Tujiko Noriko (JP) • VÍZ (HU)

A meeting of two musicians who work with voice and electronics as an open sonic space. Tujiko Noriko is one of the most distinctive figures on the contemporary Japanese scene; VÍZ finds her own language between song, noir film atmosphere, and ritual.

Like in the observational prose of Sayaka Murata or Hiromi Kawakami, small details often decide everything in Tujiko Noriko's work - street noise, children's voices, a cat purring. Strong emotions emerge from seemingly insignificant moments. In her compositions, song form meets sonic subtleties, unexpectedly emphatic rhythms, field recordings, and silence. Electronics here is not merely a gentle ambient backdrop - it can be mischievous, playful, and slightly sinister. The vocal line, sometimes quite pop-oriented, lets itself be absorbed in this shifting space, only to resurface moments later. Beyond music, Tujiko Noriko has long been involved in filmmaking, and her albums resemble a sequence of images more than linearly constructed pieces. She has collaborated with Aoki Takamasa, Lawrence English, Nobukazu Takemura, and John Chantler, and released on labels Editions Mego, PAN, and Room40. She comes to Pardubice shortly after releasing the double album Pon, dedicated to her late deaf cat - one of her most personal recordings, which is not about loss but about immediacy, quiet humor, and attention to sounds we usually overlook.

Behind the VÍZ project stands musician Réka Csiszér. Her primary instrument is the voice - sometimes carrying melody, sometimes transforming into whisper, echo, or electronically layered choir. Her experience with theatrical and film music shapes how VÍZ works with sonic space: individual pieces are carefully constructed situations, whether approaching song form or unfolding in freer expanses. Beneath the surface lie Réka Csiszér's Transylvanian-Hungarian roots - not as folkloric citation but as distant memory, present in her work with voice, repetition, and the balance between intimacy and mystery. This is why her concert sometimes resembles ritual.