Compiled by Janet Hamilton
While origami is primarily a visual and tactile art, music is primarily an aural one. However, members of the origami-l email list have proved their auditory awareness by noting the following musical origami sightings ... er ... hearings.
The folksong,
"Cranes over Hiroshima", by Fred Small on the cassette No
Limit, was published by Rounder Records in 1997.
The song ends with a repeated chorus of the words that are inscribed at
base of the monument: "This is
our cry / This is our prayer / Peace in the world.” http://www.rounder.com/album.asp?catalog_id=4313.
“Cranes over Hiroshima,
white and red and gold.
They flicker in the sunlight
like a million vanished souls.
I will fold these cranes of paper
to a thousand, one by one,
and I'll fly away when I'm done.”
The soundtrack album Sadako and The Thousand Paper Cranes, solo guitar by George Winston, narration by Liv Ullmann, contains songs such as “The Race/Sadako’s Lament”, “The Magic Of The Cranes”, “Folding Cranes”, and “This Is Our Cry” (from the inscription on the Sadako statue in Hiroshima Peace Park).
Many Japanese songs are related to origami. Two of them include "origami" in their titles. One is Murashita Kozo's "Origami", and another is Dreaming's "Origami-no Uta (A Song of Origami)"
Nick Robinson had a track called “736.9”, the Dewey decimal code for origami in Great Britain
Jay Ansill put out a CD
in 1990 called ORIGAMI.
http://www.jayansill.com/origami.html
Matthew H. Fields has compositions from 1991 called “Origami Symphony”, and “Three Origami Figures”. He explains, “Origami is the Japanese tradition of sculpture in simple folds of paper. Like three figures folded out of the same kind of paper, these three movements are constructed from the same musical materials.” http://www-personal.umich.edu/~fields/complist.html
On the 1996 CD titled Factory
Showroom, by the group They Might Be Giants, there is a song called
"Pet Name”. The portion that mentions origami is:
“Waiting at the Bus stop
For just about an hour
Strategies for hangman
Cat's cradle, origami”
The song "Inside Out" by the group Eve6 contains the line: “Or am I origami, folded up and just pretend. Demented as the motives in your head...”
The Christian rock group Newsboys released a CD in 1994 called Going Public for Star Song Records that contains the song “Shine” with the line “...dull as dirt you can't assert the kind of light that might persuade a strict dictator to retire fire the army teach the poor origami…”. The album was nominated for Best Rock Gospel Album at the 37th Annual Grammy Awards. See http://www.newsboys.com/ for information on the group and for the full lyrics.
It might be difficult to take your eyes off the 60-piece modular you are assembling to look up at the TV to see who shot JR (not to mention disastrous to the unity of the 60-piece modular). That might explain why listening to music while folding seems to be popular, and why members of the origami-l email list have reported these additional origami-related musical selections.
The pop/punk/indie rock
group Holy Rollers released a 7” EP album in 1989 called The
Origami Sessions. The
album was put out by Dischord/Adult Swim Records. http://www.adultswimrecords.com/docs/catalog.html
SCRAWL put out a single with the songs "Your Mother Wants to
Know" and "Give Up" on Simple Machines records in 1993. The
single comes in an origami folded sleeve. Includes label press release and tour
notes. http://www.simplemachines.net/scrawl.html
Lee Hazlewood has an
unusually named album: Farmisht,
Flatulence, Origami, Arf!!! and Me on Smells Like Records (1997). http://smellslikerecords.com/leehazlewood/index.php?artist=Lee%20Hazlewood.
An album called Sonic
Origami by Uriah Heep was released 7/6/99
by Spitfire Records.
See http://uriah-heep.com/
for
info on the band.
The group Amoeba has a song called "Origami" on their 1997 album Watchful from Lektronic Soundscapes. The track is described as an "instrumental featuring [Rick] Davies on slow-motion guitar and [Robert] Rich on alien woodwinds." http://www.amoeba.com.
The 1997 album Farley & Heller Part 1 from the Uni/Twisted Records label contains the song "Origami - Waste Paper".
On the Sliced Bread Records label is the 1997 album John Flynn which presents "Origami Roses". http://www.johnflynnmusic.com/.
