Richie Hawtin

MINUS HEARTS JAPAN - KANPAI! from Minus / Plus 8 on Vimeo.

Track: Gaiser - Some Slip, forthcoming on Minus, summer 2011
Edited by Barbara Klein: http://barbaraklein.tk/

On May 4th 2011, Richie Hawtin and a Minus team including Troy Pierce, Marc Houle, Ambivalent & Hobo travelled to Tokyo for MINUS HEARTS JAPAN - a whirlwind 24-hours in Tokyo for a special event arranged for Golden Week in an effort to raise awareness of the need for tourism and foreign investment in Japanese exports to return to the country after the March earthquake and tsunami.

Taking place at the iconic Womb club, the party's aims were to help two industries very close to Richie Hawtin's heart: nightlife and Sake. Travel arrangements were arranged by the artists themselves, with performance fees deferred toward helping Womb support local businesses and voluntary donations on the night to Sake breweries from the affected Tohuku region.

In addition to the whirlwind 24-hour visit, Minus also put out the Utsuho LP by Japanese ambient musician Kazuya Nagaya on the same day, as well as launching a limited edition Shotuku sake glass set for the month of May, with all of the proceeds donated to the Tohuku sake breweries. There were also regular Ustream broadcasts throughout the trip, including the entirety of Richie Hawtin's headline set, attracting in total nearly 35,000 viewers. (Clips are still available to view at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/minus-hearts-japan)

For more on MINUS HEARTS JAPAN, the Kazuya Nagaya LP and limited edition Shotuku Glass sets visit http://www.m-nus.com