Moment by Moment
by
Kouichi Inoue
Inoue applies the art of playing traditional Japanese instruments, such as the shamisen and biwa, to his guitar playing technique.
To fully realize this complicated craft, he employs a different tuning on every track included in this album. Inoue even performs the incredible feat of using the biwa-style technique on the three lower strings while simultaneously imitating the sound of the Japanese flute on the remaining high strings of his guitar.
The whole album is the natural result of Inoue’s unconventional sensibility as a composer and virtuoso guitarist, with inspiration from the physical, technical side of Japanese traditional instruments, which has been continuously developed and sophisticated until today. Surprising melodies and harmonies seem to spontaneously tumble from Inoue’s guitar one after another and blend into something deep and intense that unmistakably echoes Japanese sensibilities in abundance.
His work does not fit into the category of a typically “Japanese” sound, which may usually come to most by descriptions such as the music of Japan or Japanese crossover music. What separates his music is Inoue’s abstemiousness with native Japanese forms of various pentatonic scales and harmonic schemes. With his original vision of his native country of Japan, Inoue can reveal a shocking, uncommon Japanesque landscape by just playing solo guitar.
Daisuke Muraoka (Production Staff / Overseas Sales)