The track "Ram Origami" is on the album X My Heart by Pete Hammill. The record is from 1996 by Discipline Records.
The pop group Wang Chung featured origami models in one of their videos. There was some disagreement over which video featured the origami, with suggestions from "Don't Be My Enemy" to “Dance Hall Days” to "Everybody Wang Chung”. I contacted a Wang Chung fan who believed the music video was "Let's Go" from the Mosaic album –“If you wanna change the world, make a circle in the square...”
The music video "How's it going to be" by Third Eye Blind has one of the band members folding a bird from duo paper, in which the head and legs are one color and the body is another.
Zülal Aytüre-Scheele of Germany has animated an origami animal orchestra playing the music of Camille Saint-Saëns: Carnival of the Animals. It was produced by Mediascope in 1992. There is also an animated origami music video of Peter and the Wolf. In both films, you can see animations of how the animals are folded and then turn to life.
A song called "Paper Ships" is in a book called "Teaching Little Fingers to Play" from John Thompson's Modern Course for the Piano. It has no ISBN or publication date. The words to the song are: “When I launch my paper ships in mother's shiny pail, Ah, How I wish I were a captain really under sail.”
The CD from Amateur Lovers' called Virgin White Lies has the diagrams of the fortune teller model in the jacket.
From the 3/15/99
New Yorker, page 9 -- "...the (1971
Jefferson Airplane album 'Long John Silver') record's jacket was so designed so
that, with a little folding, it formed a marijuana stash box..."
The Sinatra song “It’s Only a Paper Moon” (written by Billy Rose, E.Y. Harburg, and Harold Arlen) says “It's only a paper moon sailing over a cardboard sea”.
On the album Mirage by Fleetwood Mac (1982) is the song “Gypsy”, with music & lyrics by Stevie Nicks. The lyrics state, “To a room with some lace and paper flowers. Back to the Gypsy that I was. To the Gypsy that I was.”
Mary Alan Kane has an album called Paper Moon put out by Pioneer Records.
Marie Osmond recorded “Paper Roses” in 1973 on the Kolob label.
The Ink Spots had a song called "Paper Doll" on their album If I Didn't Care. "I'd rather have a paper doll to call my own than have a fickle minded real live girl." http://www.theinkspots.com.
On their June 2002 tour, the Indigo Girls were selling t-shirts with an origami crane drawn front and center (right between Indigo and Girls).
The British Origami Society Magazine has published a couple of lists of songs with origami or paper related titles. See issues 117 and 136. The list from #136 can also be found at http://www.britishorigami.org.uk/theory/highlite/130-39.htm#136 .
On the soundtrack of a film by Clive Barker called Lord of Illusions there's a song called Origami Man (1995).
Printed music by Hans-Jurgen von Bose from 1991 called Origami: zwei Episoden fur Klavier zu vier Handen (Die Papierhexe – Im Papierdschungel) (i.e.: two episodes for four-hand piano (The Paper Witch - In the Paper Jungle)).
Fay Lovsky made a pop recording around 1983, published by
Idiot Records, called Origami. http://www.lovsky.com/
A loose group called Origami that seems to be a small
nucleus of people and anyone else who has something to contribute to a project.
There are several different Origamis: Teknika, Arktika (Trollebotn), Exotika (Seven Inches of
Meat), Romantika (Seven Inches of Love), Galaktika (Origamimetic - made with the
group Mimetic), North Amerika, Poetika,
Replika... The music and sounds include techno, experimental, ambient
and tribe but have great variety, depending on what kind of Origami is involved.
A selection of the albums is shown below. http://kunst.no/alias/origami/republika/units.html
A Scottish band called Stretchheads released the album Eyeball Origami Aftermath Wit Vegetarian Leg on Blast First records in 1990. The tracks are: Afganistan Bananastan/Incontinent of Sex/Oominpresent Octopus/New thing in Egypt
Techno song by Johnny F – Salami Origami.
Aluminum Origami is the second track on the album The Glass Eye by Nymb on the harmlessrecords label (1999). http://harmlessrecords.com/
A presenter on a televised European Song Contest (5/12/2001) twist folded a Rose, with a stem and a leaf, out of what looked like a paper napkin. He then made the rose float in the air and set fire to it. It went up in flames with a flash and seemed to leave no ash and the flames where out in a second or less. A real rose "magically" appeared in the presenters hand.
