#marginal consort

Tomonao Koshikawa (越川知尚), Nebula, (Limited Edition Cassette tape, Digital album), ato.archives, 2025

06.01.18 Marginal Consort are collective improvisation group founded by members of East Bionic Symphonia, an outfit assembled from students of Fluxus artist Takehisa Kosugi’s class at the radical Bigaku school of aesthetics in Tokyo in the ‘70s. Meeting only once each year since their formation in 1996, Marginal Consort discuss nothing before their annual performances, preferring to gather as a collective of horizontally organized independent solos rather than a cohesive goal-oriented ensemble. The start and end times are the only fixed elements in their long-form happenings, usually lasting two-to-four hours and featuring the players spread out across the performance space, distant enough to concentrate on perfecting their own work without distraction.

Founded in 1997, Marginal Consort is a Japanese free improvisation group who play one concert annually. The current members of the group are Kazuo Imai, Kei Shii, Masami Tada and Tomonao Koshikawa. Marginal Consort was formed by members of the disbanded East Bionic Symphonia, a group of improvisers and artists who studied together under Takehisa Kosugi at the Bigakko art school in Tokyo in the mid 1970s. Their extended sets “explore forms of sound and ways of playing that never coalesce into music, but create a group dynamic of ebb and flow, of exploration and fluidity.