UEHARA, KAZUO - Experimental Music of Japan Vol. 8: Assemblage

This is the eighth volume in Edition Omega Points Experimental Music Of Japan series. Japanese composer and synthesizer artist Kazuo Uehara was born in Osaka in 1949. He studied composition in Tokyo and in New York and is a Professor of Music at the Osaka University of Arts, teaching composition, experimental music and also multi-media performance. His music has been performed in France, Germany, the U.S., and other countries and he has also performed his interactive live music and multi-media pieces at major festivals in Sweden, Bulgaria, Russia, France, Poland, Brazil, China, Korea and other countries. He was the main prize-winner at the Bourge International electroacoustic music competition in 1983. In 1990, he was awarded a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts. He has been producing the International Festival for Contemporary Music in Japan since the 1980s. Assemblage is a word from the domain of modern art. This is one of the techniques in the expression of art. The word means mixture, originally. I decided that assemblage would be the concept of this CD. A collage by Picasso is similar example. Dadaism is also another similar example. I try to express new directions in music by using the assemblage technique. Music Collage Re-Mix Version is based on the live recording of a performance from Brazil in 1989 -- a collaboration with a Brazilian dancer and her voice. Pont De lAlma De Paris was a piece composed at INA-GRM, which is well-known as the place where musique concrète was created by Pierre Schaeffer. The title of this piece Pont De lAlma is the name of the metro station in Paris. I tried to express the harmony between traditional images and contemporary images of Paris. OTO Mandala 2 -- usually a mandala is created as a visual image but in this piece I tried to create a mandala image by using sound with bandoneon by Miho Kurosawa. Sound Work 1 is the first piece I composed by using a personal computer. I used NEC PC 8-bit which came out in the beginning of the 1980s. I tried to create very simple synthesized sounds. Forest Of Gombe is a piece on the subject of nature from a chimpanzees forest in Africa. Assemblage 2004 was composed using the assemblage technique using various sounds, noises from nature and instruments like piano and biwa. Meteora Version 1.0 is the name of a strange rock from the northern part of Greece. Meteora 1 is created as acousmatic music." Housed in a cardboard paper sleeve. Including newly-written liner notes in Japanese & English by the artist. Limited edition of 400 copies only." - Omega Point.