TOMOKO MOMIYAMA  composer

I Saw Time, under a Cherry Tree

[2012, France] electro-acoustic music

 

Commissioned by Fukushima Open Sounds Project, which was initiated by a network of international radio programs in response to the ongoing nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant following the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami on March 11th, 2011, I composed an electro-acoustic piece entitled “I Saw Time, under a Cherry Tree.” The music is based on my own journey from Tokyo to Fukushima, where I visited a highly radiated forest of Bakkamiki in Minami-soma, which was the birthplace of an old and mysterious lullaby called “Kanchororin” with a group of local folk musicians, and then to Paris, where I talked with trees in the city and asked them what they thought about the situation in Fukushima. The piece utilizes field recordings from this journey as well as recordings of the sound inside Parisian trees. The composition was realized in 2012 through residencies at INA-GRM (French national institute of audiovisual–Music Research Group) in Paris and Utopiana in Geneva, in collaboration with engineers from these cities. “I Saw Time, under a Cherry Tree” has been broadcasted at various radio programs and festivals worldwide, including Festival FUKUSHIMA! and Monofonic 2014 ACSR Radio Festival.