Thorsten Knaub is an artist, digital filmmaker and shakuhachi player /maker based in London and Paris. Knaub initially discovered the shakuhachi when encountering two Japanese musicians in India in 1990. Having been fascinated by its sound, sonic versatility and humble appearance he started in the following years to explore the shakuhachi by studying traditional repertoire from various schools, researching its making processes as well as by using it for experimental art projects. This culminated with the release of the critically acclaimed CD and video short-film Listening Station – music for abandoned structures and shakuhachi, a site-specific improvisation in the abandoned cold war listening station situated on Teufelsberg (Devil’s Mountain) outside of Berlin, Germany, in 2011.
Since 2014 he focuses on studying traditional honkyoku/dokyoku repertoire with Furuya Teruo, head of Chikushin-kai, Tokyo and one of the principle teachers and director of the Kokusai Shakuhachi Kenshūkan in Japan.
As a shakuhachi maker, Knaub crafts performance-level shakuhachi from Japanese bamboo using traditional materials and methods. He has spent time in Japan with the master maker Miura Ryuho, exploring in greater depth his particular approaches and techniques of jiari shakuhachi making.
Knaub was part of the executive committee who organised the World Shakuhachi Festival 2018 in London, creating the visual concepts as well as curating the free improvisation encounters “London meets Japan”. In 2020 he returned to the European Shakuhachi Society (ESS) Board as one of the editors of the biannual ESS Newsletter, henceforth called BAMBOO. In November 2022 he was elected to the chairperson position of the ESS.