- The charming Japanese festival celebrates ten years with the likes of Jane Fitz, Batu and DJ Nobu.
- For its tenth edition, Japan's rural festival returned to the mountains of Saku. The site, situated in a camping ground high above the peaks, offered stellar views, especially from the main stage. As I gazed at the far-away mountain tops, it felt like being in a fairy tale. A smaller indoor stage, nestled close to the entrance, provided non-stop music for those uninterested in sleep. With more than 1500 people, rural is among the larger electronic music festivals in Japan, yet it still felt like a family affair. As usual, kids ran amok, though in general the average age of attendees seemed higher than similar European events.
I began my adventure watching Chris SSG's opening set. Starting with Midori Takada's new collaboration with Lafawndah, "Le Renard Bleu," he lent heavily on drone and dreamy ambient, complemented by a few poppy tracks and the occasional vocal. This created a style of music he jokingly called "big-room-ambient." He performed to a crowd who had freshly woken up, setting the mood perfectly for Intergalactic Gary, who eased through the sunny afternoon with a run of spacey records. Next, Broken English Club, performing using a flute and a mic, sent his voice thundering across the mountains. The abrupt change of pace required the audience to recalibrate, and by the time DJ Nobu took over, everyone was back in full force. Watching Nobu play in Japan is always special. During his set, the audience turned jubilant, rowdy even, shouting and singing his name.
I later passed through a field of decorations, made by the installation artists Mirror Ballers. Beautifully lit, it created a lovely contrast to the dark and foggy mountain, where clouds had created a natural smoke machine for Antenes. Cranking the BPM a few notches up from Nobu, she seemed entirely in her element, before Akiko Kiyama and Ena took over with a live set of slow and trippy ambient.
The next morning, rural regular Sapphire Slows opened, playing tracks by the likes of Gunnar Haslam, Atom TM and Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe. At one point, her young niece waddled onstage. Smiling, the Japanese artist scooped her up with her right arm, while mixing in the next track with her left. This brief appearance must have inspired others: in the following days, kids running around onstage was a common sight.
Another of the festival's hit performances was Vladimir Ivkovic, whose set of pitched-down goa trance turned the crowd into a sweaty, smiling bunch. Batu, returning for the second year in a row, showed how he'd matured as a DJ. His set was among the best of the weekend, partially because he dropped Nikita Zabelin's edit of "Pearl" by Deka. Antenes, playing her second set of the festival, this time performed live, employing a wide array of machines. The mood, though, was less festive than before. Svreca, too, was serious, showcasing the dark and drawn-out techno that's such a staple of Japanese festivals.
Less trippy and more melancholic was Caterina Barbieri's live set. Unfurling beneath a sky of blinking stars, her emotional melodies provided the ideal closing set for the main stage. As I wandered down the mountain, I caught the final hours of CHIDA and DJ Yazi indoors. All weekend, the stage had showcased the best in new and established talents from the domestic scene.
When the sun rose again, I trekked back to the mountain, where Jane Fitz was sitting comfortably in a chair, playing slow records while smiling broadly at the crowd. Wata Igarashi, another regular at rural, went for a more driving sound, delivering a killer rolling techno set. It was left to Solar and Mozhgan to close the festival. Moving between spaced-out tracks, slower beats, Balearic and pitched-down trance, they closed with Tangerine Dream's 19-minute epic "Green Desert." As everyone took in the lush surroundings, friends old and new hugged each other, already promising to return next year.
Photo credit /
Yumiya Saiki
The next morning, rural regular Sapphire Slows opened, playing tracks by the likes of Gunnar Haslam, Atom TM and Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe. At one point, her young niece waddled onstage. Smiling, the Japanese artist scooped her up with her right arm, while mixing in the next track with her left. This brief appearance must have inspired others: in the following days, kids running around onstage was a common sight. Another of the festival's hit performances was Vladimir Ivkovic, whose set of pitched-down goa trance turned the crowd into a sweaty, smiling bunch. Batu, returning for the second year in a row, showed how he'd matured as a DJ. His set was among the best of the weekend, partially because he dropped Nikita Zabelin's edit of "Pearl" by Deka. Antenes, playing her second set of the festival, this time performed live, employing a wide array of machines. The mood, though, was less festive than before. Svreca, too, was serious, showcasing the dark and drawn-out techno that's such a staple of Japanese festivals.
Less trippy and more melancholic was Caterina Barbieri's live set. Unfurling beneath a sky of blinking stars, her emotional melodies provided the ideal closing set for the main stage. As I wandered down the mountain, I caught the final hours of CHIDA and DJ Yazi indoors. All weekend, the stage had showcased the best in new and established talents from the domestic scene. When the sun rose again, I trekked back to the mountain, where Jane Fitz was sitting comfortably in a chair, playing slow records while smiling broadly at the crowd. Wata Igarashi, another regular at rural, went for a more driving sound, delivering a killer rolling techno set. It was left to Solar and Mozhgan to close the festival. Moving between spaced-out tracks, slower beats, Balearic and pitched-down trance, they closed with Tangerine Dream's 19-minute epic "Green Desert." As everyone took in the lush surroundings, friends old and new hugged each other, already promising to return next year. Photo credit / Yumiya Saiki