Listeners of Japanese percussion music are sometimes frustrated by the lack of recordings available in mainstream distribution. Years ago while shopping through the bins at the now-defunct Tower Records store on Wabash Avenue in Chicago, I purchased Ground: Sound Space for Percussion III by Sumire Yoshihara. Recently, to my delight, I rediscovered this recording in my collection and wanted to write a few notes about the recording.
Ground: Sound Space of Percussion III (Camerata 32CM-314) is a collection of abstract Japanese percussion works, including Ground for solo percussion by Norio Fukushi, Ichinogotoshi I and II for percussion solo by Masanori Fujita, and Dolcissima Mia Vita, Op. 16 for metallic-percussion solo by Yoshio Hachimura.
The recording presents moving interpretations of each work that are filled with energy. The most challenging technical passages are executed smoothly, with resolve, and in this listeners opinion, appropriate to the genre. The highlight of this recording for me is in the last thirty-seconds of the title track Ground where Yoshihara's command of her technical facilities is displayed while playing on a high-pitched wood.
Two color photographs and three black-and-white photographs of the performer are attractively set throughout the 12-page booklet. The first two tracks were recorded in analog and re-mastered digitally; the remaining three tracks are entirely digital. Liner notes are provided in Japanese with English translation, and engineering, production, recording equipment, dates, and locations are also provided.
Ms. Yoshihara's recording may be lesser-known in the United States, but this recording, if a representation of her playing as a whole, should put her on-par with any other great percussionists.
Labels: 2007, critique, recordings, sumire yoshihara
