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This disc is of the concert "dub lilac" performed by Yuji Takahashi (piano, computer, voice), Keiichiro Shibuya (keyboard, computer) and maria (computer) took place at PITINN in Tokyo in October 2005. This disc is the one of their best works in that they try to cross between the compositional fine performance and more improvisational work using computer technology.
As compositional, Takahashi's masterpiece, The Pain of the Wandering Wind (1981), Joseph Hauer's pieces by Takahashi on piano, and Schoenberg and Cage by Shibuya on prophet 5. As technological, the session was recorded in high quality, 96khz, 32bit.
Shibuya later elaborated on sound quality and recomposed 20 tracks (55min58sec).
A piano as "An old, questionable wooden box that pulls out the sound closed inside."* And a computer as a questionable small box that pulls out another sound.
There was filled with the freely played sound.
And the played music regains the sound. It is the music as if a hand pulled the sound out of the box and the sound transformed into the sky.
Sometimes, some pieces of music are played, but they crash and turn into another sound. The echo vanishes into an empty sky.
There is a freedom of play.
This is a record of their sound trial over the questionable box.
*commentary by Yuji TAkahashi on "Art of Yuji Takahashi and Toru Takemitsu, Miniature III, Corona for Pianist(s) /Toru Takemitsu"
Minoru Hatanaka (curator of NTT Inter Communication Center [ICC])
12 years after his Kageri, Takahashi's new full-length album is gorgeous, comprehensive, contentious and innovative. It includes his masterpieces from the past: TIME (1963), a rare musique concrete (electro music edited on tape), which was scored for animation by Hiroshi Manabe, Fleider in Die Sonne (1989), computer-generated music over Takahashi's reading of text by Kafka, kumo-rinzetsu 260795 (1995), and live music performed in 2000 (gs-porttait is highly recommended). 16 years ago when I was a high school student, I listened to Fleider in Die Sonne (1989) at a concert hall in Yuraku-cho. I remember Yuji's performance so well. A lot of questions came up within my mind, "Is that music?" "Text?" "Or neither?" "What is it then?" and ended up with a tremendous impression, "Who is he, what is Yuji Takahashi?" Yuji's computer-based works are remarkably fine in recent years. I was telling my friends that someone should release the CD, and tried to introduce some labels in Europe. And, this year when I listened to gs-portrait (2005), I decided to release the CD from my own label, ATAK. There was a circle of time. I was happy to find a link in between his old and new works. As we discussed about the contents of the album, we arranged to include his maiden-work TIME (1963) because it should be a surprise that Yuji was making the same music 42 years ago. I am pleased to release this CD from my label and believe that this is one of his best albums. It will sound fresh even after 42 years. Keiichiro Shibuya (ATAK)
Keiichiro Shibuya (b. 1973) is a Japanese composer, musician, and artist. His work encompasses cutting-edge electronic music, piano solos, operas, film scores, and sound installations. Through his music compositions and collaboration with artists and scientists, he challenges the boundaries between humans, technology, and life and death. In 2002, he founded the music label ATAK, working across live performance and recorded music. In 2021, he composed the opera Super Angels, commissioned by the New National Theatre Tokyo, which brought together an android, opera singers, chorus, ballet dancers, and the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. In March 2022, he presented MIRROR, a new Android Opera in collaboration with Buddhist chanting and a local UAE orchestra, at the Dubai Expo. In June 2023, a 70-minute full version premiered at Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, with a Tokyo performance scheduled for June 2024. In April 2024, he presented his sound installation Abstract Music at the Lexus exhibition for Milan Design Week. He has also composed numerous film scores, including the music for the film Midnight Swan (2020), directed by Eiji Uchida and starring Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, for which he won the 75th Mainichi Film Concours Music Award and the 30th Japan Film Critics Award for Best Film Score. In 2022, he composed the score for xxxHOLiC (directed by Mika Ninagawa) and provided the music for the short film KAGUYA BY GUCCI. Through his works, he continues to explore the boundaries of technology, life, and death.
ATAK