Upset The Rhythm presents…

KEIJI HAINO
Tuesday 17 March
ICA, The Mall, London, SW1Y 5AH
7.30pm | £25 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/V8e7432de701

KEIJI HAINO was born in Chiba, Japan on May 3, 1952. Inspired by Antonin Artaud, he aimed for the theater, but an encounter with The Doors stimulated him into music, where he has examined and absorbed a wide range of expressions from the early blues, especially Blind Lemon Jefferson, or European medieval music to popular songs across the world.  In 1970, he joined a group Lost Aaraaf named after Edgar Allan Poe’s poem as a vocalist. Meanwhile, he started to work on home recordings and learned the guitar and percussion autodidactically. In 1978, Haino formed a rock band Fushitsusha, and since 1988, after a recuperation period from 1983 to 1987, he has been internationally active in various forms including solo, groups such as Fushitsusha, Nijiumu, Aihiyo, Vajra, Sanhedrin, Seijaku, Nazoranai or The Hardy Rocks and DJ as “experimental mixture,” as well as in collaboration with artists from different backgrounds, drawing the performance of the guitar, percussion, hurdy gurdy, string instruments, wind instruments, local instruments from across the world and DJ gears to the extreme through idiosyncratic techniques. Haino has released more than 200 recordings and performed live at least 2,000 times.

In March 2026 Japan, Haino will present two exclusive performances in Europe on polygonola, a metal-flat polygonal instrument, based on the 2nd dimensional vibration theory, built by Naoki Skura. One fo these performances will take place at the ICA on March 17th.

https://keijihaino.bandcamp.com

“Keiji Haino towers over the Japanese underground: his colossally heavy guitar excursions inspired a whole generation of psychedelic rockers, but his omnivorous musical appetites have also seen him collaborate with jazz musicians, branch out into DJing, and play an entire gamelan orchestra single-handedly. There’s no knowing what to expect from a Haino gig” – Time Out Tokyo

“Keiji Haino lives among the class of improvisers who roam so far from what we usually call form — meaning, basically, rules — that they make you question whether what they’re doing is music.” – New York Times