Theo Bleckmann – Origami (SGL 1534-2) Release date:
March 17, 2001, with Ben Monder (guitar), Matt Moran (vibraphone), Skuli Sverrisson (bass),
and John Hollenbeck (drums, percussion, melodica). “A songbook often without
words and practically without borders, Origami is the latest report back
from Theo Bleckmann on his continuing explorations into the unsuspected
emotional and expressive possibilities of the voice in an unfettered group
context. It is also a meticulously constructed, exquisitely detailed collection
of songs that ranges across centuries, continents and musical styles for its
inspiration. The ancient Japanese art of paper folding, origami, is a constant
touchstone, unfolding (and enfolding the listener) in unusual ways.”
http://www.theobleckmann.com/
and http://www.songlines.com/
The Change is Coming CD by Beastie Boys keyboard
player Money Mark shows a picture of cranes from money folds on the cover and on
the inside sleeve is a picture of a burning crane. On the edge of the CD are
diagrams for a crane. (Emperor Norton records, 2001). http://www.moneymark.com/
A beatgreets.com birthday card featuring Sheryl Crow's song Soak Up the Sun. And there's the singer herself, crossing some waves perched upon an origami boat. You can find it by looking at beatgreets.com, then following the Sheryl Crow link. http://www.beatgreets.com/display.pd?path=33322&bfrom=1&prodnum=3025473&
A Music group called Origami Cow put out
a self-named album including songs March of the Disco Hippos and Jazzy Jam.
Counting Crows "Colorblind"....”Pull me out from inside / I am folded, and unfolded, and unfolding”
From Beck Hansen's album Sea Change (Interscope
2002), the song is Paper Tiger:
Just like a paper tiger
Torn apart by idle hands
Through the helter skelter morning
Fix yourself while you still can
In the chorus of "Imaginary" by Evanescence:
"In my field of paper flowers
And candy clouds of lullaby(...)":
A 1996 dance album called Origami by Wastepaper (salt city orchestra)
under the label Paper Recordings #4.
"Unfortunately, because of the elder Electrician's spiraling origami
habit, money was not only extremely tight but intricately folded and beautifully
hung all around the Electrician household, so Matt was limited to the only three
chords his parents could afford. His dad assured him this was plenty, that kids
in China only get one or two". http://www.matttheelectrician.com/
Artist Mark
Robinson released
an Indie Rock album Origami
& Urbanism (Nov 4, 2003). Produced by Calvin Johnson. Mark
Robinson is best known as the guitarist and vocalist of the beloved indie pop
band Unrest, in addition to being the entrepreneur of Teen Beat Records, a label
that fired off its first release in 1985.
A video from Shania Twain, for her song "Up", was sighted in 5/2004 featuring a folded paper aeroplane, which flies around for the first part of the video, before Shania catches it, and unfolds it, to read the message.
An album from 2000 called origami measure up by an
Australian band on a Japanese label.
http://youthforhumanrights.org/kids/video/video.htm
10/2004 - This site shows the story behind a music video that will appear soon
on MTV. The video starts out in a basketball court. The “main kid” wants to
play, but is younger and shorter than the others. Several thugs on the court
tell him he can’t play and push him away. He falls and finds nearby a message
of human rights. He becomes inspired and creates paper airplanes that carry
human rights messages asking for help. These messages are received across the
world. Youth receiving these messages come to the main kid’s aid at the
basketball court and challenge the thugs. All but one of the thugs run away and
a confrontation occurs between the youth from around the world and the remaining
thug. The “thug” gives in and allows the main kid to play and all are
friends. The song words that repeat throughout the video is "U-N-I-T-E-D, a
better place the world would be...".
Jan. 12, 2005, during a PBS Great Performances of Leonard Bernsteins's Candide in Concert, from Avery Fisher Hall, New York, the Wise Old Man sent a paper airplane to Candide with the answer to "What is the nature of man?"
