Suzuribako
Improvisation
Improvisation
Suzuribako is a multicultural improvisation trio featuring Sebastian Strinning, Frantz Loriot and Ayako Kato. Named after a Japanese calligraphy box, this trio creates its own ink from ancient stones, draws fine lines in wide landscapes and jumps into the mysticism of the universe.
Born on the 1st of June 1985 in Brugg (Switzerland) and currently living in Lucerne, Strinning is a Swiss/Swedish jazz musician whose focus is on experimental jazz and free improvised music. From 2006 to 2013, Strinning studied at the Musik Hochschule, Luzern. He took lessons from, amongst others, Urs Leimgruber, Gerry Hemingway, Hans Koch und Fredrik, Ljungkvist. In 2011 he was awarded the Friedl – Wald Bursary and went to Stockholm for a year on an explorative mission. He studied with Swedish folk music extensively and worked closely together with musicians from the free improvised music scene. Since 2013 he’s been involved with organising concerts in Mullbau and performs with Gerry Hemingway and Manuel Troller in the trio 'Tree Ear'. In 2014 he won the 'Credit Suisse Jazzförderpreis' with his solo project and worked with Marc Unternährer to put together the Dienstags_Jazz Concert Series in the Kleintheater, Luzern. In 2016 he won the „Werkbeitrag“ from the county of Lucerne and founded the Band „Le String’Blö“ alongside Lino Blöchlinger. In 2017 he won a residency in Chicago.
At the same time, the Looty Trio was set up (with Valeria Zangger and Marc Unternährer). 2019 he started the interdisciplinary group Suzuribako and from 2022 to 2026 he receives living cost contributions of the Stiftung Arvore. Festival and club performances take him throughout Switzerland, Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America.
Homepage: http://strinning.ch
French-Japanese violist Frantz Loriot performs solo and is active in a number of international ensembles. He contributes to interdisciplinary projects related to dance, image, theatre, poetry and space. In 2022, Loriot received a master of arts in Transdisciplinary studies in the Arts at the Zurich University of the Arts with the focus of Anarchy as a Notion of Social Practice in the practice of improvised music. Active in a number of international collective ensembles, his current projects include solo and divers duos, trios and quartets (see projects' page). Loriot initiated and led two large ensembles, the European Notebook Large Ensemble and the NYC based Systematic Distortion Orchestra. Loriot regularly performs around the globe (Europe, USA, South America, Japan & Middle East) and has been invited to be artist in residence by festivals, venues and various artists. Since the mid 2000, Loriot occasionally organises concerts series when he has the opportunities (Elixir in Paris, WIM-Hearings in Zurich) and while living in NYC, he created and curated (co-curated later on) the musical series Ze Couch in Brooklyn, and the Avant-Post series with Tonino Miano in Harlem. Both series were mainly dedicated to avant-garde/new music. He is today one of the main organizer of the Zwei Tage Zeit, the only festival dedicated to the different practices of improvised music in Zürich. Loriot appears on over 40 records released on international labels such as Peira, FMR, Sickcore, Impressus, Prom Night, Edible Onion, Komma Null, Klein, Neither/Nor, OutNow, Shhpuma, Intonema, Clean Feed, Creative Sources, Veto Exchange, Bruit etc.
Loriot studied music in Paris with several professors (Mari Yasuda-Raclot, the Pons brothers, Nicolas Dupin, Ivry Gitlis, Yukari Tate & Pascal Robault) and was brought to improvisation by Régis Huby, Joëlle Léandre, Barre Phillips, and David S. Ware. He was initiated to soundmassage by Thierry Madiot. After having lived in Paris and New York City, Frantz Loriot relocated in Zürich (Switzerland).
Described as “moving everyday sculptures, artfully cast in naturalness” (Luzerner Zeitung, Switzerland), Ayako Kato, a kinetic philosopher/poet and 2023 United States Artist Fellow, is a contemporary experimental choreographer/dancer/improviser originally from Yokohama, Japan. Since 1998, and based in Chicago since 2004, Ayako Kato/Art Union Humanscape has been in deep collaboration with over 83 musicians and composers, presenting in Europe, Japan, and the US. Advocating the principles of fūryū, Japanese for “wind flow,” cyclical transformation and human motion in nature, Ayako creates solo, ensemble pieces, and movement installations for traditional stages and large scale site-specific locations. In early December 2024, Ayako performed as a part of the Black Air exhibition curated by Amelia LiCavoli at the Casino Luxembourg Forum d'art contemporain.
Through Dance & Music collaboration, she performed at Chicago Jazz Festival; Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) 50th Anniversary Celebration with Tomeka Reid, cello, and Mike Reed, drums; DOEK Festival, Amsterdam, Holland; 3Klang Tage Festival, with Urs Leimgruber, saxophone, Hildegard Kleeb, piano, Marie-Cécile Reber, electronics, Radim Hanousek, saxophon, Roland Dahinden, posaune in Zug, Switzerland; the 40th Anniversary of Tanzfabrik Berlin & impro:per:arts concert with Aki Takase, piano; Instant Composer's Pool (Holland) concert in Chicago; the 30th Anniversary Winter Solstice Performance with Michael Zerang, percussion, Hamid Drake, drums, and Josh Abrams, double bass, at Constellation, Chicago; International Festival of Arts and Ideas, CT; the ISSUE Project Room, Brooklyn, NY and beyond. As Suzuribako, she has toured in Europe and Japan since 2020.
Most recently, Ayako received the Heller Fellowship Award to initiate the creation of ETHOS V: Ways of the Wind in collaboration with the University of Colorado Colorado Springs in March 2025 and the Sybil Shearer Fellowship at Ragdale 2024, a 2023 National Dance Project (NDP) Grant Finalist Award, and A. Montgomery Ward Foundation in preparation for ETHOS IV: Degrowth/Cycle Rebirth premiered at the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago Spotlight Festival and the Grant Park in collaboration with Chicago Park District's Night Out in the Parks in April 2024. In addition to classical ballet and modern dance, she also studied Tai Chi, Noh Theater, and Butoh with master Kazuo Ohno, one of the founders, and dance anatomy under Irene Dowd. Gravitating towards eastern and Japanese views of nature, Kato’s dance seeks the way of being and illuminates the dignity of life in response to contemporary society. ayakokatodance.com
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user9343466
URL: https://www.ayakokatodance.com
Music & Dance Trio, 30 - 60 minutes, Live Music and Dance, No Set, Simple Lighting and Wooden Floor (not hard floor like stone/concrete) is preferable.