BIO
I am Laonikos (he/him), a shakuhachi player and teacher, arts professional, and coach based in London. I am Head of Programmes at Sound and Music, I was a board member at the European Shakuhachi Society (2023-25) and I am co-founder of artArctica. In my creative work I explore how, through arts and wilderness experiences, we can be present with ourselves, each other, and the world around us.
I teach shakuhachi to students across the UK and internationally, offering both in-person and online shakuhachi tuition. I'm also available for performances, workshops, and recording sessions throughout the UK. I recently performed Karl Jenkins' Requiem with the Fulham and Hammersmith Choral Society, and was the opening act for HYPER/JAPAN 2025 in Manchester. I recorded the shakuhachi for the Japan Pavillion at the London Design Biennale 2025, composed by Midori Komachi, as part of an installation designed by SEKISUI HOUSE - KUMA LAB and curated by Clare Farrow, voted best pavilion by Forbes Magazine.
My debut album loess was released on Slow Tone Collages, I am a Making Tracks 2020 Fellow and I have previously been awarded a DYCP grant by Arts Council England to deepen my shakuhachi practice. I hold a master's degree in Global Music studying with Nathan Riki Thomson and wrote my dissertation on Rewilding Music, and I previously studied composition with Paul Newland at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Some years ago I gave a graduation speech for Sibelius Academy graduates which summarises my philosophy around my practice, ecology, and community.
You can find me on Instagram, Bluesky, Facebook - I'm @laonikos or @laonikoss pretty much everywhere. For my arts leadership and organisational development work, visit my LinkedIn profile.
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LOESS
The word “loess” (LOW-ess) refers to a type of sediment that is the result of wind depositing small amounts of dust on the same location over geological time. Visiting and recording in the same place over several years, this project has been about deepening my awareness of the place - my music when I retun each time is changed, each visit another layer deposited.
This is very patient music. Calm, as you might expect, and expansive - our ears expand to listen along with and through the musician, as he attempts to adopt the timescale of the creatures that inhabit this environment. The player's attention is steady and his stamina impressive, in what may be some of the slowest music you've heard"
- Clive Bell (read full review)
Limited edition of 50 printed copies only.
"...beyond these occasional foreground brushstrokes, there is just the distant sound of the motorway and the occasional train, or the footsteps of very eager dog walkers on the south banks of the river — a soft balance of sounds where human and the more-than-human coexist fairly peacefully, as residents of the land around River Lea.
"I double-check everything is connected. I exhale, take a deep breath and blow, doing my best to blend in and offer my own sounds in this morning’s dawn chorus."
BAMBOO Magazine, Autumn/Winter 2022 Issue