Arts preview: It's a doll's life for the Russian theremin

JAPANESE MATRYOMINS
Fringe Club

As far as musical oddities go the theremin is right up there. Considered the earliest electronic instrument, it was invented in Russia in 1920 by Léon Theremin and is performed not through physical contact but by, well, waving one's hands around its two antennas.

Set to take the bizarre up a notch are the Japanese Matryomins who "play" Hong Kong for the first time using Russian dolls - "matryoshka" - as the theremin. Leading the ensemble is Masami Takeuchi, the country's top theremin player - and inventor of the "matryomin" - who has something of an obsession with the instrument.

He has spent time in Russia under the tutelage of Lydia Kavina - a relative of Theremin - and has released papers and CDs on the instrument as well as written a biography on the inventor.

While the instrument may not be recognised in Hong Kong, it is popular in Japan. Earlier this year, 272 players entered the Guinness World Records after organising "the largest theremin ensemble". It is also rooted in Hollywood, where the theremin was to create the eerie, ethereal sounds that accompanied films such as The Day the Earth Stood Still and Spellbound. Meanwhile, those masters of the surreal, US band Captain Beefheart, made the instrument cool in the 1960s.

For Mark Zavadskiy, chief executive of Asia To Go, and producer of the Hong Kong concert, the appeal of the Japanese Matryomins was twofold. He had heard about them by chance. Someone posted a link on Facebook to a YouTube video of hundreds of Japanese girls playing Russian Matryoshka dolls for the Guinness record. "It was very impressive, so I invited Masami and his ensemble to play in Hong Kong," he says.