“A place is not rich simply because it has a beautiful natural environment, or because it is blessed with natural resources, or because many skilled craftsmen live there, but because of the relationships that tie these things together.” Kengo Kuma The concept of relationships is central to Third Angle New Music’s identity. Third Angle is constantly seeking to create the richest possible listening experiences for audiences, drawing on decades of collaborative experience, and often using extraordinary built environments in the community as visual context for a deeper relationship to the music. As Mr. Kuma states, it’s the relationships that tie these things together, and that’s exactly the goal with Japanese Music Now, to use music to tell a uniquely Oregon story. The music on this recording was performed in the fall of 2017 in celebration of the opening of the Portland Japanese Garden’s new Cultural Village, designed by Mr. Kuma. This special occasion represented a great opportunity to use Kuma’s brilliant architecture as the inspiration for new musical art, beautifully realized with the world premiere performance of Perpetual Spring by Dai Fujikura, commissioned by the Portland Japanese Garden. At these performances, the audience also got to hear live performances of the other music featured on this recording, performed by exceptional Third Angle artists. The range of styles represented in these works is incredible, a stirring survey of the vibrancy of contemporary Japanese musical culture. “Perpetual Spring” is organic. The clarinet is melting into the string quartet, and the strings are extending their "stems" to wrap around the clarinet anywhere the clarinet moves….as the amazing thing about nature, the roots and stems of trees, they are wrapping around, breaking through the asphalt roads, concrete walls. Every time I see the power of nature, I feel that we should never underestimate power of "quiet" nature. This piece is about “framing the nature”. --Dai Fujikura In Japanese the word PoyoPoyo describes something soft and squidgy, with a velvety texture - like the cheek of a four month old baby, which is how old my daughter was when I wrote this work. I experimented with the horn player Nobuaki Fukukawa, for whom the work was written, as I wanted to find a sound which is the antithesis of the stereotypical horn sound. To me the horn often sounds big and macho, and plays fanfare-like music. I looked for sensitive, quiet, soft, and poetic sounds to symbolise poyopoyo. I experimented with the player over online video conferencing to get this effect. We settled on using a bass trombone harmon mute or a specially made harmon mute for horn. The player can open or close the mute with his hand to make the wah-wah effect, and throughout this piece the speed of this wah-wah effect varies to represent poyopoyo. --Dai Fujikura (edited by Harry Ross) “Both the beginning and the end of Ichiyanagi’s Portrait of Forest evoke an ethereal, reverent atmosphere. The tension builds in the middle section as ostinato rhythms develop, while lone notes abruptly leap from the texture and quickly fade as if only imagined. As such, the musical content of this composition seems representative of one’s spiritual journey through a forest, going deeper into dark, unfamiliar, and seemingly interminable surroundings. The calm and contemplative images from the beginning lead to a feeling of anxiety deeper into the music. There is no time signature, giving the music a looseness, which helps reveal the endlessness and mystery of nature. Beyond the sonic capabilities of the instrument alone, Ichiyanagi reaches another level of depth due to the fact the marimba was procured from the ecosystem conveyed in the piece.” --Michael Roberts "Nebula, Blooming" was originally intended as a work for dance, with the idea of having a solo harpist positioned in the center of the stage. This concept was suggested by my friend, the harpist, Gwenllian Llyr. Likewise, when I started composing, I imagined a harpist playing, surrounded by dancers. The first half of this piece was performed at a Juilliard Dance Workshop in the Spring of 2013. For a dance piece, the music progresses and develops quite slowly. But that is because instead of writing in collaboration with a choreographer, I decided to approach this work for harp as a pure concert piece. Writing for harp, especially for solo harp, was a challenge. But, a few months before composing this piece, I had the fortune of taking a few harp lessons from Gwenllian. As basic as it was, learning to play a short simple tune on the instrument became my biggest source of imagination and inspiration for this work. Also, hearing the harp up close and played by such a fantastic player really helped in creating this work. I set the music very freely. Starting with simple unmetered gestures, the sound unfolds into music, like a flower gently blooming. I titled this piece Nebula, Blooming, envisioning spots of light on a dark dance floor that then gradually spread out softly against the darkness. --Sayo Kosugi "Blaze" for bassoon is highly technically challenging, and its many varied performance techniques require adherence to very strict timing. Actually, the structure of the composition is exceedingly simple: all the motifs in the work are spun from three major triads and one rhythmical figure. However, as the piece progresses and time goes on, it develops to the very limit, making complex demands on the listeners. “Limit” is the key word. It is the foundation on which I based the work from the beginning. Blaze, the image of flame feeds back into the composition of the work. Flames flicker, suddenly flare up, sometimes recede into embers, and the musician must embody in performance the very nature of the blaze itself. Conspicuous among performance techniques are the chordal stops, evoked by the motifs. The bassoon being a melodic instrument, I chose to confront the concept of melody head on. As I now applied the work that I had previously done to this new instrument, I was able to propel my concept to a new dimension. I have divested myself of traditional European definitions of melody, which are already relegated in the contemporary composing world to the realm of antique intervals, and I have found a new range of possibilities in composing a melody. --Kenji Sakai (English translation courtesy of Music From Japan)