IMA SONG LINES -In Search of Lights- "Songs and Travel Memories Beginning with Kotatsu"

In the spring of 2018, Arie became a "Wi-Fi router" and began communicating with Asaf in Tel Aviv and Manuha in Warsaw.
A few months later, Miwa joined us and the four of us had a "training camp" on Yakushima. Without using music scores, we listened to each other's songs, traced our memories, and layered sounds. It was more like "discovery" than "composition".
This is how "IMA SONG LINES" was born.

About a year later.
The song "SUZUME" from Miyakojima was echoing in the city of Warsaw. Different worlds meet, and the song speaks to the soul beyond the illusions of national borders and nationalities, connecting people together.

Everyone has memories of the songs they felt in the kotatsu.
When we trace these memories, we can see the "old and new world map" drawn by songs.
The color of the passport is different for each of us, but we will continue to sing and travel, tracing the memories of music before borders and nationalities were born. Just in search of the light.

<"IMA SONG LINES" project>

A collaborative project by two singers, Maniucha Bikont and Miwa Yonashiro, and keyboard player Assaf Talumdi, and contrabas player Seigo Matsunaga, with the theme of commonality of folk songs and folk songs that remain in various parts of the world such as Miyakojima and Poland. With the motif of the melody of old songs, they released highly improvised music, presenting the possibility of new world music. In 2018, they will perform in Japan at Ginoza Village, Okinawa, Tokyo Think of Things, and Kyoto Art Center. In 2019, they will perform in Poland in three cities, including the Pomeranian Philharmonic Hall in Bydgoszcz and Dom Kereta, a modern art architectural space in Warsaw.

<Member>
Maniucha Bikont
Polish singer and tuba player.
She is not only a singer but also active as an anthropologist. She has done numerous studies and field recordings, and continues to study the music that remains in Poland, Ukraine and Russia.

Assaf Talmudi
Composer, producer and keyboard player from Israel.
He is one of the busiest producers in the contemporary Israeli music scene.
With a wide range of knowledge and curiosity about music, he is a "musical archaeologist" who delves into indigenous cultures and brings them back to life with a variety of ideas.

Miwa Yonashiro
Born in Miyakojima, Okinawa. Under the influence of her mother, she became interested in the sanshin and began playing it in the fourth grade. In 2008, she won the top prize at the Ryukyu Shimpo Classical Performing Arts Competition. In 2016, she released the Myahk Song Book "Longing" and later appeared in Peter Barakan`s LIVE MAGIC 2017, attracting attention.
She has been studying the ancient songs of Miyako Island and passing on the memories of the songs that are being lost.

* Arieh Rosen
Cultural and Science Attaché, Embassy of Israel in Japan

The 2018 Japan tour of "IMA SONG LINES-In search of Light-" and the performance of "SUZUME" at Dom Keret in Warsaw in 2019 are available on the "PLAYLIST" page.