Mieko Suzuki is a DJ, sound artist and music curator based in Berlin. In her experimental DJ sets she creates unique sonic textures that mix drones and compressed beats with field recordings and spoken word. Suzuki manipulates her sound material in real time with feedback loops, scratches and a wide array of effects pedals. Her recent gigs incl. A L’ARME! Festival (Radialsystem Berghain, Berlin), Raster-Index (Berghain), Dave Festival (Dresden), GEGENkino (ifz, Leipzig), Labor Sonor (KuLe, Berlin) and Ausland (Berlin). Suzuki has also been involved in many crossdisciplinary collaborations, amongst others with Meg Stuart (City Lights – a continuous gathering, 2016, Celestial Sorrow, 2018), fashion designer Tatsuro Horikawa (JULIUS), and artist Barbara Raes (Unacknowledged Loss, 2017). Since 2009, Suzuki has been running her own bi-monthly, multidisciplinary event KOOKOO, together with Arno Raffeiner at OHM gallery in Berlin.
FACTS:
1: The Temporary Autonomous Zone
2: Cosmic Consciousness
3: Ancient Mysteries
QUESTIONS:
1. What is the biggest inspiration for your music?
A feeling of tension, heavy consciousness, celestial harmony, spirits, belief…I am inspired by the people surrounding me.
2. How and when did you get into making music?
I started classical training at an early age then began playing records in the late 1990s.
3. What are 5 of your favourite albums of all time?
Time Machines by Coil / Time Machines/ Eskaton/ 1998
Laurie Spiegel/ The Expanding Universe/ Phio/ 1980
Meredith Monk/ Dolmen Music/ ECM/ 1981
Isao Tomita/ Clair de Lune/ RCA/ 1976
Throbbing Gristle/ The Second Annual Report/ Industrial Records/ 1977
4. What do you associate with Berlin?
My friends and riding my bike.
Acceptance of myself and others.
Being as collaborative as possible.
Collective activities.
5. What’s your favourite place in your town?
My home or OHM.
6. If there was no music in the world, what would you do instead?
…but we could still make sound by moving our bodies, with objects or voices…That´s great and excites me.
7. What was the last record/music you bought?
Electric Indigo/ 511593/ Imbalance Computer Music/ 2018
Lucy Railton/ Paradise 94/ Modern Love/ 2018
Synth Sisters/ Aube/ 17853/ 2016
Phew/ Light Sleep/ Mesh-Key/ 2017
Oomiwajinjya/ Shinpaishi
Heavenly Music Corporation/ Lunar Phase/ Astral Industries/ 1995
8. Who would you most like to collaborate with?
Midori Takada
9. What was your best gig (as performer or spectator)?
As performer: The gigs at KOOKOO, a bi-monthly event I organise at OHM. Opening for acts like Electric Indigo, Rabih Beaini, Paul Purgas, Frank Bretschneider, Perera Elsewhere and many others, in front of a very passionate audience feels good.
As spectator: Pauline Oliveros & Ione at HAU 1, CTM 2016
10. How important is technology to your creative process?
Technological development is necessary to follow but i take it as a tool to realise my ideas or concepts. So the important thing is how to use it.
11. Do you have siblings and how do they feel about your career/art?
I don’t have any siblings but i talk a lot about my activities and focus or interests when i see my relatives in japan. We all accept each other the way we are. I am happy that i can share my life with them. That makes me feel warm and resonates my heart.
Listen to Mieko Suzuki on Mixcloud.
