Open Reel Ensemble

'Around the time I began to understand things, I came to believe that a music festival would be waiting at a place where there is a gigantic tower shaped like the leg of a crab with a tube television embedded in it,' said Ei Wada when he won an Excellence Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival in 2009. 'But at a certain moment, one of my friends pointed out that there was no such place on earth. So, in that case, I decided to make a virtue of necessity and to produce it myself.' Barmy? Well, we're talking about a guy who's constructed a mini orchestra out of old reel-to-reel tape recorders here. As a live act, Wada's Open Reel Ensemble are terrific value, manhandling their tape decks to create ambient soundscapes and – we kid you not – Underworld-style dance anthems. The group's members also play together in the predominantly acoustic folk ensemble Joki Aotsuki Gakudan, meaning that they get to appear as their own support act for this latest concert.