kikù hibino

Sound artist Kikù Hibino has dedicated his career to exploring the complex interplay between nature’s inherent structures and human imagination through electronic music. Inspired by the intricate beauty of human languages, natural patterns, optical illusions, and moiré effects, Kikù creates electronic compositions that challenge traditional rhythmic structures and melodies, inviting listeners into a world where linear and non-linear elements converge harmoniously.

He has collaborated internationally with a wide variety of artists and scholars, including Whitney Johnson, Baudouin Saintyves, Yuge Zhou, Mitsu Salmon, Kawaguchi Takao (Dumb Type), Theaster Gates, Mike Weis (Zelienople) and Norma Field.

Kikù is on the Italian record label Superpang. His work has been shown in  Museum Of Contemporary Art Chicago, Bemis Center For Contemporary Arts, Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago Cultural Center, Three Walls, Compound Yellow, Elastic Arts, Hairpin Arts Center, Hyde Park Art Center, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, among others.  He’s a 2017 Individual Artist Grant recipient from Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, 2021 Outer Ear Artist in Residency at Experimental Sound Studio. Kikù lives and works in Chicago.

The publication, The Wire (U.K.) once described his music as  "trying to cram in as many memories as possible before it all disappears" and that the music "concerns itself with themes of capturing and preserving fleeting moments" (2007, issue 279). 

He studied electronic music composition at Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus with Toru Iwatake, Atau Tanaka, and Christopher Penrose, and at University of California at Santa Barbara with Curtis Roads and Karen Tanaka, and holds M.A. in media art and technology.

In 2021, Kikù and Gregory Bae launched S/N, an electronic music concert series/label. Instagram