# Somei Satoh: Kyokoku (From The Depth of Silence)



## Doommarine (Sep 1, 2013)

Hi!, I want to share this awesome track.






I know, this is not classical, but is an awesome orchestral and vocal work.


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## earlybard (Sep 4, 2013)

Some info on Satoh for the lazy:


> Somei Satoh has emerged as one of Japan's most highly acclaimed composers. Filtered through Toru Takemitsu's cross-cultural prism, his work shares similarities with the post-Minimalism of composers such as Arvo Pärt and Henryk Gorecki as well as the sacred music of iconoclasts such as John Tavener. All this to say that Satoh's music is dramatic, powerful and unabashedly gorgeous without descending to melodrama and the wearing of his heart on his sleeve.


Brief program notes:


> Kyokoku (2001) was commissioned by Thomas Buckner. It is a work that should be considered to be for orchestra with voice, the vocal part is intended not to be in the foreground, rather it is to be a part of the entire musical fabric. The slow tempos of Kyokoku are typical of Satoh's mature oeuvre, but here the punctuations offered up by the percussion battery invoke a number of musical images including the ceremonial percussion of the composer's Japanese heritage.


The sound tapestries are so disjunct, they feel like movements themselves. I sort of understand the percussion punctuations as a form of insight and context. ["Sakura" at 10'00"]


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