In the video of the song "Be Free", sung in English by the Mexican singer Belinda, she folds paper birds and puts them inside a cage. http://www.wopvideos.com/videos/1750.htm
A live "art/music" show in Oslo June 27, 2005: "plante and biologisk helt feil will play at sjokoladefabrikken, marsipanavdelingen on sunday 27.june in oslo. plante (sound) and fredrik owesen (origami) will do a live interaction between sound, motion and visuals. fredrik owesen is a 22 year old origami-artist (origami is a form of visual/sculptural representation that is defined primarily by the folding of the medium (usually paper). he will in addition to plante's 'taped chords on organs and keys, with one mic catching the sound' piece do a live-cam projection of some exclusive sculptures made for the evening."
Paul Jackson has been experimenting with making music using paper since 1978. Sounds are produced by ripping sheets, tapping paper, drumming on paper, origami bangers, crumpling, blowing across paper (like a kazoo), and more. Listen to sample tracks here: http://www.papersonics.com/
"Guitarist Ben Monder investigates Club Tropical" by Greg Burk "You know within about three seconds that something original is coming out of Ben Monder’s electric guitar — a whispering flow of harmonic challenges that fold backward, sideways and across dimensions like time-space origami." http://www.laweekly.com/music/beauty-noise/guitarist-ben-monder-investigates-club-tropical/14455/
A stop-motion music video called "The Compromise" features origami
designs by John Montroll and Robert Lang. http://www.nylon.la/#
Hip-hop group Psyche Origami has two DJs (Synthesis and Dainja) and one MC (Wyzsztyk)
in coveralls, straw cowboy hat and Keens. A notable performance was the
"Devil Went Down to Georgia" with dueling turntables instead of
violins. http://www.psycheorigami.com/
Origami is the name of a band that recently relocated to San Francisco from
Australia. The girl band (with boy drummer) play punk / dance / '60s-surf-style
with some bite. See www.myspace.com/origamitheband
where you can download the band's first hit, "Frisco Disco," and www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOIInIS4NZo&search=origami
to check out live footage. The band's website is http://www.origamitheband.com/
November 2006 A web article about a fashion show in Uzbekistan was titled "Uzexpocentre host youth fashion show UNDERGROUND". "Viento" collection by Shahnoza Rizkieva (National Institute of Art and Design of K. Behzod) was accompanied by live music of musical group "Krilya Origami" [Origami wings]. The collection was very feminine, creative and handmade." http://news.uzreport.com/uzb.cgi?lan=e&id=23552
Music
group Toranja uses origami frogs as the clickable links on their web page: http://www.toranjanet.com
Dangerbird Records is an independent record company located in Hollywood, CA.
The company logo is a folded crane. Spray painted images of the logo have been
spotted on city sidewalks - one in NYC is on the NW corner of 3rd Ave at 9th or
10th street. http://www.dangerbirdrecords.com/
2/5/2007 - Director/animator Ryan Bosworth of the newly-hatched Fenix
Collective just completed this 3 1/2 minute orgy of origami for the band
Asobi Seksu and volunteers this snapshot of the production, "The
"Goodbye" video was shot in two days here in Los Angeles. The first
day we shot the band with a Canon XL1 on a white screen because of the 4:1:1
color space. The second day we photographed hi-res paper textures and stop
action paper folding sequences. The post production was a 2 month process of
creating 3D animations, compositing, and 2D animating. I used Maya and
Cinema 4D to create the 3D geometry and textured the animated objects with the
paper photography. After Effects was used to combine the animation elements and
create the luminance mattes from the band footage. Final Cut Pro was used to
edit and finish the video." http://stashmedia.tv/feed/ASubiSeksu.mov
Nick Robinson has co-ordinated a CD, called Papermusic, where the tracks are
all created from sounds made by paper. Paul also contributed. You can download
all the tracks, plus the sleeve, FREE of charge. http://www.ct-collective.com/index.cfm?page=music&albumid=25
April 2007 - Canadian singer-songwriter Winston released an EP titled
"Limited". The CD cover has a bright pink Origami Crane on a white
background. The myspace website has a release announcement with pink cranes on
it. http://www.myspace.com/winston
April 2007 - An elegant origami butterfly crafted from a ten-pound note is
taking centre stage in Scottish Opera’s latest advertising campaign. Using the
line ‘Catch Madama Butterfly For £10’ the ad aims the opera experience
squarely at the next generation of opera lovers. Ad agency, Newhaven
Communications, came up with the idea. http://www.allmediascotland.com/media_releases/1375/ancient_japanese_craft_revived_by_a_scottish_ad_agency
An NYU student created a "participatory musical interface" for her
graduation project show at the interactive telecommunications program's Spring
Show 2007. Origami folding brings different sensors into proximity which
triggers different combinations of voices. – Charlie
White with video by Richard Blakeley http://www.gizmodo.com//gadgets/origami/ http://jooyounpaek.com/foldloud.html
June 1, 2007 - Yellow Tools releases Origami real-time Impulse Response Processor http://www.sonicstate.com:80/news/shownews.cfm?newsid=4841 http://www.lightsoundjournal.com:80/viewnews.php?id=13256
Kadima Collective Records releases Origami, the second CD of 9-year-old Israeli pianist, Ariel. All but three of the tunes are Ariel's original music. Ariel is a student at the Jerusalem Conservatory of Music, where he studies classical piano, violin, and composition. He is also experimenting on his own with guitar, double bass, drums, and electronic music. His main interest lies in combining classical forms of jazz with avant-garde and free improvisational techniques.
