Nobuo Kubota

Bio:

Nobuo Kubota was a Japanese multimedia artist, musician, and performer born in Vancouver and based in Toronto, Canada. Initially trained as an architect, Kubota’s practice encompassed sculpture, new music, installation, and film. An early member of the Artists Jazz Band and the CCMC (Canadian Creative Music Collective), he became known for his merging of extended vocal techniques, sound poetry, mime, and electronics. In 1970, he spent a year in Japan living with a Zen master, an experience that led him to explore artistic influences from both East and West—including Japanese art, opera, and architecture, as well as jazz and improvisation. A key example of this convergence was his calligraphic style of sound notation, which he termed “Sonic Calligraphy.”