You recently moved from Tokyo to the Miura Peninsula.

 

Yes, Miura is wonderful. Fresh air, the sound of waves and insects. I downsized my studio, got rid of 800 cables (laughs).

 

Does a change of environment mean musical changes as well?

 

I don't know about that. Probably not much.

 

How were your Cuba performances last autumn?

 

The idea was to alternate Bach and "Pentatonica", and we did three great shows! Appeared in the Havana Contemporary Music Festival, then gave a workshop at the University of Music. There were many people playing jazz as well as classical, performing at culture centers and the like. Nights were pitch black, a very likable place.

 

Coming up next is the much-awaited Sumida Triphony Hall performance. Is everything on course?

 

We've already done three rehearsals. We were commissioned as part of Triphony Hall’s ongoing Goldberg Variation series. My work consisted of deconstructing each piece, extracting the sounds I heard, and re-arranging them. The performance will be the Saxophonettes plus four contrabassists. All players will do a few more rehearsals before the concert. The program will center on the Variations, but I might add some improvisation of my own if the overall format allows.

 

Do the Variations continue in the same vein as the Bach Cello Suites or your own original "Pentatonica" or the soundtrack for the silent film "Orochi" the year before last?

 

For me, the time for any major musical upheaval has pretty much passed by now, so within a largely constant scheme of things, more than concentrating on technical or structural aspects, I'm trying to situate myself in a broader relationship with my music. With Bach, for instance, rather than taking a Western approach toward traditional Western music, I want to stay as true to my physical sensibilities as I can, inclusive of technique and structure. Japanese traditional music comes from a totally different place, after all. It’s not a question of technique or composition, good or bad; it’s the sensibility, the way in which one relates to the music… Western musicians take an approach rooted in Western logic, whereas different principles hold in Japanese music, though I myself am neither one way nor the other. You could even say that although I'm more accustomed to Japanese sensibilities, I'm somewhere in-between. Even the way we appreciate things differs between Japan and the West. So when I work with Bach, I'm especially careful to trust my own sensibilities. Living in Japan, dealing with all kinds of music, the way I live here has been distilled into my Bach and pentatonic music… so obviously it’s not your typical "Bach purist" Bach.

 

Many people have, as performers, taken up the works of Bach the composer. But you face the works both as composer and performer.

 

As I see it, it’s okay for a performer to try to embrace something of the composer’s thinking, but in doing so it might be better to embrace the feeling of being a composer oneself. Paying special attention to the sensibilities of one’s birthplace and upbringing. Not that I advocate free interpretation, it’s more a matter of coming to terms with the constraints of one’s own being.

 

I'm reminded of an episode involving Nadia Boulanger teaching Egberto Gismonti. Gismonti had gone to France to study music, but Boulanger told him, "Debussy studies are fine, but you really ought to go home to Brazil and listen more to your own country’s music." Whereupon Gismonti went back to Brazil, "discovered" the sounds of the Amazon, and started creating his own music. Do you consciously try for a non-Western approach?

 

Japanese or not aside, the combination of Bach and saxophone is my own personal idiosyncrasy. Some may criticize me, but I hope to keep on creating and playing like this as long as I can. I enjoy the odd strains of humor in it.

 

Performing Bach as well as your own compositions, instead of adhering strictly to the cult of original creations, we get a better picture of the character and ideas behind your music.

 

In that sense, I'm probably nothing like Toru Takemitsu. I'm sure he had his own views on what he did, but the very idea of doing Bach from out of left field with a saxophone… well, just so long as it doesn't sound cheap (laughs). Ethnomusicologist Koizumi Fumio once wrote that among conservative types there are those who say, "Why bother to mix and alter our music?" but that seems to be changing slowly. I recall, long ago when I was a child, my father played music together with all these folks who came to the house-chanson accordionists, Hawaiian steel players, Latin rumberos, choir conductors. Innocent as I was, I couldn't help thinking, how can he get along with such an odd assortment of people? It was a real mystery, yet somehow he could share with them all. I'll never forget how strange it all seemed, but then here I am, I like enka and I like contemporary composers. Whether or not this makes me happier, I have no idea.

 

Indian and Chinese non-Western music also differ from Japanese.

 

Sure. "Eidelweiss" played on a shakuhachi can give you the creeps. Even performers of traditional music in Japan are all accustomed to hearing the equal-tempered register, whereas when I hear ancient gagaku court music, the shifts in tone and pitch grab me even more than Schoenberg. The open intervals between notes is something tremendous.

 

Steve Reich always used to tell me, "Gagaku is so amazing!" Listening to Reich’s music, it seems all very calculated and logical at first, but at the same time there’s this incredible wavering, this dynamic of phases. Reich also said, "Music with nothing out of control is boring!" He’s extremely particular about instruments and their tonal qualities, very attentive to the "sense of sound" in his works.

 

Me too, I'd say. Of course, first I write a score, then I try playing it, and if there’s a nice hazy mingling of sounds, I'm happy. Whatever the mistakes, performers have to really feel their playing come together, so I never include any notation of breaths and such. Basically, it’s more interesting for performers to figure things out on their own, so I only set the direction not the "voicing," that’s my method. Which is perhaps a Japanese way of doing things.

 

What further plans do you have?

 

Since I've written all these songs, I'd like to do some concerts outside of Tokyo, maybe also some recording. I'd also like go back to Italy.