I am a fan of Yuma Takeshita's photographs of birds and have long had the idea of using them for the artwork of my work.
When I found this photo on Takeshita's Instagram after finishing the recording of this album, I guessed it could be one of three things: a territorial dispute between males, courtship behaviour of a male towards a female, or a parent and child raising their young, but when I asked Takeshita about this, and he said that this was probably a food fight or territorial dispute between siblings of juvenile kingfishers that had just left the nest. It is different from any of the guesses, but related to all of them. I was convinced that it was perfectly suitable for the artwork for this time.
As individuals and as a group of creatures, do we want each other, fight and wish to be interconnected because we are alike, or do we fear, love and complement each other because we are different? Takeshita's photograph, and the two kingfishers forever trapped within the picture, tell me that this piece of music is also about such questions, questions that perhaps have no answers.
Material Unity is a series of compositions combining electronic sounds + one physical instrument, and this is the second in the series.
Active Recovering Music defines a multi-tuned sine wave bundle, the basic unit of pronunciation, as an cluster/group of independent pitches. Similarly, piano can be seen as a parallel collection of pitches, with its own logic. This is a record of an encounter between the two. Do you hear trom this music the murmur, fear and joy when two swarms or two systems come into contact?
Material Unityは電子音+物理楽器1種類の組み合わせによる作曲シリーズであり、本作はその第2番となります。Active Recovering Musicでは発音の基本単位である多重チューニングサイン波束をそれぞれが固有の意味を持つ独立した音高からなる集合体/群体と定義しています。同様にピアノもまた固有の論理を内包した音高の並列的集合体と捉えることができるでしょう。これはそのふたつの遭遇と対処の記録です。
ふたつの群れ、ふたつのシステムが接触する時のざわめき、恐れ、歓びはこの音楽から聴こえてくるでしょうか。
大藏雅彦 / Active Recovering Music
credits
released November 27, 2022
Masahiko Okura: piano, sinewaves
Composed by Masahiko Okura
Recorded live at Ftarri, Tokyo, May 9, 2022
Mixed and mastered by Masahiko Okura
Photo by Yuma Takeshita
Design by Cathy Fishman
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