LIVERMORE FALLS – Some might find it odd for a renowned experimental percussionist who’s played all over the world to be holding a concert in a private home in small-town Maine.
Tatsuya Nakatani will be doing just that this Monday night.
The venue is undecided. It will be held either in music-lover Fran Szostek’s Knapp Street living room, or in a large space above his garage, depending on audience turnout.
The musician is a Japanese-born drummer who lives in Pennsylvania, operates a recording studio, and has performed in such lofty halls as the Smithsonian, in Washington, D.C, as well as in 80 cities and 10 countries worldwide.
And the music, described on Nakatani’s Web site as defying category or genre and by Szostek as simply an adventure, promises to be a trip.
Livermore Falls might be an unlikely site for a concert where the style of music is so avant-garde it is called Out Music, if given a name at all. But in recent years, Szostek has made the town a pilgrimage site of sorts for experimental musicians.
He has been organizing concerts and music festivals, workshops and collaboration sessions in Maine for a decade now and, like a pied piper, when he calls, experimental musicians from as far afield as Zurich come flocking.
Since discovering Out Music 20 years ago, it has transformed him, Szostek said Thursday. “It’s definitely my life’s work,” he said. “And it is my passion. I breathe it in, really.”
The genre, if it can be called that, is exciting in its alien-ness, Szostek said. Listening to regular contemporary music is like driving a car, he said. Listening to Out Music is like driving a spaceship, or drinking a good espresso.
“You’re listening to this abstract stuff, and all of a sudden you hear something that’s a little familiar, and then all of a sudden it’s disappeared,” Szostek said. “It makes you appreciate so much the little familiar, and it’s also nice to be back in the abstract. It’s the poetry of our daily life, really.”
The 36-year-old Nakatani described his music as having a similar effect on him.
“I think this is my own voice, really from the inside, and I automatically speak it,” Nakatani said.
He started drumming in Japan at 16, and now uses traditional Japanese, as well as modern and invented techniques. The result is an original sound, full of texture and color, he said.
Szostek says Nakatani’s drumming is different than most solo percussion. “Tatsuya’s more thought-provoking with little surprises – not crashing around,” he said.
Nakatani’s concert is scheduled to begin at 8:15 p.m. on Monday, July 24, at 41 Knapp St. Up-and-coming Maine guitarist Josh Erskine will open the concert starting at 7:30 p.m. For more information, call Szostek at 897-6158 or 212-6288.
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