Patrick Shiroishi at Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden (photo by Glen Han)
Sweet beams! We hope to see you at the historic Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden for our second-to-last gathering of a limited series of intimate monthly concerts focused on collective breath, meditation, and unity. This is music as medicine, collective ritual, and an invocation for the worlds to come.
We’re sharing this month with our dear friend and hero Patrick Shiroishi who we first booked at the garden 5 years ago this week. Patrick is one of LA’s most prolific musicians, largest hearts, and outside of his own transformative records he can be heard as a member of Fuubutsushi, The Armed, Wild Up, and across a kaleidoscope of releases from claire rousay, Chelsea Wolfe, Xiu Xiu, Lia Kohl, Dave Harrington, Celia Hollander, and among so many musicians in pursuit of collective transcendence, speaking truth to power, and creating the communities we need. He wears his heart on his sax, and whether solo or in collaboration it’s absolutely enthralling to have the chance to see Patrick sculpt space in real time through music. He’s also the host of Tangled on dublab which we highly encourage keeping up with & we’re so appreciative to share this evening together.
We’ve given this micro-series the name ‘The Paradise Garden of Endless Melodies’ as a play on two references. First, as a nod to the late IASOS and his Vibrational Environments series which included an album called The Paradise Bird of Endless Melodies comprised of synth and birdsong. Second, as a love letter to the history of Paradise Gardens, and their adjacent role in both Japanese and Persian culture as sites for utopic world building.
Bring a blanket and gather in the garden with us for an evening of spacious sounds and the rekindling of something very special. We’ll have tea available for you upon arrival & offer the reminder that there are no animals allowed at the Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden aside from our critter friends who nest, rest, and digest throughout the koi ponds and tree canopies.
We may still be setting up and tinkering with sounds at 5p, so pls feel free to lay and wander/wonder and enjoy the garden. We’ll have tea available and Tate will begin around 5:30p.
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Patrick Shiroishi is a Japanese-American multi-instrumentalist and composer based in Los Angeles who is perhaps best known for his extensive and incredibly intense work with the saxophone.
Over the last decade he has established himself as one of the premier improvising musicians in Los Angeles, playing solo and in numerous collaborative projects. Shiroishi may well be considered a foundational player in the city’s vast musical expanse.
He has presented work and performed at the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the International Museum of Surgical Sciences and has toured around the world in various solo and band configurations including The Armed, contemporary classical ensemble Wild Up and Upsilon Acrux.
The Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden was created by landscape designer & craftsman Kinzuchi Fujii between 1935 – 1940 for Charles and Ellamae Storrier Stearns. It is the only intact example of a major Japanese-style garden created before World War II for a residence in Southern California.
The teahouse which we gather alongside is named Niko-an, meaning Abode at Two Ponds. The original teahouse was built in Japan to Kinzuchi Fujii’s exacting specifications, then disassembled and shipped to Los Angeles for reassembly in the garden. The twelve tatami mats covering the floor signified a teahouse of great importance.
Kinzuchi Fujii’s son possessed his father’s original plans and many photographs taken during the garden’s first construction. These were an invaluable resource during the garden’s recent restoration.
Though the original teahouse burned down in 1981, it has been rebuilt. Dr. Takeo Uesugi, an accomplished landscape architect and designer, worked closely with the current owners, Jim and Connie Haddad, to restore the teahouse, faithfully adhering to Kinzuchi’s original drawings, photographs and architectural plans.
We’re very grateful to Jim, Connie, Virginia, and Heidi for welcoming Living Earth to the breathtaking Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden.