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Hatis Noit, a multi-talented Japanese singer from a small island off of Hokkaido shocked the electronic and electro-acoustic world last year with the release of Aura, an experimental album with a focus on the voice that was released on Erased Tapes, the home of the ambient electronic wonderboy Nils Frahm. The result is a meditative, sometimes ambient affair that feels more like a listening of Buddhist or spiritual prayers than a full album. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There’s really nothing like it, and live, Hatis Noit is another kind of beast entirely. It’s moving and begs to be experienced in person. Luckily Hatis Noit is playing her debut Montreal performance at this year’s MUTEK. Of course, there is another aspect to look forward to, a real-time AI response, programmed by Yuma Kishi, to Hatis Noit’s looped vocals. We had a brief chat with Hatis Noit before her performance to learn a bit more.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n PAN M 360: Did you grow up in a musical upbringing? Was singing encouraged during your childhood?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Hatis Noit:<\/strong> No. There was not a single musician in my family. Although I loved to sing since I was a child, according to my family, I was a quite bad singer. They told me that when I came home from school singing, they knew that I had come home just by the sound of my voice. I am glad I didn’t listen to my family’s complaints and kept singing (haha).<\/p>\n\n\n\n PAN M 360: The song \u201cHimbrimi,\u201d always makes me sombre and I can\u2019t explain why because I don\u2019t understand the language, but there is something that resides within your vocal style. What is that song about, and going off that, do you believe music to be a universal language?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Hatis Noit:<\/strong> Interestingly, you are not the first person to tell me that you feel ‘sad’ when you listen to “Himbrimi.” It’s actually a very playful and fun song for me. There are no lyrics to that song and there is actually no specific storyline.\u00a0 Music is for me a language that is so much more eloquent than words and contains all kinds of memories, sensations, and information that is too rich to be described in words. I think that when such symbolism of music is translated back into its meaning again, people somehow connect with their memories and sensations. It is very therapeutic and I like that aspect of music very much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PAN M 360: The great William Basinski created a rework of your song \u201cInori\u201d a few months back. Was that more of a collaboration and how did you get willed into existence?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Hatis Noit:<\/strong> I was really touched that William understood the song “Inori” so deeply and that he embraces its grief so gently by the sound. The sound of the piano, which means home to him, gently embraces the memories of the homes that the people of Fukushima lost by the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear power plant disaster. It has become a very special collaboration for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PAN M 360: You shocked the world with Aura<\/em>, but have you already begun working on your next project?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Hatis Noit:<\/strong> Having done so many live shows since I released Aura<\/em> paradoxically has motivated me to make another album. I feel like making myself vulnerable again on stage performing new songs.
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