Pakkyōne is a puppet dressed with tattered clothing, safety pins and rags found in a small abandoned farmhouse. It is not capable of talking but speaks an odd language, made of sound graphemes and head tilts.
His vocal cords, stitched together with twine and resin-soaked mint leaves, scrape the air and often become engulfed. From a hollow tree he carved a perforated zither and assembled bizarre knick-knacks by beating stone, copper and molten lead. Built without face and eyes, it sometimes borrows masks of various shapes in order to observe the world and avoid tripping. Pakkyōne is a crooked work by Valerio Mirone, noisemaker and singer. Valerio Mirone, multi-instrumentalist and scholar of throat singing and overtone singing, in the past he has performed as an actor and a composer for the Teatro del Baglio di Villafrati, for which he recorded a triple album dedicated to Horcynus Orca by Stefano d’Arrigo; Japanese language teacher in high schools, member of Lelio Giannetto’s Contemporary Sounds Unity and external collaborator at the Italian Cultural Institute in Tokyo and Curva Minore cultural association for contemporary music. Currently works as a translator, musician and performer: Utveggi (4 albums, a tour in Japan), pakkyōne (an album to be released in 2023 and an upcoming tour in Europe in November/December 2023), Monogatari and Wadi Ensemble of the Merz Foundation are some of
the projects he’s part of.


Berlin based percussionist Joss Turnbull is known for his creative take on different middle eastern drums such as Tombak, Mazahr and Reqq. His sound ranges from minimalistic musical explorations of the instrument through fingers, palms, fingernails and preparations to more extreme and raw soundscapes, supplemented by electronics. In his new release TURMOIL (boomslang records 2025), he explores a world of uncertainty and tension and creates an immersive listening experience revealing a universal exploration of what it means to exist in a world full of pressure, disorientation, and the fictions we live by. Turnbull’s live performances are a testament to his distinctive style as a percussionist—one that defies convention in pursuit of a sound that is unpredictable, honest, and deeply engaging.