Sept 25, 2007 - An article about the New York-Tokyo Music Festival by Jeff
Yang states, "Uppercut is a diminutive baseball-cap-clad figure who deftly
dissects sounds with his fingers like a surgeon, filleting and folding them,
origami-like, around the ripsaw vocals of his MC, Rosco P." http://www.sfgate.com:80/flat/archive/2007/09/24/g/a/2007/09/25/apop.html
October 2007 - Listen to an Indie/Funk/Rock group called Origami Dinosaur: http://www.myspace.com:80/origamidinosaur
Darren Hayes' recent UK tour featured an origami
crane as a symbol for the album title ‘This
Delicate Thing We’ve Made’, which is also a metaphor for relationships.
Bristol-based fabrication specialists Fineline designed and built a large
automated crane that is based on a real origami bird. The crane was disguised as
part of the projection screen until the final quarter of the show when it was
dramatically revealed – unfolding origami style to its full measurements of
6.8 metres high and 8.2 metres wide with the wings open. The piece is
constructed from a skeletal frame made of box-sectioned aluminium. http://news.etnow.com/etnews.nsf/0/93b9a1864e77cdcd802573790033af96?OpenDocument
November 2007 - Paper Airplane Chinese Song (and video) featured on origami kids web site http://origami-kids-en.blogspot.com:80/2007/11/paper-airplane-chinese-song.html
Belanova's new music video "Baila Mi Corazon" features an
origami world with lots of origami flowers, butterflies, stars, fish, and
more. Even the singers fold and unfold. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQfXUq8PKwk
Album "Cubik and Origami" released in 2005 on Wide Hive Records
includes drawings of origami models on the cover.
April 2008 - Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip’s debut album, ‘Angles’,
features Scroobius folding some pink origami pigs on the video for "Look
For The Woman". Gigwise.com raflled off 5 signed copies of the album with
each winner also receiving an origami pig folded by Scroobius. The video can be
seen here - http://www.gigwise.com/videos/42425/dan-le-sac-vs-scroobius-pip--look-for-the-woman
Origami Ghosts are a Seattle-based indie-pop group with a lot of focus on the meaning, rhythm, and sound of their lyrics. On their new release, Short Momentum, founder and vocalist JP Scesniak's high, haunting voice stands out against a beautiful backdrop of cello, guitar and sparse drums. "The name came from my idea to name a band something like 'complicated nothings,' " Scesniak said. http://www.origamighosts.com/
A music video on YouTube by Alison Goldfrapp called "Caravan Girl"
from the Album "Seventh Tree" includes a short scene at a diner where
the girl folds some origami and leaves it mounted on the coffee cup spoon. You
can see the strip torn off the paper placemat to make the square. http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=yJ8VyukQtTg
http://www.goldfrapp.com/
Snow Patrol's cover for the album "A Hundred Million Suns" is
covered with origami. The graphic for the single "Take Back the City"
is a single red origami star. The group's web page includes a lot of origami
decoration as well. A March 2009 show ended with 16-minute long "The
Lightning Strike", with an origami visualization projected onto a curtain
in front of the band. Chris Redmond, creative director at production company
Atticus Finch, states, "Drawing on the album artwork - beautiful
photographic images of origami stars hanging in a black space - the overall
premise was to represent the world, solar system, universe as origami. The 16
minutes divides neatly into three sections and each of the three had a different
concept whilst sitting within that aesthetic. We also spent time researching
some 1950s origami handbooks that I came across and were influenced by fantastic
images of hundreds of Chinese lanterns being released on Youtube." http://www.snowpatrol.com/
http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk:80/news/index.cfm?NewsID=12456
In an interview with the group Panda and Child, the member Maria Yates was asked about the inspiration for the name: "I was into origami for a while. Panda and Child was the name of one of the origami things in a book. Incidentally, it was too hard for me to finish."
