Hibakusha - music against conflict

We are proud to present John Biddulph performing Hibakusha at the Black-E Liverpool on 6th August.

Alongside John, we are thrilled to have the Asylum Link Merseyside choir performing traditional songs from their home countries.

We will be donating to médecins sans frontières and Asylum Link Merseyside

Hibakusha - John Biddulph handmadesound.bandcamp.com/track/hibakusha

At precisely 8:15 in the morning on the 6th of August, 1945, the city of Hiroshima became the first target of nuclear warfare. In an instant, tens of thousands of lives were extinguished and became, in the words of one witness, shadows on stones. Those who survived would carry with them scars-physical, emotional, generational. They came to be known by a single word: Hibakusha-the bomb-affected people.


Hibakusha refers not only to those who were exposed to the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but also to the survivors' testimonies-their words, their silences, and their unimaginable burden of remembrance.

Yet, among Hibakusha were voices of astonishing clarity, peace, and resilience - voices that chose to speak not of vengeance, but of warning. Of the human cost. Of the absolute necessity to remember, to reflect, and to never repeat.

Their memories have been passed down through generations, often through quiet conversations. Their testimonies have become living documents-bridges between past and present. Their voices remind us that nuclear warfare is not an abstract policy issue or a historical curiosity - it is a human problem, still challenging, still speaking.

The composition was created in their honour.

It combines voices of Hibakusha-short extracts of interviews and recollections-with the fragile beauty of a Japanese children's song. The children's voices drift like birds through the soundscape: innocent, clear, unaffected. They remind us of what was lost-and what remains at stake. We hear Hibakusha Yoshiko describe the beautiful weather moments before the detonation.

Woven into the piece are both acoustic instruments and electronic textures. Some of the sounds have been modified-stretched, filtered, and processed in other ways. The voices of both Hibakusha and the children singing have been made into instruments and played until they become haunting abstractions, echoes of memory, or even ghostly fragments of the city that once was, yet now is, once again.

This is not a linear narrative. It does not follow a timeline or recreate an event. It is instead a meditation: a sonic prayer, a lament, a memoryscape that drifts between grief and reflection, presence and absence. An acknowledgment of these remarkable people. My hope is that it presents an opportunity for reflection and focus.

7:00pm Doors

Set times tbc

10:00pm doors