MUSIC | Report from "Red Bull Music Academy 2013 New York"

MUSIC | Ryoichi Kiyomiya (vinylsoyuz) Reports on the Annual Major Project

The Full Story of Red Bull Music Academy 2013 New York

The Red Bull Music Academy, a project by Red Bull that unfolds globally for musicians, aspiring artists, and music lovers. Having been actively involved with this initiative in Japan, last year,AUDIO LOUNGE x RCF by PLAY, JAPAN! Red Bull Music Academy feat. Open Reel Ensemble Listening PartyandRed Bull Music Academy AUDIO LOUNGE presents musikelectronic geithain x content WORLD HAPPINESS 2012 After Partythrough these two events, I had the opportunity to witness the annual major project held in New York this year.

Text by KIYOMIYA Ryoichi （vinylsoyuz）

An "Academy" for Just Sixty Emerging Musicians

The 15th installment of the Red Bull Music Academy, previously held in cities worldwide such as Berlin, Toronto, London, Melbourne, Cape Town, and Madrid, took place in New York.

This was an astonishingly large-scale project, with various events unfolding over a month across Manhattan and Brooklyn. The concerts and club nights, held daily at different venues throughout the period, featured legendary artists including Ryuichi Sakamoto, Brian Eno, Kim Gordon, Erykah Badu, Four Tet, and Flying Lotus.

Alongside these festival-like aspects, the "Academy" also lives up to its name by fostering educational activities over many years. Sixty emerging musicians, meticulously selected from over 4,000 applicants worldwide, spent two weeks in a studio built within a Chelsea building, where they could freely create music and engage in sessions with fellow participants. Musicians skilled in live performance were also given opportunities to present their work to large audiences.

Furthermore, a distinctive feature is the lectures exclusively for these participants (Red Bull Music Academy 2013 Lecture Videos). The lineup of instructors was incredible, featuring Questlove, Masters at Work, Q-Tip, Richie Hawtin, Adrian Sherwood, and world-class engineers like Herb Powers Jr. and Ken Scott.

Beyond concerts and lectures, Brian Eno's massive installation "77 Million Paintings" was on display, and Red Bull Music Academy branding could be spotted everywhere throughout the event.

alva noto + ryuichi sakamoto: A Completely New Relationship Between Sound and Visuals

Towards the end of the event, alva noto and ryuichi sakamoto held a lecture and concert. During the lecture, when their latest work "summvs" was played, the previously relaxed atmosphere shifted dramatically. The participants, young musicians, were captivated by the sound's overwhelming resolution, frozen in place, unable to move.

The following day, at a concert hall within the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the collaboration between Ryuichi Sakamoto's piano and Alva Noto's electronics and visuals—built up over two laps around the globe through two European and one Latin American tour following the release of the five-part series "vrioon," "insen," "revep," "utp_," and "summvs"—presented a completely new relationship between sound and visuals, characterized by meticulously restrained emotion, avoiding sensationalism, yet rendering every moment and every space beautiful.

Unlike the previous day's lecture, the boisterous atmosphere of the clubs experienced daily since arriving in New York seemed to vanish. The venue was filled with an air of quiet acceptance, as if at a classical concert, of everything being played, right up until the final encore note faded from everyone's ears. It felt as though their "v-i-r-u-s" operation had enveloped New York.

Intimate Spaces and Times for Select Youth and Legends

On the final day, returning from "L.I.E.S." at OUTPUT in Brooklyn. As I ascended the subway stairs in Times Square, I was captivated by a stack of the final issue of the Academy's daily tabloid, "Daily Note," unceremoniously placed in a corner of the stairs. This kind of distribution feels like the true essence of the Red Bull Music Academy. It's a form of communication that could be seen as somewhat rough, yet it mirrors the attitude of cutting-edge music, and it was a moment where I could feel that spirit unexpectedly in the city.

Yet, legends like Lee "Scratch" Perry, Philip Glass, Van Dyke Parks, and Giorgio Moroder would deliver intimate, detailed lectures for just a few dozen aspiring musicians. This experience would undoubtedly profoundly change the outlook on life for these young musicians.

Takafumi Sakurai, also known as EMUFUCKA, a beatmaker from Sendai and the sole participant from Japan this time, shared a similar sentiment when we met in the lounge space. The reverse was also true. While responding to the numerous hungry and creative questions from select young individuals with whom they wouldn't normally have much interaction, the legends also seemed to gain energy from them.

Stepping outside the lecture venue, one could glimpse the history of New York in a way that transcends ordinary tourism, encountering concert halls, clubs, and even spaces not typically used for live performances like cinemas, hotels, and churches in their altered states.

Red Bull Music Academy 2013 New York, which focused on connecting diverse generations of music lovers, brought a new joy to navigating the map of Manhattan. This endeavor to expand the realm of what music can achieve will continue around the world.

Red Bull Music Academy
http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com
http://www.redbullmusicacademy.jp/