Aono Jikken Ensemble

Seattle based ensemble of musicians and performer which started off by creating soundtracks to Japanese movies from the silent era. They have since produced full stage productions of their own.

Aono Jikken Ensemble (pronounced Ah-Oh-No Gee-ken, Japanese for "blue field experiment") was formed in 1997, and its members use their backgrounds in music, dance, theatre, film, and visual art to explore new sights and sounds in experimental music and performance-based art. AJE's main areas of endeavor are creating innovative new works for the stage and original live scores for classic Asian silent films. Their music combines traditional Asian, western, and world instruments, found objects, sound toys, and specially created sound devices made of metal, bamboo, kelp and other materials. In performance the group places traditional styles into new contexts while striving to create a new artistic language of their own.

AJE's previous stage work includes the multi-disciplinary performance Komori-uta (Lullaby), about a Japanese "war bride" in America, and the dance-theatre piece Drift, a re-imagining of the crane-woman folk tale. Their silent film scores include the 1932 Chinese martial arts adventure Swordswoman of Huangjiang; the 1926 Japanese avant-garde masterpiece A Page of Madness; and five dramas and comedies by master director Yasujiro Ozu, including A Story of Floating Weeds, The Lady and The Beard, and An Inn in Tokyo. They have also released a CD of their original music entitled A Page of Madness.

AJE has presented their work at On The Boards, Northwest Asian American Theatre, Seattle International Film Festival, Vancouver International Jazz Festival, Northwest Film Forum, Seattle Asian Art Museum, SOIL Gallery, Broadway Performance Hall, Seattle International Butoh Festival, Seattle University, and on the radio stations KEXP and KBCS. Their work has received awards from the Seattle and King County Arts Commissions and Jack Straw Foundation. The documentary Jikken by Doug Ing, detailing AJE's work scoring A Page of Madness, premiered in New York City in June 2005.

• William Satake Blauvelt
• Susie Kozawa
• Yoko Murao
• Michael Shannon
• Naho Shioya
• Esther Sugai
• Marcia Takamura