Nakamura treats the no-input mixer as an equal partner, surrendering control to what the system produces

Toshimaru Nakamura, the artist most identified with no-input mixing, adopted it after feeling the guitar was no longer his instrument because it required ‘something to express’ and constant movement to play. With the no-input mixing board he found an ‘equal relationship’ in which the machine would play him as much as he played it. He describes the instrument’s high unpredictability as requiring an attitude of obedience and resignation to the system and the sounds it produces, bringing a high level of indeterminacy and surprise. This reframes performance as responding to what the system generates rather than dictating an outcome, connecting the practice to indeterminacy traditions.

Examples

Nakamura on stage letting the feedback system evolve and reacting to emergent tones, rather than executing predetermined material as on a guitar.

Assessment

Explain Nakamura’s ‘equal relationship’ with the no-input mixer and contrast it with a conventional player-controls-instrument stance.