Jim O'Rourke - Corona: Tokyo Realization (Columbia, 2006)

Jim O'Rourke en mode avantgarde interprète deux compositions de Toru Takemitsu sur cette rareté japonaise. Ce n'est pas ce qu'il a fait de plus facile d'accès, mais ce touche à tout de génie réussi une fois de plus à ne pas perdre ses auditeurs en route. A croire qu'il est incapable de sortir un mauvais disque!

Jim O'Rourke
Corona: Tokyo Realization
CD Columbia Music Entertainment COCB-53573 (Japan, 2006)
(aka 'Translate Takemitsu')

01. Tokyo Realizaton 1
02. Tokyo Realizaton 2

Note : Jim O'Rourke : Piano, Hammond, Fender Rhodes.
Composed by Toru Takemitsu. Recorded and mixed at Sony Music Studios, Tokyo, July 11, 2006.
Japanese-only release of two performances of Toru Takemitsu's 1962 composition "Corona", performed by Jim O'Rourke.
Toru Takemitsu (1931-1996) was a self-taught Japanese composer who combined elements of Eastern and Western music and philosophy to create a unique sound world. Some of his early influences were the sonorities of Debussy, and Messiaen's use of nature imagery and modal scales. There is a certain influence of Webern in Takemitsu's use of silence, and Cage in his compositional philosophy, but his overall style is uniquely his own. Takemitsu believed in music as a means of ordering or contextualizing everyday sound in order to make it meaningful or comprehensible. His philosophy of "sound as life" lay behind his incorporation of natural sounds, as well as his desire to juxtapose and reconcile opposing elements such as Orient and Occident, sound and silence, and tradition and innovation. From the beginning, Takemitsu wrote highly experimental music involving improvisation, graphic notation, unusual combinations of instruments and recorded sounds. The result is music of great beauty and originality. It is usually slowly paced and quiet, but also capable of great intensity. The variety, quantity and consistency of Takemitsu's output are remarkable considering that he never worked within any kind of conventional framework or genre. In addition to the several hundred independent works of music, he scored over ninety films and published twenty books.

[old link is in prison, new link later, maybe]