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Nehan is a Japanese free improvisation & avant-garde rock quintet
formed in August 2022. Their performances are initiated by a 9hz brain wave emitted from a testee who
has been brought into a deep meditative state via
either hypnosis or acupuncture-a very relaxed but
very alert state. nehan doesn't begin until the testee
has gotten into the state of "nothingness." It is only
then that the improvisation can begin.
The role of improvisation has been key to all the
musical projects of Masaki Batoh. In 2010, as Batoh
was winding down the activity of his long-standing "heavy chamber folk" group, Ghost, he became
involved in the design of a machine to generate sonic
data based on brain waves. An acupuncturist as well
as a musician by trade, his interest was spurred by
the rhythms of the body and the brain, and a desire to
access the "pulses" of brain waves to initiate improvisations. Following the release of Brain Pulse Music,
Batoh toured Japan and the US, making demonstrations of his process using a local volunteer and guest
performers, when available. Today, nehan arrive at
their performance space prepared with a Brain Pulse
testee, bringing a wide array of instruments including gongs, timpani, tabla and other drums and percussion, Crumhorn, bagpipes, mellotron, oscillators
and additional sound effects. Their performance is a
transformative electro-acoustic display that passes
through the prism of music styles, from east to west,
from traditional folk and classical to rock, jazz, and
avant electronic.
While nehan's performance presentation
invokes a sense of ritual, they understand their process as being far removed from any type of spiritual
endeavor-it has nothing to do with eastern thinking
or any kind of religious ceremony-this is an action
of improvisation, occurring in reality between the
five musicians on stage, in response to the brain
waves of an individual.
For the personnel of nehan, Masaki Batoh asked
players with whom he had good previous experiences in improvisation: Futoshi Okano (Ghost,
Acid Mothers Temple, The Silence), Haruo Kondo
(Espvall & Batoh) and Junzo Tateiwa (Ghost),
along with female Brain Pulse testee Gozen on
oscillators. The performance here, recorded live in
August of 2022 at GOK SOUND in Tokyo, demonstrates
their communal dedication to the improvisation. The
players act as listeners and musicians simultaneously, inspired to make extended pieces of music
out of the "nothingness" of brain waves.
The possibilities of nehan's chosen approach are
almost infinite; an evening with nehan is only the
beginning of their journey.