Plastikman Is Back in Japan After 16 Years. This Time the Techno Is Fermented.

Richie Hawtin hasn't put the Plastikman name on a Japanese stage since 2010. That changes on November 23, when he closes the eleventh edition of MUTEK.JP with a world premiere built, literally, out of sake.

What did Hawtin and Demirel actually build?

"Polyphonic Fermentation" is a new collaboration between Richie Hawtin and longtime visual collaborator Ali M. Demirel. The title comes from a real brewing term: sake is made through what's called parallel multiple fermentation, where koji mold breaks down rice starch into sugar and yeast converts that sugar into alcohol, both happening at once, in the same tank. Hawtin and Demirel are using that as a structural idea for the show itself, sound and image developing side by side rather than one simply illustrating the other.

It isn't a metaphor alone. In April 2026 the pair spent time inside three working breweries, Gekkeikan in Kyoto, Amanoto in Akita and Yoshida in Ishikawa, recording the sounds and filming the processes of actual fermentation. Field recordings and footage from those visits are built into the piece that premieres in Tokyo.

Why sake, and why now?

Hawtin has reportedly been engaging with Japanese sake culture for around two decades, running parallel to his thirty-plus years inside electronic music. Pairing those two interests into a single commissioned work is a different move than another Plastikman tour date: it reads as Hawtin treating the Japan booking as a reason to make something new rather than replay old Plastikman material for an audience that hasn't seen the project live in over a decade.

What happens on November 23, and after?

MUTEK.JP 2026 runs November 20 to 23 at MoN Takanawa (The Museum of Narratives), a Tokyo art-and-culture space. Plastikman's set closes the festival on the 23rd, a national holiday in Japan. It's also the first time MUTEK.JP has put a festival performance inside an art museum instead of a club or concert venue, a venue choice that matches the project's gallery-adjacent concept.

The show isn't a one-night event. A companion installation version of "Polyphonic Fermentation" stays open in MoN Takanawa's fourth-floor Tatami space from November 23 through December 27, giving the piece over a month of life beyond the live premiere.