The MIMIKOTO project was founded in 2019 as a collective of musicians related to jazz, funk, soul and electronic music, after a certain period of composing and playing as duo, trio and quartet.
Like it is usual for Jazz sessions, the group of people participating a session is not fixed, and it is an important point of the organic structure of a session, that it is not stable but changing continously. Every musician brings new influences, new ideas, new cultural backgrounds and new ways of interaction with the other musicians who are participating. This can be an important point for the creation of new ideas and the exchange of inspirations, which are needed to let new styles evolve.
Facing the limitations of a fixed crew and set up, Fabio Kumori founded the MIMIKOTO project in 2019, after having worked with the MIMIKOTO duo, trio and quartett for a certain time before. Though, from the very beginning with UE and Fabio Kumori in the MIMIKOTO duo, some kinds of new styles evolved. Some of them are charactetized by comparably strong modifications of the saxohone sounds combined with analog drum computers and the non-modified sound of the upright bass in some pieces, which are for example found on the MIMIKOTO – unexistent LP.
The work with the MIMIKOTO project began with the piece Jellyfish Dance Accident, where several new musicians participated for the first time, while Fabio Kumori and Kan Powell stayed from the MIMIKOTO quartett. The Jellyfish is used as a symbol for a kind of organism that already exists since a long time on this planet, but may surprise us with its changing shapes and colours that look a bit like coming from another part of the universe. But we should never forget that these beeings life a lot longer on this planet than us and than we may imagine.
Since for the MIMIKOTO project improvisation plays a major role and a rhythmic approach plays a major role as well, it is not surprising that the culture of Jazz is an important source of inspiration for this project, because both – improvisation and rhythm – are central points in the language of Jazz. Seen from this perspective it may be nothing special to also use electronic devices during the creation of new songs and during improvisation sessions, because electronic devices for creating sounds and rhythmis structures are as manifold as the variety of accoustic instruments.
While on the album „unexistent“ (2018) the electronic aspect is more present, on the album „blackbird’s philosophy“ (2022) the jazz-routed background of the musicians plays a major role. Let’s see how MIMIKOTO’s music will develop in the future and how the next albums will sound.