Various - Keiko Harada: Midstream

Keiki Harada�s music does not engage with loudly articulated superficialities, but with a kind of communication achieved without words. This process is at the centre of her work, and listeners can directly participate by opening themselves to the resulting sound. The composition midstream+ for trombone and accordion (2004/2008) � like almost all the other works on this CD � is an example of Harada�s attempt to form a sense of musical commonality between two instruments with strikingly different sound qualities. Harada carefully develops situations for the collision of individual musical spaces. Working with Harada�s scores requires from the performers not only enormous technical mastery, but also a completely open, concentrated, and communicative awareness of the performing partner. It also requires a high degree of self-awareness, which relates to the body�s awareness of sound. Because the composer emphasizes that her work demands from the players � and one might add, from the listener as well � love and respect towards music.