The Japanese artist Akio Suzuki was born in 1941 in North Korean Pyongyang. He moved to Aichi / Japan at the age of four. In the 1960's, he began his "self-study events"; for years he worked as a sound researcher, studying the sound qualities of places in nature and architectural spaces. He investigates places by constructing a topography of sound based on the principle of call and echo. The intensive study during the 1970's of the phenomenon of reverberation or echo inspired him to invent his own instruments, such as the glass harmonica à la Suzuki and the ANALAPOS sprial echo instrument. Since the 1970's, he has been putting on performances with these self-built instruments. His sound concept performances using everyday items such as newspaper and plates or other simple material were developed in the late 1970's. In 1981, Suzuki received a scholarship from the Rockefeller Foundation in New York. Since 1989, he has often been working with the dance and performance artist Junko Wada. In 1994, he was a guest at the Berlin artist programme of the DAAD. Today he lives in the countryside near the Japanese coast.

Exhibitions (Selection)

1976		Solo sound exhibition, Minami Gallery, Tokyo;
1978		Festival d'Autonome à Paris
1983		Performing Original Music, Japan House, New York;
1984		Pro Musica Nova, Bremen;
1987		Pro Musica Nova, Bremen;
1988		Space in the Sun, Kyoto;
1993		Solo sound exhibition and performance "+ - 0", Xebec, Kobe;
1994		Inventionen 94, Berlin; Cause and Effect, Museet for Samtidskunst, Roskilde; Het Apollohuis, Eindhoven; Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin;
1995		Make-up, 7th international Contemporary Music Forum of Kyoto;
1996		otodate, sonambiente festival, Berlin;
1997		Klangräume, Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken;
1998		Chorus Donaueschinger Musiktage 98, Donaueschingen;
1999		soundculture 99, Auckland / Neuseeland; Klang Kunst Festival - UND II. Wiesbaden; tubridge 99 - 00, daadgalerie, Berlin