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crystal growth for flute, piano, violin and cello with light amplification (2024)
RMA-SMI-EADH CONFERENCE 2026
Hard Rain Soloist Ensemble Concert, @ Sonic Lab, SARC, 4 Cloreen Park, Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, 31 August 2026
Conducted by Paul McCusker and Premiered by Hard Rain Soloist Ensemble
crystal growth is an ensemble piece for flute, piano, violin and cello, composed in 2024 and lasting approximately 12 minutes. The piece takes its conceptual starting point from the physical process of crystal growth, in which ordered structures emerge through the accumulation of atoms or molecules, beginning with nucleation and continuing through distinct modes of development.
The piece is organised into three main parts, reflecting three growth mechanisms observed in crystallography: diffusion, surface attachment, and evaporation. These processes inform both the large-scale formal design and the local sonic behaviour of the piece. The composition consists of twenty short sections, which articulate gradual transitions between states of instability and structural coherence.
Different crystal structures, such as cubic, hexagonal, and tetragonal forms, are translated into contrasting musical materials and rhythms. Harmonics, multiphonics, and a wide range of extended instrumental techniques are employed to explore variations in density, spectral focus, and timbral articulation. Light amplification is used where necessary to enhance subtle timbral details and quiet extended techniques, without significantly increasing the overall loudness.
The ensemble is treated as an acoustic system, in which material behaviour and instrumental resistance shape the music at multiple temporal scales. The piece focuses on microstructures and emergent sonic relationships through which ordered forms arise, transform, and dissolve.
ǝsɹǝʌǝɹ engineering for piano, mixed media and live electronics (2025)
Contemporary Piano Showcase #3@Monten Hall Tokyo, 17 January 2026 14:00, 19:00
Commissioned and Premiered by Masanobu Shinoda, Sound Engineer: Ko Sahara
ǝsɹǝʌǝɹ engineering consists of three sections: acoustic piano, piano with transducers, and piano with granular synthesis. Each section is divided into three subsections, exploring two contrasting musical characters. The piece is written throughout in 5/16, with each stave representing ten seconds.
The first section is performed solely on acoustic piano. Its musical material is shaped through changes of register, rhythm and gesture, with each ten-second stave forming a larger phrase.
In the second section, transducers are installed on the instrument, allowing the piano itself to function as a loudspeaker and resonating body. Reversed sounds and recordings are transmitted back into the instrument, while a metallic chain further alters its timbre.
The third section reflects the title through an inversion of the reversed material from the opening section. Granular synthesis is employed in Max, using recordings from the second section that are layered and reassembled in real time, transforming the material into discrete sonic grains.
The work is constructed from eight registers of eleven notes, with different electronic effects assigned to each register from the second section onwards. Across the three sections, the same musical material is progressively reconfigured through acoustic, physical and digital processes.
The piece explores how sound can be taken apart, reversed and reconstructed, reflecting the idea of ǝsɹǝʌǝɹ engineering embedded in its title.
Dreams You Dream When You Grow Up
Suite for a Set of Drawings (2017)
Commissioned by the the Pranks, 31 January 2018 @ the Tokyo Operacity Recital Hall
Premiered by Reiko Manabe (fl/b.fl), Kaoru Nishimura (cl/b.cl), Yukiko Yasuda (pno/object), Kei Sakota (vln) and Hirokazu Natsuaki (cello)
Dreams You Dream When You Grow Up was commissioned as a suite for a series of twenty pictures. However, after I had begun sketching the music, some of the titles and the order of the pictures were changed, and as a result there are several differences between the final picture series and the musical suite.
Originally, the final picture was entitled Epilogue. I therefore conceived the opening Prelude (Prologue) around a motif performed in a clockwise direction, while the Epilogue was designed around a contrasting motif moving anticlockwise.
Pictures Nos. 14–16 originally shared the title Interlude. For these three movements, I treated the images and their titles as motifs associated with the individual instruments and combined the three pieces into a single continuous work. The remaining movements were composed in response to the titles and visual impressions of the individual pictures, using a variety of motifs and contemporary instrumental techniques.
As my usual notation did not seem appropriate to the visual character of the pictures, I explored alternative forms of notation using lines, geometric shapes, numbers indicating frequencies, and rhythmic notation, seeking to establish a closer connection between the music and the images.
Each movement lasts between approximately thirty seconds and two minutes, while the complete suite lasts around twenty-five minutes. The entire process, from the initial conception to completion, took almost six months. I invite listeners to experience the music while looking at each picture, with particular attention to the instrumentation associated with each image.
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