Search - Somei Satoh :: Sun - Moon

Satoh in a more traditional direction

DAC Crowell | 07/21/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"One star, hm? Someone who doesn't 'get' traditional Japanese music, I take it...No, this is no 'one star' disc. It's perhaps not quite the right place for someone looking for Satoh's more experimental/ambient side to start, but if you're versed in Japanese music, "Sun Moon" is a beautiful, sparse take on traditional styles. Three works, one for solo shakuhachi, the other for shakuhachi and koto, are present here. And yes...things are _sparse_. The opening of the disc has no sound for much of the first minute...and then a tone intrudes. Electronic? You'd think...but suddenly, the atmosphere is cut by the signature sounds of traditional shakuhachi playing. Yep...it was that all along, demonstrating not only the point that Satoh's music here is brilliant, the playing by the performers is intensely virtuosic.Here you can hear a real connection in Satoh's music to the ageless sound of Japan's traditional musical forms, as well as connections to some of Japan's great recent composer, notably Toru Takemistu. Meditative, spare, and elegantly minimal, "Sun Moon" shows there's still quite a bit left to explore in Japan's centuries-old musical practices. The only fault I can give here is that the disc is annoying short at only 44 minutes; I was left wanting more."

Like snow falling

Mondrian5 | New York USA | 11/01/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Just as the one star reviewer says, there are moments where you can hear space between the going and coming of notes; extraordinary and perfect space. This is a beautiful recording. Absolutely un-sentimental. Somei Satoh has created an temoral landscape that feels like the temples and gardens of an ancient Japan. Amazing! I wish it were longer."

Sounds like living

Ethics and Aesthetics Research Synd | 01/03/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Not everyone is ready for John Cage's suggestion that we view everything that happens to us as music. Let me propose the idea that how you react to Somei Satoh's "Sun/Moon" upon first listening will tell you just how prepared you are to live according to Cage's suggestion.



If the vast spaces of silence in this recording infuriate and bore you, if you see them as "not music," or as the opposite of composition and performance, then perhaps you'd better shrink back behind that wall you have built between music and life and listen to some more conventional music, preferably something that is loud and has a regular beat, maybe a drum machine, and some words. Wouldn't that be nice?



If you find that the silence focuses your attention to an infinite intensity and opens your awareness, softening the hardened obliviousness of your everyday routine while preparing you to fully embrace the coming and passing of the first throbbing tone of the shakuhachi (Japanese flute), then you will cherish this austere recording for a long time as a beautiful reminder of what it feels like to be alive."