Cicala-Mvta vs. Salle Gaveau

Back before Tokyo became a wash of billboards and overhead TV screens, businesses chose to hawk their wares by employing street musicians know as Chindon-ya. Cicala-Mvta draw on this legacy of mercenary minstrels, using typical chindon instruments and costumes in their exuberant stage performances. The group's music itself incorporates elements of klezmer, Balkan melodies and even free jazz – as witnessed in their tribute to saxophone colossus Albert Ayler. Co-headliners Salle Gaveau are, if anything, an even stranger proposition: an acoustic ensemble who flit comfortably between the worlds of tango, chamber music, free jazz and progressive rock. Check out our interview with them here.