December 2008 - Denton, Texas-based pop quintet Matthew and the Arrogant Sea has a track called "Mock Origami" on their album Family, Family, Family Meets the Magic Christian. The album was released under the Nova Posta Vinyl label. http://www.myspace.com/matthewandthearrogantsea
Jap-pop trio Origami Girls plays Metal, Punk, and Rock. One of their songs is
"Origami Beat". http://www.myspace.com/origamigirlsrock
A record label started in 2007 called Origami Records is a digital only label
that allows artists to keep the ownership of their art and to not give up the
lions share of the revenue to release it. The logo is a folded representation of
the word Origami. A poster they used for a recent promotion also featured some
folded models. http://www.myspace.com/origamitunes The
label has opened a new store called Origami Vinyl at 1816 W. Sunset Boulevard,
Echo Park (CA).
Capades, Obi Best's first album and the first to be released on Social Science Recordings, incorporates traditional Japanese sounds in the piece called "Origami."
Her Morning Elegance by Oren Lavie is a stop motion music video with a short
segment showing a man folding a square model that appears to be a waterbomb. http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=2_HXUhShhmY&eurl=http://5.gmodules.com/ig/ifr?pid=dell&url=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/youtube_igoogle/v2/youtube.xml&nocacheiurl=http://i3.ytimg.com/vi/2_HXUhShhmY/hqdefault.jpg
March 2009 - The indie-pop group Just Handshakes (We're British) has released
Paper Cranes/Talking Pictures that includes an accompanying origami leaflet
titled "Make Your Own Paper Crane".
An interview with George Cochrane, by Christina Li, March 2009 in SFStation: "When I was starting out looking for a pseudonym, I wanted to use the name Logic, because I was into precision and intricacy in my music. I found out that DJ Logic in NYC was beginning to blow up at the time, so I looked for something else that would imply a certain sense of considered intricacy and -- boom -- Origami hit me, and it stuck. These days I am starting to use my real name on more projects, but Origami sticks around for my two duos: Andrew Phelan and Origami and Cubik and Origami." http://www.sfstation.com:80/george-cochran-a14241
Matthew and the Arrogant Sea has a song called "Mock Origami".
A rock band called Origami Bullets use little origami birds printed with the band name as a marketing gimmick. http://www.origamibullets.com/
April 2009- Nick Robinson created a number called "Akira" is online - a musical salute to Akira Yoshizawa, made using the Alesis Akira. http://www.nickrobinson.info/music/audio.htm
April 2009 - Synergy, the a capella group of the Vancouver Men's Chorus, used an origami waterbomb made out of a musical score on a flyer. http://www.vancouvermenschorus.ca/images/DeleteMar09/Synergy_flyer.pdf
May 2009 - Madame Pamita's 'Wax Works' CD comes in a cardboard box that with items that follow the psyhic theme - a tarot card, a hand-written fortune; an old penny, and a wax-sealed envelope with an origami fortune teller inside.
Scott Barwick's recording studio is called Origami Lounge Studio. http://www.newsreview.com:80/chico/content?oid=1027237
Trevor Hall has a song called "Origami Crane", a reggae-flavored
love song. "Which way do you fold your origami crane? Does it float like a
dove or fly like an airplane. Well I rolled up a smoke and I smoked it away, my
past and future depend on today."
http://www.myspace.com/trevorhall
http://www.facebook.com/trevorhall#/trevorhall?v=app_6917629807&viewas=559492351
Swedish duo "Fredrik" self-released a trio of EPs 3" CDs with hand made origami packaging.
