The sound artist and curator performing on his handmade beat machine at Oxford's Audiograft, 2015
Minoru Sato is a Japanese sound artist, curator and founder of the label WrK (1994–2006). He also works under the aliases m/s, SASW, and Il Grande Silenzio (a collaborative project with banjo player and visual artist Atsuo Ogawa), and has published releases and texts with Senufo, Spekk, Meeuw Muzak, and Errant Bodies Press.
Satu will be appearing at this year's Live Arts Week in Bologna, Italy, performing a work based on a handmade beat machine called SexGodSex. Talking of the performance, Satu says, “SexGodSex is the name of machines that I made with the purpose of sounding heavy beats and extreme dry tones. The name is taken from a title of a song of US band Swans. The machines are two types: one is a straight type and another is a folding type.
“In case of the performance, I often present natural feedbacks which appear on a relationship between pick-up and PA/guitar amp as additional live effects. Over time, the location of the pick-up is shifting, because the stepper motor is pulling it to upside. And the whole physical situation that involves spatial conditions of live space and conditions of the machine, is changed. By this, my system may create unpredictable feedback variations and SexGodSex machine itself will play its own ‘live’ music.”
Sato released an unedited recording of SexGodSex on Senufu Editions in 2014. Live Arts Week V is organised by Xing and takes place at Bologna's Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna, from 19–23 April. Other artists include Florian Hecker, Trond Reinholdtsen, Marco Berrettini, Alix Eynaudi, Leif Elggren, Duppy Gun, Lamin Fofana, Invernomuto, and more.
