Album "blue flow"

Work created through the collaboration between hamon and electronic music



The album was produced as a collaboration between myself and the hamon performer Sachiko Nagata. The hamon is the work of the young Japanese artist Teppei Saito. This is a homemade steel drum. The hamon is a musical instrument produced by the creator based on the image of being attracted to the musical tone of the Suikinkutsu (an elegant device allowing us to enjoy the sound of water in the garden that has existed since ancient times in Japan.) Each hamon produces a different sound, and there is no fixed musical intervals or scales. In order to draw out the performance of the sole hamon performer Sachiko Nagata, I carried out a field recording of Kamui promontory, which is said to be the dwelling place for a mythical Ainu god, and interweaving this with the field recording of the Otaru Suitengu shrine where the Japanese god resides, and had the idea of producing a concerto for the hamon on the computer using these sounds. I did the recording myself, and only indicated to Sachiko the areas where she should play the hamon. Other than that, the recording simply involved her listening to the sound and playing the hamon in an improvised fashion.


 

Album "blue flow" (SC-MK-0301)

 


photo by BOZZO.

Kamui promontory's "Kamui" means "God" in Ainu (indigenous group of people in Japan and Russia) language and it used to be a place where no women were admitted, and now known for it's beautiful sea called "Shakotan Blue".