jello Biafra’s Alternative Tentacles label) and a few more on other labels such as NEUROSIS’s Neurot Recordings. Also ZENI GEVA recorded twice for JOHN PEEL SESSION on BBC, and immensely toured throughout Europe, USA, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, playing hundreds of concerts.
All the while, Kazuyuki KISHINO has been working on his solo career and collaborating with other musical innovators such as Z’EV, CHRIS WATSON, KEIJI HAINO, JON ROSE, MATMOS, FRED FRITH to name a few, and has been invited to perform at international festivals such as “Presences Électronique” in Paris (France), “Sonar” in Barcelona (Spain), “All Tomorrow’s Parties UK”, “Radar” in Mexico City (Mexico), “International Sound Art Festival” in Mexico City (Mexico), “Sergey Kuryokhin International Festival (SKIF-6 & 8)” in St.Petersburg & Moscow (Russia), “Elevate” in Graz (Austria), “X-peripheria” in Budapest (Hungary), “Liquid Architecture” in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane (Australia), “Totally Huge New Music Festival” in Perth (Australia), “Avanto Helsinki Media Art Festival” in Helsinki (Finland), “Roadburn” in Tilburg (Holland), “International Festival Musique Actuelle” in Victoriaville (Canada), “Electron” in Geneve (Switzerland), and many more.
After playing the guitar as his main instrument for nearly thirty years, Kazuyuki KISHINO has gradually moved towards a more electronic approach. Since the late 90’s he has been concentrating his efforts on his solo & collaborative recordings, exploring the outer territories of electronica, creating intense clashing wave of noise, structured electro-acoustic ambience, broken down rhythmics, scattered pitch sculptures, droning isolationist material which could be described “cosmic noise maximal/minimalism”.
Selected commissioned works :
– “Cryptozoon” surround composition for Festival Presences Électronique 2013 by Ina GRM (Paris)
– “Edging” music for dance theatre by Tazcorp (Paris)
– “Visiting Tarab” live performance piece by Sharjah Art Foundation (U.A.E)
– “Aria, acqua, fuoco, terra” sound for exhibition “Andar Par Stelle” by Cesare Berlingeri (Padova, Italy)
– “A Page Of Madness” soundtrack for a Japanese silent film “Krutta Ichipeiji” (directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa 1926) by Buda Arts Centre (Belgium)