Last January, violin virtuoso and songwriter Kishi Bashi promised fans attending his first performance at Northampton’s Iron Horse Music Hall that, after finishing his tour across North America, he would come back to play for them yet again.
This Tuesday, Sept. 10, Kishi Bashi will fulfill that promise when he plays at the Pearl Street Clubroom, as he gears up for another US tour before bringing his musical act to Europe in the spring.
K Ishibashi, of the Brooklyn-based band Jupiter One, the sole member of his project Kishi Bashi, is a Berklee alumni and an adept composer who incorporates a smorgasbord of equipment with some beat-boxing and very soulful violin playing to produce scintillating and emotional music. Ishibashi is known for his solitary and impressive dynamic live performances.
Despite having only released one full-length album to date, Ishibashi’s music has been exceedingly well received and with the release of his debut LP, “151a,” Ishibashi made the transition from being a touring member of Montreal to a solo artist with ease.
His first foray into solo musicianship came with the EP, “Room for Dream,” which featured a duet with Kevin Barnes, the man behind of Montreal, on the song “Evalyn, Summer Has Arrived.” Ishibashi had also done some work touring with artists such as Regina Spektor and Sondre Lerche.
In an interview with the Massachusetts Daily Collegian, Ishibashi said that he had been pushed to produce his own work after touring extensively with Barnes and being offered the chance to open for Barnes on the condition that he come prepared with an album’s worth of music to open with.
The end result of said encouragement was Kishi Bashi’s debut album, “151a”, a play on words and an allusion to the Japanese saying “ichi-go ichi-e,” which translates to one place, one time, or once in a lifetime. The poeticism went far beyond the album title, and “151a” was lauded by critics and fans as an exceedingly emotive album built upon layers and layers of violin loops and harmonies constructed from Ishibashi’s voice filtered through octave and pitch changers.
The mood of the album itself oscillates between cheerful psychedelic pop tunes such as “It All Began with a Burst” or “Bright Whites” and melancholic ballads such as “I Am the Antichrist to You.”
Since the release of “151a” in 2012, Ishibashi has toured extensively and produced a few new releases, including a Christmas song entitled, “It’s Christmas, But It’s Not White Here in Our Town.” This track was released on a 7 inch box set which also features respective covers of ELO, Talking Heads, and Beirut paired with singles from “151a”, and two singles currently only available digitally from the artist’s bandcamp webpage.
Complex and intricate lyrics are ubiquitous in Kishi Bashi’s music and while the words reinforce a weighty emotional affect, the music itself is driven by and large by Ishibashi’s violin, whether it’s being simply bowed on or being used as a percussive tool to be looped over and over and layered on. Ishibashi has stated that typically his songs come together once a violin riff grows into something more, and then the lyrics can come together. Ishibashi’s music is clearly influenced by many different things, from contemporary classical music to the sort of neo-psychedelia that of Montreal is known for, but Ishibashi manages to tie in all these influences together in a way that’s both balanced and compelling.
At Tuesday’s show, Kishi Bashi will be joined by openers Elizabeth and the Catapult and The Sun Parade. Tickets are available in advance for $12 or at the door for $14.
Sabrina Amiri can be reached at [email protected].
