Japan's reverence for past gives new musical meaning to old appliances

Improbable avant-garde artists' collective Electronicos Fantasticos celebrates a retro-future

Ei Wada with Electric Fan Harp.jpg

Electronicos Fantasticos founder Ei Wada rocks out on a converted fan. The collective's members range from primary school kids to engineers at appliance companies. 

JOSEPH RACHMAN

The underground concourse of a Tokyo mall seemed an unprepossessing spot for an experimental ballet performance despite the smooth lump of abstract marble statuary and signs proclaiming the area a Street Museum.

Then the musicians trooped out bearing their instruments -- large and small old cathode-ray tube TVs crafted to resemble drums and shamisen, the three-stringed traditional Japanese musical instrument, along with a converted electric fan serving as another pseudo-string instrument, and a huge keytar-shaped keyboard covered in black and white stripes for a barcode scanner to read. The instruments produced electromagnetic waves that were transformed into an otherworldly sound and melody as ballet dancers leapt and twirled.

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