Whether jamming with techno-trance outfit Rovo in front of a seething dance floor, adding to the psychedelic vibe of prog-rockers Bondage Fruit or frolicking in the pop carnival of Demi Semi Quaver, Yuji Katsui is something of an anomaly. With all these groups, the 38-year-old plays neither a sampler nor guitar but the violin.
Katsui is an escapee, as it were, of the Suzuki Method. He first started playing the instrument at age 4, but, like many adolescents, tired of its musty classical repertoire and thought the guitar had more to offer. That is until he discovered the electric violin.
Since moving to Tokyo from his native Hokkaido in 1984, he has become a musical dynamo, wielding his violin on nearly a hundred recordings (from avant-garde improvisations to prog-rock psychedelia) and also running his own avant-rock label, Mabo.