Psathas-Ukiyo (SPCD)-V/M/CD

Ukiyo for marimba, vibes, and digital audio playback (CD) was composed by John Psathas on commission by Jeremy Fitzsimons (with funding support from Creative New Zealand and Chamber Music New Zealand). The setting for the piece comes from Zen monks and haiku poets who spoke of life in terms of a transient 'floating world' ( ukiyo ), or of a dream that vanishes. In the traditional Buddhist view, our corporeal existence is one in which happening gives way to happening, illusion follows illusion, and all is nothing but a phantasm void of substance.

Tsukikage o
katte ima iku
juman-ri

I borrow moonlight
for this journey of a
million miles

(Written by Haiku poet Saikaku on the verge of his death – the eighth day of the eighth month, 1730 – at the age of seventy.)

This work for percussion duo calls for the use of two CD players which the performers are required to operate and synchronise with the music at particular points.

~ from programme note (Promethean Editions)