Koji Asano

Renowned across the globe for inventive musical thinking, Koji Asano resists easy classification. Born in Japan and now based in Barcelona, Spain, Asano has written scores for dance productions, film soundtracks, and video art exhibitions. Individual pianists, guitar-driven bands, computers, string quartets, and the Tokyo-based Koji Asano Ensemble have all presented his pieces. The San Francisco Weekly observed that Asano "eschews the well-worn path of familiar music making contexts for a less traveled route involving feedback, computers, and electronics." He has joined forces with an eclectic array of musical and visual creators. In 1997 Asano supplied accompaniment for sculpture and painting exhibitions in Moscow, Pushkin, and Latvia. Two years afterward he wrote a string quartet for Bruno Letort’s Megapoles project, performed by the Smith Quartet at the Vingtième Théâtre in Paris. Banda Municipal de Barcelona premiered another of his works in October 2001.