Fractured Silence Fumio Yasuda

• 1 Elegy in E Minor 04:24
• 2 Thoughts Arise and Vanish 02:39
• 3 Lost 03:05
• 4 Blue Gallery 02:17
• 5 Tenki 01:38
• 6 Forgotten Waltz 03:04
• 7 Taffeta 03:57
• 8 Molle 02:35
• 9 Rain 01:58
• 10 Beata 02:41
• 11 Solitude 02:22
• 12 Capri 01:43
• 13 Sky Dark Green 03:18
• 14 Song of Nenna 04:22
• 15 Autumn Melody 03:28
• 16 Melancholic Waltz 04:25
• 17 Winter Silence 01:44
• 18 Capricornus 02:38
• 19 Wandering Shadows 03:21
• 20 By the Sea 04:02
• 21 Almost Silence 05:27
• Total Runtime 01:05:08

Info for Fractured Silence

„Fractured Silence“ is a sequence of 21 solo piano pieces which I have been writing in between 1973 and today. I strongly feel that this work is part of my personal history and identity, which I have created neither intentionally nor unintentionally. These pieces were composed - in retrospect - to the memory of my listening habits. My work reflects classical, contemporary as well as traditional music, harmonic and melodic structures of different western music and improvisation. I tried to expose memories of these repeating resonances, which I experienced over the years.

What I mean by memories are for example modulations of keys from C minor to F# minor apparent in the music of Ludwig van Beethoven, or Robert Schumann's impressionistic chords, punctuated by disharmonious notes, or the use of the lydian scale in Frédéric Chopin's compositions, or the sounds in one of the earliest styles of blues music called Delta blues. All these memories trigger my artistic rendering of them.

The tonic as the home port of tonality does not play its role any longer, tones, chords and harmonies are objects and symbols. The resonance of the chord as a symbol is for me like the taste of 'madeleine' dipped into English tea in Marcel Proust's novel 'À la recherche du temps perdu' (»Remembrance of Things Past« or »In Search of Lost Time«). The tone gives me a chance to relive the feeling of happiness which I experienced in the past. Different sound stories are born from this world of ideas. Unconscious memories stored inside me arise in spirals of sounds.

The theme of this album is to follow the memory of the floating time, to confirm the time sense from deeply within myself. Time feeling means continuation of the presence including the future. The key word inside used is 'eternity'.

For this record I am also playing a prepared piano to reach and experience the outmost limit of unexpected spheres of sounds. The distortion causes an assault against the natural sound of a piano. By inserting objects (nails and screws) on the strings each piano attack in fact generates a different noise and reverberation in the resonating body. The harmonic structure of the overtones ring out differently and the weird sounds recall similar tones like a memory, a point of reference, an indispensable experience. (Fumio Yasuda)

The recording session of the grand piano took place in Munich at the house of Steinway. This recording was made with one single microphone (Josephson C700S) directly live-to-three-track. The prepared piano got recorded at the recording studio Studio 246 in Aoyama, Tokyo. The final sound design was created by Adrian von Ripk. Producer Stefan Winter works together with Adrian von Ripka since 1987. The visual appearance is created by the Japanese painter Miwa Ogasawara who lives and works in Hamburg.

Fumio Yasuda, Klavier

Fumio Yasuda
born 1953 in Tokyo, graduated from Kunitachi College of Music, Composition major. Starts composing at the age of 17, soon finds his interest in improvisational music and performs together with one of the most known improvisers in Japan, guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi as a pianist. From 1995, he starts his musical collaboration with the photographer Nobuyoshi Araki. The main compositions performed from Araki's projects are, "Tokyo Comedy" (1997 in Wien), "Shijo" (1998 in Hamburg), "1999 Taipei - Summer" (1999 in Taipei) and the latest project was performed in Prato, Italy in 2000. Fumio Yasuda has recorded the albums »Kakyoku«, »Charmed with Verdi«, »Schumann's Bar Music«, »Heavenly Blue« and »Las Vegas Rhapsody«, »Berlin – Songs of love and war, peace and exile«, »Schumann's Favored Bar Songs« and »Mother Goose's Melodies« for Winter & Winter.

Already the album »Kakyoku« represents the fruits of Yasuda's ongoing collaboration with Japan's most famous photographer, Nobuyoshi Araki. In contrast to the atonality and often-challenging tenor of much of today's classical music, Yasuda's scores are remarkably accessible. At times recalling the Impressionism of post-romantic composers such as Debussy. As Araki comments, "Yasuda's music is sometimes sentimental and sometimes almost insane. It has a way of getting under one's skin and touching both body and soul."

This album contains no booklet.