Japanese Girls at the Harbor is a cinematographic and musical project by Roberto Paci Dalò and Yasuhiro Morinaga. The two artists work on the creation of the music and sound environment of the Japanese silent film Japanese Girls at the Harbor (original title: Minato no Nihon musume). The film, directed in 1933 by Hiroshi Shimizu, is considered a timeless masterpiece of Japanese silent film. To create the sound environment, the two artists are inspired by the current sounds of the port of Yokohama, the original set of the film and the U.S. military base in the 1930s.

Roberto Paci Dalò and Yasuhiro Morinaga re-create the sound landscape of the original set of the film, the international port of Yokohama in the 1930s, starting with “field recorded” shots of the same place, but nowadays. They thus create an effect of acoustic and temporal displacement, a surprising time machine that runs through the whole film Japanese Girls at the Harbour. The two artists also create unique sound effects and particular environmental sounds through contemporary instruments such as new media. Their contribution is a real cinematographic intervention.

Like the "benshi"

In Japan, during the period of silent cinema, to explain the plot of a film from a sound point of view, an actor was placed next to the screen to give voice to the various characters, devising poses, costumes and languages to interact with both the film and the audience. This narrator was called “benshi” and his figure descended directly from the Nō theatre. Unfortunately, his work became useless with the arrival of the sound films.

Roberto Paci Dalò and Yasuhiro Morinaga think their intervention as the sound storytelling of a benshi.
In fact, the ancient cinematic practice admitted that the benshi created its own narrative thread, distinct or parallel to the plot. That’s why they underline that their work is a cinematic intervention and not a simple musical accompaniment.

Yasuhiro Morinaga

Yasuhiro Morinaga is one of the most important sound designers in the world. He is also a sound archivist and musical composer. Yasuhiro has worked on film, contemporary dance, installation and product design projects on an international level. He has also worked on field sound recording. His work is based on the recording and archiving of the sound of various natural phenomena, from the noise of the bowels of the earth (he collaborates with various seismology studies), to those of wildlife. He is also interested in traditional music and studies how it is influenced by the sounds of the natural habitat. He has participated in numerous festivals and events around the world. His eclectic works have contributed to the development of various cinematographic and audiovisual works and have been presented at international festivals such as the Cannes Film Festival, the Venice Biennale, the Venice Film Festival, the Berlin Film Festival and so on. His installations and performances have also been presented at museums such as the Pompidou Center, the San Francisco Contemporary Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, the Smithsonian Institute, the National History Museum of Luxembourg and so on. Morinaga has also produced sound and music for SONY’s “monolithic design” exhibition at the Salone di Milano 2010. He has collaborated with Singaporean Artist, Ho Tzu Nyen for his visual works such as Earth, The Cloud of Unknowing, Endless Day. He has collaborated with Sion Sono (director), Saburo Teshigawara (choreographer) and Chris Cong Chan Fui (director). He is co-founder of Tokyo-based non-profit organization “Concrete”, which produces music, film and publications. He also organizes international conferences, symposia, workshops and concerts. Under the patronage of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, Morinaga organized an international sound design and recording conference in 2009. So far it has invited scholars, researchers and artists such as Michel Chion Chris Watson, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Richard Ranft, Aki Onda, Larry Sider.