At just under one hour Koji Asano’s new work pairs Ayumi Matsuda
(recorder) with Isao Otake (organ) in what is at once a stimulating
contemporary passion in the tradition of great composers. Recorded in
Amsterdam in the Summer of 2002, the overall feeling here goes from warm
spirited moments to carnival, with a live sensibility. Birds of
paradise are set free in a hazy, deserted corner of earth, only to hear
their own echo in a cavernous stretch of prehistoric abyss. Otake’s
sudden outbursts into mad scientist-like Phantom of the Opera raging on
the edge of feedback and white noise is well timed and only appears in
pockets between the superbly sweet playing by Matsuda. The drama stays
alive through every minute of this recording. This is an orchestral
chamber piece that tantalizes memories of old fashioned drives in the
country and blurry amusement rides, candied apples, et al. In many ways
this harkens turn of the century silhouettes of Degas’ dancers, high
mass and the brevity of time passing. The pockets of sheer rapidity
trigger our mall-based speed culture of consumerism and passing fancy.
“The dance” is part ballroom, part minuette keeping live the attention to
contemporary concerns that fade from harmony to noise in seconds. Asano
awakens the soul with traditional approaches in the hands of an off
centered experimentalist.
