rostasi

In 1972, I wrote a piano work that I had problems trying to realize because what I wanted
needed a technology that wasn’t yet available, but I had faith that it would someday come.

In the mid-80s, with the advent of compact discs and the beginning of a post-digital society,
I decided to revisit the work thinking that my earlier ideas could finally be realized using a
combination of glitch patchwork and circuit-bending (which reached their heights, universally,
in the mid-90s).

When I listen to the first work, “Stella," I hear an attempt at the same kind of realization,
but it loses me very quickly for two main reasons. One is that it has little room for silence and
second, it is, to me, annoyingly major scale heavy with an forced attempt at little pretties throughout.
After the initial segment, it begins to almost sound like a Sharpie-marked CD of
King Crimson’s “Lizard” playing at George Winston’s house.

The only parts that get my attention are the ones that veer from those pretties -
and it might only be for a single second (around 20:46) or at about 23 minutes
in when he decides to break it down into segmented bits. I haven’t decided yet
whether 36 minutes is too long for this work - it depends on the context, I suppose.

For “write once, run melos,” he starts out with a ghostly choir sound which
just begins to get interesting and then soon turns into a fractured jazz piano trio
which works in interesting ways as it breaks up 3 minutes in. I think I’m more
impressed by the quality of the sampled instruments - some of the strings are
impressive (which he likes to use a lot in both of these pieces). Still, I can’t help
but see it as modern soundtrack music for some kind of adventurous YouTube video.

Though there are some wonderful segments that could be expanded for use in
actual film soundtracks - especially the middle section of the second piece.
The mystery element that begins about 13 minutes in? I would love that type of
soundtracking in 2022. It would certainly make films much more abstractly interesting.
The piano ostinato and it’s melodic extension beginning at about 17 and a half minutes
is wonderfully developed (I would leave out the voices here - unless used for film).

He’s young and he says that he’s still finding his way sonically.
His interests and ways of looking at his surroundings are attitudes
that I’ve always found engaging when it comes to composers from Japan.
I just don’t think that he’s been able to translate that to his music … yet.
I’m happy that he’s doing soundtrack work for ¥, and this may be precisely
what’s called for under those circumstances, but it seems at odds to what
I’ve read and seen him speak of when it comes to his interests.

I’ll still follow his work (I think he’s coming up on something like a dozen releases),
because I’d like to think that there’s some promising non-soundtrack work yet to be made by him.
He’s more interesting to me when he decides to compose vignettes (like on “program music II”),
but I think someone needs to remind him that it’s OK to be Japanese.