Yu Kuwabara: Sounded Voice, Voiced Sound

Featuring

Marco Fusi
Hidejiro Honjoh
Shungo Mise
Ikune Yamagata
Seiko Takemoto
Maho Kajikawa

Kaoru Nishimura
Kousei Murata
Maiko Matsuoka
Megumi Kasakawa
Yoji Sato
Kosuke Nakayama
Hiroyuki Mito
Kaori Ohsuga
Awai-Za
Yu Kuwabara

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Composer Biography

Yu Kuwabara, born in 1984, is a Japanese composer whose musical foundation is built upon Western classical music, with early inspiration from modern composers like Debussy.

Compositional Technique

Kuwabara often uses distinctive scordatura (unusual tunings) for stringed instruments in her works, including violins, viola, cello, and contrabass, to amplify resonance and create unexpected noises similar to the 'sawari' effect on shamisen.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Kuwabara's creative imagination spans 1,000 years, drawing inspiration from Japanese mythology 'Kojiki,' Buddhist chant 'Shomyo,' and Edo songs 'Hauta,' with a particular interest in the energy of the Japanese language.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Kuwabara's approach to Japanese traditional arts involves repeated fieldwork and immersion, contrasting with composers from 60 years ago who often refused to engage with tradition.

Performer Biography

Marco Fusi, the violinist and viola d'amore player on this album, is a researcher in music performance and a passionate advocate for contemporary music, having premiered works by various modern composers.

Recording & Production

Awai-Za is an Edo culture-ingrained, Tokyo-based collective founded in 2010 by Shungo Mise, Seiko Takemoto, Hidejiro Honjoh, and Yu Kuwabara, exploring connections between old and new, sound and verbal, and Japan and the world.

Composer's Artistic Vision

A key motif in Kuwabara's work is 'awai,' a Japanese expression for things being fluid and ambiguously infused but not completely melted together, reflecting a boundary exploration between words and music, and East and West.