Cucumber

This work is a piano solo album conceptualized around "light and nostalgia." It depicts the scenes from the moment when light streams in after the rain and the nostalgic scent of the earth envelops you, to the quiet fading of the evening lights.

For this album, I adjusted the piano to produce a soft and rustic sound. Immersing myself in this piano tone while playing, I am reminded of the days spent in the garden of my childhood home after the rain and the warm memories brought by the evening lights. Based on these experiences, I reflected the characteristics of light and illumination in the sound quality and composition of the music.

The title "DD" refers to my life's work of sketching with an instrument when encountering nostalgic experiences. The DD series, which I continue to release on Bandcamp, involves changing the piano tuning based on the mood of the day. Since the release of the rain-themed album "Cinnamon" in 2023, I have continued to sketch using a "rain"-like piano tone tuned for "rainy days," which was also used in "Cinnamon." For this album, I restructured the pieces from "DD26" to "DD40," adjusting the sound quality and composition to express the transition from the sound of rain to the light after the rain.

One of the musicians I respect is Debussy. I first heard his Arabesques during my elementary school years, as Arabesque No. 1 was always played in the broadcast room after school. During the time when the city was bathed in the setting sun and each house began to light up, I would ride my bicycle to piano lessons and on my way back, I spent a slightly dark evening at the park, eating yakitori alone on a hill while studying the sheet music. For me, Arabesques are intertwined with the memory of the bittersweet and warm scenes of the sunset.

One day, while harvesting cucumbers in the garden after the rain, I was captivated by the scent of the rain-soaked earth and the green smell of the vegetables. At that moment, light streamed through the gaps in the clouds, creating an incredibly pleasant experience. The cucumbers' vines, adorned with raindrops and reflections of light, were beautiful, and this experience deeply moved me. Somehow, at that moment, Debussy's two Arabesques came to mind, and I felt a surge of emotion.

Since then, the image of Arabesques has been linked to the image of cucumber vines for me, and I began to aspire to create music similar to Arabesques if I ever composed. Even after learning the meaning of Arabesque patterns, the beauty of the garden remains a common thread.

Continuing to pursue the music of rain, I revisited the memories of light after the rain and reflected on the Arabesques. Through various studies on cucumbers and light, I have often found a deeper understanding of the music and sensations I admired in my youth.

While I won't go into detail here, I hope that "Cucumber" will be a work that gently accompanies the encounters brought by the cyclical nature of the scent after the rain. Thank you for discovering this music.