Rest

Rest: Don’t let the title fool you. This is edgy, abrasive modernism at its finest that would test any tranquilizer; five feisty chamber works from one atypical Japanese American composer. There are many revelations here, not the least of which is Torikai herself who outspokenly defies the traditional stereotype of quiet Japanese female. Well-known in Japan for her idiosyncratic mixture of ancient Japanese culture, electronics, and concert music, she has operated under the radar in the USA since the 1980s when she became a prominent figure in the New York Downtown scene.

The small acoustic ensemble works on this CD – her first US release after several on Japanese labels – have all been composed since her arrival. “I moved physically from Downtown to Uptown,” she says, “but I am neither a musical ‘Downtowner’ nor ‘Uptowner’, I’m just being myself.” The no-slouch performers are equal to the daunting physical and expressive tasks at hand: Aki Takahashi, Renée Jolles, Thomas Buckner, Joseph Kubera, and Continuum. The final track, Rest, was written for the Tokyo Philharmonic Chorus while the events of September 11, 2001 were taking place. Set to a poem of Christina Georgina Rossetti it encapsulates Ushio Torikai’s sentiments against violence and brings the album, with its intensities of physicality and emotion, to a fitting conclusion.

Ushio Torikai started a concert series of her own music in Tokyo in 1979, and was invited to the Paris Biennale in 1982. Concerts of her music have since been presented in major cities in Europe, North America and Japan, including at Georges Pompidou Center (Paris), the Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco), and Walker Art Center (Minneapolis). Her compositions vary considerably in instrumentation, ranging from Western orchestral instruments to traditional Japanese ones; computer/electronics to reconstructed ancient Asian instruments; and Western Choir to Japanese Buddhist monks’ chants. Ms. Torikai has received commissions from Ensemble Modern (Frankfurt), the Modern Art Sextet Berlin, the Kronos Quartet, Continuum (New York), the Canadian Electronic Ensemble, the City of Los Angeles, the Japan Broadcasting Corporation, and Japan National Theater, to name only a few. Commissioned pieces range from works for concert music and opera to a permanent music installation in a public park. She divides her time between New York City and Tokyo.