Country : États-Unis / Japan Label : Unfinished Side Genres and styles : musique contemporaine / Musiques du Monde Year : 2024

Kojiro Umezaki & Hub New Music – A distance intertwined

· by Frédéric Cardin

Contemporary chamber music featuring the shakuhachi, a traditional Japanese flute, may not be commonplace, but there is some out there, and it’s generally good. Such is the case with this album, a distance intertwined, by flutist Kojiro Umekazi. Five compositions for shakuhachi and small ensemble by as many composers (including Umezaki himself) are presented here. Contemporary without being experimental, the works on the programme are fairly accessible while offering stimulating listening. The imagery and poetry of the Japanese imagination are invoked effectively without ever falling into the trap of pastiche or tourist exoticism. Takuma Itoh’s Faded Aura is perhaps my favorite of the set, with its subtle interplay of reflections and amplification of the shakuhachi by the soloists of the unusual Hub New Music quartet (flute, clarinet, violin, cello). Very impressive indeed. The rest follows suit, with interesting contrasts between Chad Cannon’s Death Masks, the darkest work, and Angel Lam’s Whispers of Sea Rivers, which is tonal, melodic and almost cinematic. SunYoung Park’s Moonlight evokes the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, famous in Japan (so much so that Miyazaki’s Ghibli Studio made a version of it, The Legend of Princess Kaguya). The spirit world and the real world meet through the imagery of the shakuhachi on the one hand, and the quartet on the other. Finally, Umezaki makes his contribution with Tied Together by Twilight, in which the artist paints a portrait of modern Japan in sharp contrasts, torn between modernity and tradition, youth and old age, urbanity and rurality, femininity and masculinity, and so on.

Serious and narratively dynamic music for an instrument with a magical, timeless sound.

Latest 360 Content

Transforming Hiroshima mon amour into contemporary opera: Christian Lapointe and Rosa Lind tell the story

Transforming Hiroshima mon amour into contemporary opera: Christian Lapointe and Rosa Lind tell the story

Sparks – MAD!

Sparks – MAD!

“Hiroshima, mon amour”: An Evening to Remember

“Hiroshima, mon amour”: An Evening to Remember

Peter Murphy – Silver Shade

Peter Murphy – Silver Shade

Ken Pomeroy – Cruel World

Ken Pomeroy – Cruel World

Art of the Line: Klangkarussell’s Euro Vision at SAT

Art of the Line: Klangkarussell’s Euro Vision at SAT

Festival des Saveurs | Closing With Reggae

Festival des Saveurs | Closing With Reggae

Centroamérica – a powerful docu-play about truth and connection in an age of distance and denial

Centroamérica – a powerful docu-play about truth and connection in an age of distance and denial

Lido Pimienta – La Belleza

Lido Pimienta – La Belleza

Tamir Barzilay – Phosphene Journal

Tamir Barzilay – Phosphene Journal

The best ‘’Candlelight concert‘’ ever.

The best ‘’Candlelight concert‘’ ever.

Men I Trust – Equus Caballus

Men I Trust – Equus Caballus

The Halluci Nation – Path of the Baby Face

The Halluci Nation – Path of the Baby Face

A lap steel guitar choir and an angel to end the Innovations en concert 24-25 season

A lap steel guitar choir and an angel to end the Innovations en concert 24-25 season

The OSM and Abel Selaocoe: Evenings When You’d Like to Stop Time

The OSM and Abel Selaocoe: Evenings When You’d Like to Stop Time

Reaching for the sky: Francis Choinière’s challenge to end his OPCM’s 10th season

Reaching for the sky: Francis Choinière’s challenge to end his OPCM’s 10th season

Piknic 3: A Little Bit of Everything Under the Sun

Piknic 3: A Little Bit of Everything Under the Sun

Cazzu – Latinaje

Cazzu – Latinaje

Stereolab – Instant Holograms On Metal Film

Stereolab – Instant Holograms On Metal Film

SMCQ | In memoriam Jocelyn Morlock

SMCQ | In memoriam Jocelyn Morlock

Abbey Road at Festival Classica

Abbey Road at Festival Classica

Mira Choquette – Hier encore

Mira Choquette – Hier encore

Jared Dunn; Anna Gorecka – Gorecki’s World of the Piano

Jared Dunn; Anna Gorecka – Gorecki’s World of the Piano

Subscribe to our newsletter