the Whispering Gallery & SAFE present: Masayoshi URABE + support tbc Cork: Triskel, Thursday June 13 Dublin: JJ Smyth's, Friday June 14 (adm €8) Coming to Ireland from Japan at a time when many Irish people would give their back teeth to do just the opposite, Masayoshi Urabe is a highly original young saxophone player. Tokyo-based Urabe plays acoustic saxophones (alto and soprano) and harmonica, both solo and in the company of Japanese artists such as Chie Mukai and Kousokuya, and Europeans such as Han Bennick and Gary Smith. Born in 1965, he took up the sax in 1985, having previously used visual art as his primary creative outlet. Urabe’s music is improvised, but is neither jazz nor ‘free improvisation’. It is rather something altogether more personal and unique. Silence, paradoxically, is one of the defining characteristics of Urabe’s music. Sometimes the silences last several minutes, gaining their own weight and presence, re-shaping the sounds that surround them in the minds of the listener. The other defining characteristic of Urabe’s performances is his physicality while playing. Music is seemingly bodily shaken from his instrument, as he moves about the stage in various contorted positions. The raging tone of his sax often echoes free jazz masters such as Albert Ayler and Peter Brotzmann, but Urabe's passion is more abstract, less direct than theirs. These concerts will appeal particularly to fans of sax players such as Mats Gustafsson and Evan Parker.