Eucademix & azumi O E

Saturday, April 19th at 8pm, ISSUE Project Room and AvanTokyo proudly present the world premiere of Respira, a groundbreaking collaboration between pioneering electronic musician Eucademix (a.k.a. Yuka Honda) and Butoh dancer azumi O E. The performance will take place at ISSUE’s 22 Boerum Pl. theater in Brooklyn.

The evening will begin with a solo set by Eucademix, showcasing Honda’s signature approach to sound—navigating unpredictable musical landscapes with fluidity. “I draw on an extensive library of sound palettes from countless genres, improvising transitions that feel natural yet surprising,” Honda explains. This methodology traces back to her experience performing John Zorn’s Cobra in the mid-’90s, where musicians responded to cues like “EYES” or “cartoon trades,” producing sounds in rapid, unexpected succession—like flipping TV channels. This concept also shaped her genre-blurring compositions for Cibo Matto’s Viva! La Woman.

The solo performance will expand into a deeply immersive collaboration between Honda and O E. Though both Japanese expatriates and longtime New York residents, their artistic paths only recently converged. Their first duo performance, enhanced by O E’s lighting design, revealed an undeniable chemistry. Rooted in abstract communication, Respira reflects on the tension between silence and chaos, stillness and eruption—ideas drawn from their shared connection to Zen philosophy. The title, meaning “to breathe,” suggests their instinctive synchronicity in performance.