Japanese composer and media artist Hibiki Mukai explores a diverse range of musical and multimedia genres, driven by a persistent fascination with emerging technologies. His works— spanning from live-electronic music using cutting-edge computation to traditional Japanese music —reflect his expansive artistic insight.
He has received numerous international awards, including the Lawson-May Award [UK], Mitsui Group 350th Aniversary Award [Japan], 1st Prize at The Matan Givol International Composers Competition [Israel], "Marin Goleminov" International Composition Prize [Bulgaria], Festival Musica Academy’s Prize 2018 in Strasbourg, 1st Prize at the ORDA-2019 Composition Competition [Netherlands], 1st Prize at the 84th Music Competition of Japan as well as the 33rd ACL Young Composers Prize.
He has been commissioned by notably the IRCAM - Centre Pompidou, NHK, Festival Musica Strasbourg, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, CEAM, Ukrainian Institute (the Foreign Affairs), and Gaudeamus Music Week. Furthermore, his works have been selected for the B!ME [Lyon], Artist Residency at Césaré Centre National de Création Musicale, [Reims], Elektro Arts [Cluj-Napoca], and Jurgenson Competition [Moscow]. To date, he has been awarded scholarships by the Rohm Music Foundation, Kakehashi Foundation, Yamaha Music Foundation, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan.
Hibiki received his Bachelor’s degree from the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo and completed his Master's in Sonology at the Royal Conservatoire of the Hague in 2019. Hibiki is currently based in Porto to pursue a PhD in Digital Media at the University of Porto, supported by Mitsui Group and Nomura Art Foundation.
Website for the full list: http://hibikimukai.com
“Kikai no Hada 5” (Mechanical Skin 5) is heavily inspired by my time at an electronic music research institute, where I explored various soundscapes. In this piece, I aim to replicate the synthetic sonic experience of electronic music within the organic framework of a traditional orchestra.
The fundamental concept of this piece is applying electronic music techniques. For instance, playing back same-length tape loops from identical recordings. Due to minor differences in playback speeds, a delay occurs, causing a divergence in the two cycles, similar to a phasing effect in electronic music. Also, the sound signal is manipulated through orchestration, miming electronic circuit control crafting unique timbres in an acoustic setting. I also employed techniques that resemble waveform multiplication in electronic music, blending different sonic shapes in the orchestra.
I once saw artificial skin designed for robots. The moment that inorganic machine was fitted with skin, it transformed into an ambiguous entity between human and machine. I was struck by its eerie texture and the cold, lifeless absence of blood. Thus, in this work, I approached the orchestra as if it were a sentient entity, wherein the sounds are crafted artificially but embody the life-like quality of an orchestra. I referred to the orchestra as a living creature encapsulated in an artificial sonic shell. The music unfolds slowly, like the creature gradually breaking through the shell of synthetic sound, birthing a unique and dynamic auditory experience.