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MESSAGE on the Nostalgia CD-album debut

“TOEI Music Company” which I represent, is generally engaged in producing music records for “TOEI Film Company”. It so happened that for nearly twenty years we have been making some of our recordings in Moscow jointly with Russian symphonic orchestras. A great deal of our projects were realized in cooperation with a remarkable conductor, the late Konstantin Krimets who had introduced us to the music of many Soviet composers.

The music admirers in Japan have always had an extraordinary sincerest sympathy for Russian folk songs and classical music of Russia chiefly represented for us by great Tchaikovsky. We experienced the similar sympathy while hearing Mikael Tariverdiev music since the first time. The harmony of his melodies turned out to be surprisingly near to the Japanese heart. That’s why in our eyes he has clearly become appreciated as a contemporary successor of the prominent traditions of Russia music culture.

Twelve compositions were specially selected for this album, all recognized as well known masterpieces of Russian film music. Arrangements were written by Shuhei Kamimura, a young Japanese composer with a special emphasize for a duo of Japanese bamboo flute shakuhachi and a 3-stringed Japanese banjo-like musical instrument – samisen.

Apart from these folk instruments immensely popular in Japan, included in the compositions are many others: from Japanese drums and koto to acoustic guitar and symphony orchestra. While working on the album Shuhei Kamimura made his efforts to highlight the marvelous melodiousness and soulfulness of Mikael Tariverdiev music. It was this rich tunefulness that required so many various instruments in the arrangement.

We called our album “Nostalgia” precisely because the compositions presented in it evoked in us memories of something once familiar but nearly forgotten, longing for something dear but gone forever. Yearning for something lost, but still vaguely remembered in dreams of childhood times. Mikael Tariverdiev compositions arranged for national music instruments of Japan are a real gift not only to the genuine music lovers and admirers of this outstanding Russian composer, but also to all those interested in authentic Japanese culture.

Yukio Kitagami,
Producer (JAPAN)

HIDE-HIDE group is a performance duet of traditional Japanese music instruments.

Its name is made of two similarly sounding first characters of the participants’ names.
HIDEKI Onoue (shamisen)
HIDEKI ISHIGAKI (sakuhachi)

HIDE-HIDE - a unique feature in Japan’s music life - is rather young. In 2007 it drew a lot of attention with its solo disc released by Sony Music Direct Company. In the same year the promising band had a triumphant tour of 62 cities of Japan with the total of over 170 concerts.

This unusual creative group of young musicians playing traditional Japanese instruments presents Japanese and world classics in their own arrangement with widest range of sound: from globally known Japanese drums taiko to the stringed instruments of classical orchestra and acoustic guitar.

The ensemble has a wide concert repertory for diverse audiences, and in particular for the lovers of live sound of the acoustic folk instruments. The young musicians declare themselves to be the founders of a new music trend which they call “hyper-trad-music” meaning the evergreen national traditions continuing to develop in modern times.

Being the inheritor musicians, the young performers while working on the original album of Mikael Tariverdiev music got a new impetus for further development. The fine and exquisite fabric of the original music acquires new dimensions in the arrangements of the Japanese musicians playing Japanese instruments revealing more facets of its beauty and finesse.

Unique performing manner of the ensemble full of sincerity, mischief and vibrant energy doesn’t leave any audience untouched, since it invariably appeals only to true feelings.

SHAMISEN (literally – three strings) a plucking instrument of lute family.

SAKUHATI (literally eight saku) - longitudinal bamboo flute with five apertures. Standard length of Japanese feet or 54,5 cm defined its name: “saku” means feet, “hachi” – eight.