Fact Live: Bo Ningen ft. Noriko Okaku

For the latest in our ongoing series of live sessions filmed behind closed doors by Fact at 180 The Strand, we invited Japanese band Bo Ningen to perform music from their recent album Sudden Fictions. Comprised of vocalist and bassist Taigen Kawabe, guitar and synth player Kohhei Matsuda, guitarist Yuki Tsujii and drummer Akihide Monna, Bo Ningen have been creating noisy, psychedelic rock music since 2006. We all felt simply amazing and grateful [to be playing],” Taigen says of the set, which includes four tracks from Sudden Fictions, an album that sees the band exploring rich new sonic territory. “Performance is the way we can balance out our input and output, purification to fix the position of our spirit and body into where it should be.” The set’s visuals are a combination of existing material and a collaboration between London-based visual artist Noriko Okaku and Kohhei. “Footage used on the first and second track are from our previous music video, elemental animation and actual live footage from years ago are combined to produce kind of ghost imagery, ghosts dancing behind us,” Kohhei says. “I hope it works as a manifesto that we keep updating ourselves without ever forgetting what we were before.” “For the last tune ‘Kyutai’, Noriko Okaku provided collage animation from her previous project,” Kohhei says. “We were going through her stuff to see what fits the song and this one looked as if it’s made for it. Ominous and deep repetition of hands flowing in the dark matches perfectly with the song’s crawling groove.” Directed & Edited by: Pedro S. Küster Camera: Pedro S. Küster, Aiko Roudette, Kamil Dymek & Laima Leyton Sound Recording & Mix and Master: Andy Carrington Special thanks to all at 180 The Strand & Tristan Finn at Fold Sound Bo Ningen: http://boningen.info Noriko Okaku: https://www.norikookaku.com/ Sudden Fictions: https://backl.ink/142410778