In my 60s, I started composing with zero musical experience and it opened up my world—The making of 'Kagaribi Mondo'—

It started with a concert.

It was a joint concert by Akiko Yano and Hiromitsu Agatsuma.

To be honest, I hadn't been listening to Tsugaru-jamisen with any great enthusiasm until that day.

Of course, I knew it existed.

I had heard it played before, too.

But I had almost never sought it out to listen to it on my own.

However, the performance that day was different.

The sound of the Tsugaru-jamisen was much freer than I had imagined.

It was intense, sharp, and at times like percussion, yet it also possessed a mysterious lyricism.

Intertwined with Akiko Yano's free-spirited piano, its charm was even more pronounced.

Even after the concert ended, the sounds wouldn't leave my head.

After I got home, I searched for Tsugaru-jamisen on YouTube.

I listened to Hiromitsu Agatsuma's performances as well.

I also listened to recordings by various other performers.

Before I knew it, I was peering into a world I hadn't known before.

If I were younger, I think that would have been the end of it.

It was a good concert.

It was interesting music.

I would have been satisfied just thinking that.

But this time, it was a little different.

I thought I would like to express this world of sound in my own way.

It is a strange story.

I cannot play the shamisen.

I cannot play the shakuhachi either.

I am not a composer, either.

Even so, I thought, 'I want to try making it.'

Lately, things like that have been happening more often for me.

Trying to use AI.

Trying to compose music.

Trying to write a novel.

If I think of something, I just try it out for now.

I find it a bit funny myself, as I have more initiative now than when I was young.

So, I began to think about my own image of the Tsugaru shamisen.

It was not a concert hall.

It was not a stage, either.

It was a much quieter place.

A village in the mountains.

Night.

A bonfire.

A traveler.

An old man.

A tale from the past being told.

And a dialogue.

Such a scene came to mind.

From that, the title 'Bonfire Dialogue' was born.

People talking while gathered around a bonfire.

A time not for seeking answers, but for exchanging questions.

I feel like I was always searching for answers when I was young.

But now that I am in my sixties, I have come to think that taking time to savor the questions themselves is not so bad.

Once the direction of the music was decided, the trial and error with AI began.

Tsugaru shamisen.

Shakuhachi.

Wadaiko drums.

Stillness.

Negative space.

I remade it many times.

Often, it did not turn out to be the sound I had imagined.

Even so, little by little, I drew closer to the scenery that had been in my mind.

When the song was finished, I then created an image.

A night with a flickering bonfire.

The silence of the mountain village.

I tried to capture the world of the song in a single picture.

I then created a video and released it on YouTube.

And now, I am writing this note.

Looking back, it has been a mysterious journey.

Going to a concert.

Encountering the Tsugaru shamisen.

Interpreting it in my own way.

Composing a song.

Creating an image.

Making a video.

Releasing it to the world.

And writing about it.

One moment of inspiration calls for the next action, and that action leads to further creation.

When I was young, I was on the listening side of music.

That was enjoyable enough.

But now, it is different.

It doesn't end with just listening.

I want to try making it myself.

I want to try expressing myself.

I never thought such a change would come in the latter half of my life.

'Kagaribi Mondo' is not just a self-composed piece.

For me, it was the very process of a single concert transforming into creation.

Life is not as closed off as one might think.

New hobbies and new forms of expression can start from the most unexpected places.

That is why I intend to set out somewhere new again.

Because the next moving experience might just bring the next creation with it.

#LifeReignited
#OriginalComposition
#KagaribiMondo
#TsugaruShamisen
#HiromitsuAgatsuma
#AkikoYano
#AIComposition
#60s
#Creation
#note