Chashitsu: Auditory Tea Room

Online webinar, accessible remotely via Zoom

Organised by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation

Booking closed

More than ritual, Chadō, the Way of Tea, is also a deeply sonic practice: a choreography of sound, silence, gesture, and space. Chashitsu, the tea room, becomes a resonant vessel for listening—a place where every element is attuned to create a shared sonic awareness. Drawing on this tradition, violinist and composer Midori Komachi and MSCTY founder/producer Nick Luscombe explore the aesthetics of Japanese sound design and immersive experiences grounded in the shared language of music and architecture. Their project, Chashitsu: Auditory Tea Room —a concert premiering at the Royal Albert Hall on 14 October 2025 alongside the launch of Komachi’s album of the same name — brings a new perspective to the tea room as a ‘sonic architecture’. Join Komachi and Luscombe as they offer an insight into their creative process ahead of the premiere, inviting you into a deeper Way of Listening.

The recording video of this talk can be watched here:

About the contributors

Midori Komachi

Midori Komachi is an internationally acclaimed violinist and composer bridging the traditional and contemporary music of the UK and Japan. Since 2017 she has collaborated with MSCTY on creating sound installations and writing original music for major brands such as OPPO and LUSH. Her recent works include installations for the Japan Pavilion at the London Design Biennale 2025 and Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts. In 2025, she served as Music & Audio Content Editor with Immersive International for the UK Pavilion at the Osaka World Expo. She was previously a Musician in Residence at the British Council. As a solo violinist, she has performed extensively throughout Europe and Japan. A bilingual writer, she has published two books in Japan, and has frequently appeared on media platforms such as BBC Radio 3, NHK and TV Tokyo. Komachi is an Adjunct Lecturer at Queen’s University (Canada) and a PhD Candidate at Goldsmiths, funded by AHRC. She is an Ambassador for the London Music Fund.

www.midorikomachi.com

Nick Luscombe

Nick Luscombe is a British DJ, broadcaster, sound artist, field recordist and producer based in London and Tokyo. He is the founder of the site-specific project MSCTY, established in 2010, which has so far produced over 400 soundtracks by various international musicians and sound artists. Nick is the co-founder and artistic director of OIST Sonic Lab at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, researching sound and well-being. Nick presented the BBC Radio 3 Late Junction show from 2009-2019, and his field recording, soundscape and ambient music mixes have been featured on BBC 6 Music and BBC Radio 3. He also produced the BBC Radio 3 Sounds of Japan and Sound Designs series, and also documentaries about architect Kengo Kuma and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto. He creates audio productions for well-known brands such as LUSH, British Airways, KEF, OPPO, at Osaka Expo 2025, Hyatt and more.

Photo Credit: Sam King