What do you get when you mix prehistoric Jomon Period ruins and free-spirited, improvised percussion and rhythm? Jomon Trance, that's what. A genre coined by global music group RaBiRaBi, it's a sound that "blends the ancient and the future to create a new ceremonial space."
If your chakra has started tingling then that should set the tone for the upcoming Feel the Roots festival in Aomori Prefecture, which features a handful of sound artists and art collectives. What makes this event stand out from other summer music festivals is its location: the Sannai-Maruyama site, home to the (fairly) recently discovered Jomon ruins. Rewind back to 1992, when excavations to survey a site for a planned baseball stadium revealed relics of the Jomon Period, which took place from around 14,000 BC until 300 BC.
Now designated as a World Heritage site, the spot hosts music and art, amid its long houses, pit-dwellings, and pillar-supported structures. Headliner RaBiRaBi promises a sound trip that exceeds borders, race, time and space, with notes collected from its past field recordings, traveling as far as Canada and South Korea to hone their sound.