Chihei Hatakeyama at Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden (Photo by Glen Han)
We see you, and you’ve been at it non-stop.
It’s time to take a breath,
tend to our hearts & mend these spirits,
with a night of ambient music and puppetry
at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater.
To honor this rare visit from Chihei Hatakeyama we’re leaving our existential dread and doom-scrolling at the door to transform Highland Park’s historic theater into a sanctuary of soft drones, sub tones, and shimmering harmonics. Our dear brother Dustin Wong will also join us in providing the evening’s mix that guides us into and out of the night.
Dress to impress or come through in your sweats, whatever you need. We just ask that you pour some tea, take a seat, and steep in the sounds of one of the most prolific sound artists on this planet who’s visiting us all the way from Tokyo. Throughout the night our beloved Bob Baker Marionette Theater will improvise alongside Chihei, pulling from their collection of 3,000+ handmade puppets, and animating the evening’s music in a most unique and brilliant art form for us each to inhabit.
We’re extremely grateful for our communities here in Los Angeles & just want to share this night to slow down, listen, reconnect, and take care of one another.
Chihei Hatakeyama is a sound artist, organizer and mastering engineer living in Tokyo. He has recorded & performed for years under his given name and also as one half of the electroacoustic duo Opitope, along with Tomoyoshi Date. Hatakeyama polychromes memory-evoking soundscapes with various recorded materials of acoustic instruments such as guitars, vibraphone, and piano; mostly played by hand and processed time and time again via laptop.
His first album Minima Moralia was commissioned for release by the Chicago-based label Kranky in early 2006. Since then his 80+ albums have been released by many labels including Room 40, Constellation Tatsu, Patient Sounds Ltd, First Terrace, and his own label White Paddy Mountain.
In 2013 Hatakeyama founded the record label White Paddy Mountain, which has since released over 40 recordings by some of the most accomplished modern ambient, shoegaze and folk musicians in Japan.
Dustin Wong was born in Hawaii (1982) and grew up in Tokyo. He studied Film at the California College of Arts in Oakland (2001-2003) and sculpture and performance at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore (2003-2005).
After graduating from MICA, his creative focus shifted to music. Forming bands (Ecstatic Sunshine, Ponytail) and cultivating solo music projects opened opportunities for him to travel throughout the US and Europe.
​For over ten years, the themes of Dustin’s work have been interested in the mystical, esoteric, and spiritual and, in recent years, have moved towards the idea of creating a space for healing through sight and sound
The Bob Baker Marionette Theater a designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument & the longest-running live puppet theatre in the United States. World renowned for their whimsical, handcrafted marionette performances, it’s a no-brainer that we’re simply obsessed.
Bob Baker opened the original theater in 1963, in a former movie scenery shop, which housed this troupe of merry mischief makers for more than 50 year. In 2019 the theater relocated to Highland Park, into a former vaudeville & silent film cinema, where our friends of BBMT continue to cultivate communities of joy and resilience every single day through performances, workshops, field trips, and even a show on dublab.