The moon sets...

It’s hard to believe, but today marks the end of my research period at Tokyo University of the Arts.

It has been a pretty amazing experience – under the guidance of my teacher, Takeda Takashi, I not only learned the fundamentals of Noh chant and movement, but a new way of learning. It was not just that lessons were in a different language (one which my grasp of is still shaky at best!), but a whole different idiom, informed by a centuries-old tradition, with it's own hierarchies, formalities and rituals. For me as a musician too, it was the first time embracing this type of ‘embodied’ learning, using my own voice and movement to communicate and create. This was pretty significant for me, and something which I will be considering and thinking about for some time to come.

During this period, I learned how to read Noh chant (utai) notation, to understand the progression of a play through its music, the basic dance forms (shimai), learned three whole Noh (plus studied parts of others), and watched a lot of plays (at least when Covid allowed). I created a bunch of new pieces, including Irish poetry set to utai, combined Noh and electronics, ensemble works exploring the ideas and sounds of Noh, and some adaptations of the melodies in Noh songs, all of which I hope to share soon. Over the past few months I’ve also been collecting a number of pieces and improvisations for piano and electronics I created during this research period in response to my experience with Noh. These will be released next month as an album, called ‘The moon sets and birds cry / 月は落ち、鳥が鳴いて’ (artwork below by Daryl Feehely!)

Living in this incredible city has also had as significant an impact on me as my study. During this time, I’ve released three albums of electronic music responding to (and using!) the sounds of Tokyo: Rndr II, These Are the First Words I’ve Spoken (also a response to the experience of covid lockdown), and City Shadows, which was released in January on Café OTO’s Takuroku label. I also met the amazing people at Yokohama Theatre Group, and was involved in the creation of two amazing live-streamed theatre works with them. Plus was a pleasure to work with Paul Hayes, to whom I will be always very grateful for making me feel welcome – and arranging my first performance in Tokyo with Emma Coulthard, way back in pre-Covid times. That’s not to mention all the many brilliant people I have met and worked with over the past two years, both through music and working at Sparkdojo.

All of which is also not even to touch on the personal side of the experience, soaking up this amazing place – and dealing with being far from home during this global crisis…perhaps a post for another day. I have a little time left here in Japan, but I am already looking forward to seeing all the friends and family at home later this year.

Thanks again to 文部科学省 MEXT, Tokyo University of the Arts, アイルランド大使館 - Embassy of Ireland, Japan, and Embassy of Japan in Ireland.