MA—SHUGOREI | 間—守護霊
Dynamic Meanjin experimental duo SHUGOREI teams up with brand new world ensemble, MA, for an exhilarating new musical collaboration.
MA-SHUGOREI is a five-piece music ensemble:
| Nozomi Omote | Thomas Green | Tunji Beier | Takako Nishibori-Haggarty | Adrian Sherriff |
| Orchestral percussion | Electronics | Indian percussion | Koto and Shamisen | Shakuhachi and multi-instrumentals |
“Authoritative, diverse, and utterly unique art for open-minded listeners!”
– Last Day Deaf
Ma-Shugorei is a striking new musical gathering, bringing together five performers whose instruments and backgrounds open out into a richly layered sound world. Nozomi Omote on orchestral percussion, Thomas Green on electronics, Tunji Beier on Indian percussion, Takako Nishibori-Haggarty on koto and shamisen, and Adrian Sherriff on shakuhachi and multi-instrumentals come together in a project that begins with Japanese court music songs and lets them travel far beyond their origin. What emerges is music of resonance, shimmer, and contrast, where the ancient and the contemporary seem to breathe in the same space.
At its centre, Ma-Shugorei is about listening, transformation, and the pleasure of unexpected meeting points. A plucked string can answer a whispered electronic trace. Percussion can sharpen a phrase one moment and dissolve it the next. The shakuhachi can rise like a thread of air through the texture, while koto, shamisen, drums, and electronics gather and re-form around it. The result is not a simple fusion, but something more delicate and more vivid: a living interchange, full of colour, tension, and surprise.
This first stage of the project draws from Japanese court songs, yet it refuses to leave them untouched or fixed in place. Instead, Ma-Shugorei lets them become the basis for a new musical encounter, one shaped by cultural memory, improvisatory imagination, and the chemistry of the five artists involved. It is a rare and compelling ensemble configuration, bringing together instruments and traditions that do not often appear in the same room, let alone the same composition. That rarity is part of the draw. So is the sense that something is being made in real time, something both rooted and newly alive.
For Fans Of
Björk; Amon Tobin; Ryuichi Sakamoto; Lisa Gerrard; Cornelius; Hauschka; Nico Muhly, Geinoh Yamashirogumi
Ma-Shugorei are available for phone, email and in-person (south east QLD) interviews and comments. Please contact Tunji Beire for more information, door spots, request to premiere and for other content options.
Shugorei 