D'Haene / Reigakusha Gagaku Ensemble Music With Silent Aitake'S CD

Composer Frederic D'Haene creates a remarkable musical world in Music With Silent Aitake's. When he was 25 years old, D'Haene began his life-long fascination with gagaku music, or traditional Japanese court music, that has informed his compositional style throughout his career. This study of a musical style different from that of his own culture resulted in what the composer calls "paradoxophony" or "paradoxical coexistence." Exploring deeper territory than standard cultural crossover music might, Music With Silent Aitake's offers a splendid introduction to this distinctive style. On the one hand, he combines the sound of a Western instrumental ensemble with that of a traditional Japanese gagaku orchestra. On the other, he has invented musical material and designed a pitch structure starting from the points of tangency between the two worlds. D'Haene also composes with drones, contributing to the overall coherent impression of these compositions. The music on the album is performed by the internationally esteemed Reigakusha Ensemble and by Ensemble Modern, one of the premier new music ensembles in the world. The orchestras are conducted by Kasper de Roo, an internationally renowned interpreter of 20th and 21st-century music. Music With Silent Aitake's clearly exemplifies paradoxophony, in that the listener tends to forget that there were two separate musical worlds at the beginning of the composition. The western ensemble and the gagaku not only coexist, but they enhance one another, opening new sonic and expressive possibilities and guiding the audience into an exciting new musical universe.