TOSHIO HOSOKAWA (b.1955): 3 Love Songs for Mezzo-Soprano and Alto Saxophone, MASAKAZU NATSUDA (b.1968): 2 Poems by Ryokan for Mezzo-Soprano, Saxophone and Percussion, AKIRA IFUKUBE (1914-2006): 3 Eclogues after Epos Among Ainu Races for Voice and Percussion, ICHIRO NODAIRA (b.1953): Dashu no sho for Voice and Alto Saxophone, FUMINORI TANADA (b.1961): Duo for Mezzo-Soprano and Soprano Saxophone, HACÈNE LARBI (b.1956): Matsukaze for Mezzo-Soprano, Saxophone and Percussion, RYO NODA (b.1948): Improvisation I for Alto Saxophone, BERTRAND DUBEDOUT (b.1958): Ça va commencer ça commence for Mezzo-Soprano and Soprano Saxophone, SHIMAZAKI TOSON (1872-1943): Kimi ga kokoro wa for Recitation and Percussion.

Description: This program represents a 2006 performance at the Nice Museum of Asiatic Arts (which also included dance); presumably most, if not all, of the works were commissioned for it. As the dates above show, a certain generation of Japanese composers (and a French one whose name is probably of Algerian origin) dominates the proceedings, several of whom studied in Paris and Germany with such avant-garde luminaries as Grisey, Ligeti, Donatoni, Eötvös, Ferneyhough and Boulez (while Dubedout, the other Frenchman, is a professor of electro-acoustic music and studied under Pierre Schaeffer). Hosokawa is well-known in the avant-garde field, yet his 3 Love Songs on texts of the 10th century partake more of the stillness and timelessness of medieval ritual. Ifukube's hypnotic, rhythmically compelling Eclogues stand apart from the rest stylistically although the strangeness of Japanese culture to western ears will help blur the more modern compositional methods employed by the rest of the composers represented here and leave the listener with the experience of having briefly sampled several aspects of a fascinating, "alien" culture. Transliterated Japanese/Ainu-English texts. Marie Kobayashi (mezzo), Claude Delangle (saxes), Jean Geoffroy (percussion).