PAN to host Japanese improv collective Marginal Consort in rare show at London church

Berlin label PAN will present the group’s only concert of the year.

Marginal Consort, the long-running Japanese improv troupe made up of sound and visual artists, will give their annual performance at St John-at-Hackney Church in east London next month.

The avant-garde collective comprises former students of Fluxus movement composer Takehisa Kosugi, who taught at the radical Bigaku school of aesthetics in Tokyo in the ‘70s. The group itself is a reformation of the East Bionic Symphonia, a large improvisation ensemble in the spirit of Kosugi’s Group Ongaku and Taj Mahal Travellers projects, who released a handful of cosmic drone performances in the early ‘70s.

Known for playing only one concert a year, Marginal Consort will appear as part of St John Sessions – a series which has welcomed avant-garde legends and experimental types like Jon Hassell and Fennesz – on June 2.

PAN has teamed up with Thirty Three Thirty Three to present the performance, which also marks the start of Japan:London, a series of London events celebrating the country’s artists, composers and performers.

Grab tickets and get more info on Facebook. Check out a video from Marginal Consort’s show at South London Gallery in 2014, and have a gander at the beautiful poster for the show underneath.