HITOSHI KOJO

Japanese artist currently living in Brussels.

After creating various form of visual artwork and music in the 1980s and the early 1990s, in the late 1990s, he began creating sound composition that combines recordings made by intuitively manipulating natural objects such as stones, plants, and discarded everyday items.
The recorded material is often adjusted to harmonize with each other, and sometimes combined with traditional instruments and voices to enhance the tonality of the piece.
However, within the composition's timeline, all elements are left open and treated equally, avoiding the creation of centralized structures. This approach remains the same in the occasional performances and installations.

The recordings are primarily released on his own label, formerly Octpia and currently omnimemento, and many of them are presented in handmade packaging by himself.
His earlier works under the alias Spiracle were released from other labels such as Drone Records, Mystery Sea, taâlem and Helen Scarsdale Agency.
Since moving to Europe in 2004, he has collaborated with other artists such as Michael Northam, John Grzinich, Yannick Dauby, Emmanuel Holterbach, Jonathan Coleclough, Colin Potter.
In 2020, he began releasing simpler field/sound recording works under the alias sonomono.

In recent years, he has also been engaged in photography, focusing on multiple exposure photography of people and natural objects in landscapes using silver halide film.
He is currently searching for ways to create works that stand alone as objects, not just images, similar to the paintings and assemblages that he was previously involved in. Past works are being gradually added to Flickr.

OMNIMOMENT

Most of the objects and environments in our daily life are made for some purposes and are given the role.
Even most of the 'natural world' that we encounter in our daily life is being converted for our convenience, or is at least in a converted environment, or is abandoned aſter fulfilling its role.
If those objects and environments are used in a totally different manner or put in a totally disconnected situation from their intended role, the concreteness will be extremely apparent and a 'parallel world' will appear.
This method was investigated by many surrealists in the early twenties, and is also well established as 'musique concrète' within music history.
Even though I use the same method, I am more interested in entering the 'parallel world' through action, to experience a 'molecular communication' with the objects and environments through all my senses, rather than to make the 'parallel world' appear.
If I dare say, the purpose is to summon a 'primal world' from 'nature' that is filled with the swirling energy of the elements, such as water, fire, wind, earth, and void, through 'molecular communication'.
Such nature is oſten considered to be an imaginary product in a utopia which doesn't actually exist. However, since it is based on concrete matters in daily life, it should more accurately be called 'crucial reality'.
The expression 'crucial reality' may evoke the cruelty of reality. However, when I enter into reality through 'molecular communication', I feel that the 'primal world', which is woven with elemental energies, is incredibly beautiful. Therefore I accept it rather as the 'crucial beauty of reality'.
Although the beauty always exists everywhere, it is quite difficult to feel it in daily life, since it is covered by the showy brightness of practicality.
It is similar to the fact that we cannot see beautiful stars in the daytime.
The 'crucial beauty of the reality' is omnipresent in daily life. Is it useless to record the action, to summon it into the sensuous world?
At least, there is no useless matter in this 'crucial reality' that is released from the spell of practicality.

from omnimoment CD booklet