Irisation

This portrait CD provides insight into the sensitive and exciting sound aesthetics of the composer Malika Kishino. Nature and beauty constitute the main points of reference of her oeuvre. Japanese culture and its aesthetics leave a mark on Kishino's music, yet it is futile to look for anything reminiscent of the traditional music of her home country. Nature, especially optical and visual phenomena or physical states, are an inspiration for the structure and character of her works which she herself describes as “sound organisms”.

“Rayons Crépusculaires”, for example, refers to a radial light phenomenon that shows particularly in the spatial arrangement of this composition. Three groups of musicians stand facing loudspeakers which reverberate the sounds modified by live electronics back into the room. The work which was recorded specifically for this CD is a “complex acoustic event which not only sets the space in motion but also sharpens one's hearing with regard to special tonal qualities” (Michael Struck-Schloen). Meanwhile the currents of the water and its changing states of matter are the starting points for “Sensitive Chaos”. This examination becomes more or less audible in the form of dripping sounds which later turn into more flowing structures. Another topic is the menace to nature: Kishino dedicated the choral piece “Prayer / Inori” to the memory of the catastrophe of Fukushima.