Concert Keiji Haino
18.05.2025
Having spent the previous week at the residency, and following performances in Geneva and Zurich, free music legend Keiji Haino joined forces with La Becque to offer a surprise concert on Sunday, May 18 at the Temple of Saint-Théodule in La Tour-de-Peilz. This exceptional performance featured Haino in a solo concert for voice and electronics, follows on a series of unique performances staged in the church by La Becque since 2021, with the likes of Kali Malone and Leila Bordreuil, Anthony Pateras, Félicia Atkinson, Dafne Vicente-Sandoval and Charles Curtis, Drew McDowall, Maria W Horn and Mats Erlandsson, Sopraterra, and more.
A major figure in both the Japanese and international experimental music scenes since the 1970s, Keiji Haino has developed a radical and singular body of work that defies genre and convention. Through electric guitar, voice, percussion, electronics, and instruments such as the hurdy-gurdy, Haino explores the outer limits of sound, silence, and perception. His approach—improvised, physical, and spiritual—reflects an intense pursuit of transformation through listening. Drawing on a vast range of influences, from psychedelic rock to Noh theater, Western minimalism to Eastern philosophies, he creates performances that oscillate between trance, tension, and vulnerability.
The founder of the seminal Japanese experimental rock group Fushitsusha, Keiji Haino has collaborated with an eclectic array of artists including Jim O’Rourke, Merzbow, Stephen O’Malley, Tony Conrad, Pan Sonic, and Oren Ambarchi. Unpredictable and often extreme, his music unfolds as a raw space of freedom where the forces of the body, the sacred, and chaos converge. His live performances—rare and intense—are profound sonic and existential experiences, inviting audiences into a state of total, often challenging, always unforgettable listening.
In collaboration with Konnekt and Swamp Booking.
Keiji Haino, Temple St-Thédolue, La Tour-de-Peilz, 2025, photo Alizée Quinche