Self Production Note
by
Hiroyuki Jyutori
We use music to bring various dimensions of reality to plays, movies, images, and environments. I’m aware that my humble oboe performance plays a role in such a process. Yet, what if I could playact, putting on a show by the sole enterprise of my musical execution? If one oboe performance could amount to a semblance of cinema without relying on visual content or words, what would it be like? All kinds of visions come to mind when my imagination runs on such a thread.
This particular fancy came true, affecting my future as an oboe player.
When Nash Studio commissioned me to participate in one of their "Artists' Labo" projects, I could barely contain my excitement. Such was my eagerness to play as soon as possible. I remember setting off for the studio at a brisk pace but without a concrete vision in mind. Consequently, when they asked me what I'd like to do or what I could bring to the project, I could only say "Just too many things..." However, as I played in front of the microphone, my preoccupation for “musical cinema” gave birth to new methods and techniques, which eventually served to highlight my warped visions, clearly and contrastively.
The album invites you to take a mysterious journey of imagination into an unknown world, which may resemble this earth, or the other side, through the oboe’s musical dramatics. The theme of the dying clinging to life runs throughout, sensing the presence of an unfathomable force that controls such matters. Indeed, my instrument’s relentless wailing and wild distortion go far out, which is truly inconceivable in terms of regular oboe music and its characteristic tone and beauty.
In retrospect, what I demonstrated here is not an expression of bitterness, resentment, or regret. Instead, I realize now that the oboe in this album portrays human beings in the future whose image is shaped by our innate attachment to life and imagination. With all my prayers for a beautiful future.
Hiroyuki Jyutori (Oboist / Musician)
This avant-garde ambient album arose from an experiment in Music Cinema, which aimed to convey a complete story by playing only one oboe without relying on visuals or words.
On this challenging concept album, the performer directly sounds out his vision and aura to spin story after story as an improvised storyteller of sounds.
