Cosmetic Dance (2007)
Accumulation of sound, using repetition and limited pitches

Clouds Merging into the Sea, Islands Floating in the Sky 2 (2015)
Getting as close as possible, and then inside--"Clouds Merging into the Sea, Islands Floating in the Sky" is a quartet for hichiriki, sho, shamisen and piano. The piano part serves as the base of the piece.

Containing Time (2016) for 2 pianos
Into the moment of time
Homage to Erik Satie
An exploration of metrical structure and phrasing

View from the Round Window 2 (2018)
Signs and spaces of "connection" are placed in the front through rests and pedaling, while sounds and phrases are set in the back--a time which is both enormously long and just a moment.
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The four tracks on this album are piano pieces I composed between 2007 and 2018, performed by pianist Satoko Inoue. A live recording of a 2018 solo recital by Inoue-san has been newly mastered for this release.

The three tracks other than "Containing Time" are pieces I composed for Inoue-san. Around 2007, when I wrote "Cosmetic Dance," I often went to her concerts, as I liked the way she played. One day soon after I'd finished the composition, I went to hear her perform. After the concert, the composer Masamichi Kinoshita introduced me to Inoue-san and I handed her the just-completed score. This occasion led eventually to my writing "Clouds Merging into the Sea, Islands Floating in the Sky 2" and "View from the Round Window 2," and Inoue-san giving their premieres and repeat performances in Japan and other countries.

The composition methods for the four pieces varied--actually, they were quite different from one another. For instance, I used dice in composing "Cosmetic Dance," and for "Clouds Merging into the Sea, Islands Floating in the Sky 2" I took the piano part of an ensemble piece and rewrote it as a solo work. In "Containing Time" I applied an inverted metrical structure, while in "View from the Round Window 2" I made conscious use of pedaling and rests. At the foundation of these diverse compositional techniques, however, is a consistent and unchanging interest in the moment when sound vanishes. To capture this moment, I've committed myself to intentionally taking a multi-angled approach using different methods when composing works for piano. I listen to the moment when sound is vanishing even more closely than to the moment when sound is born. In the moment of vanishing, there's an instant when sound emerges. Sometimes it vanishes literally "instantly," and sometimes I feel that an instant contains an enormously long period of time. In some cases I don't feel the flow of time at all. In each work, the accumulation of these instants becomes the piece's characteristic time and a sort of closed world. If gathering and arranging four closed "times" in one CD results in a landscape that expands out from between these closed worlds, then I'll be quite happy. (Yuka Shibuya / translation by Cathy Fishman)

このアルバムは、2007年から2018年に作曲したピアノ曲４曲を収録。演奏はピアニスト・井上郷子。2018年のソロリサイタルでのライブ音源を、今回新たにマスタリングした。《時の箱》以外の３曲は、井上さんのために作曲した作品。《コスメティック・ダンス》を作曲した2007年頃、私は井上さんの演奏が好きでよく演奏会へ足を運んでいた。曲が完成してまもなくの、とある日も井上さんの演奏を聴きに行った。終演後、作曲家の木下正道さんが私を井上さんに紹介してくれた。私は完成したばかりの楽譜をお渡しした。この出来事がきっかけで、私はその後《海にとける雲、空にうかぶ島２》、《円窓からの眺め２》を書き、井上さんはその度に国内外で初演と再演を重ねてくださった。

収録曲４曲の作曲方法はそれぞれ、かなり異なる。例えば《コスメティック・ダンス》ではサイコロを使い、《海にとける雲、空にうかぶ島２》はアンサンブル曲のピアノパートを応用してソロ曲に書き換えた。《時の箱》では反転させた拍節構造を用い、《円窓からの眺め２》ではペダルと休符を意識的に使用した。だが、異なる作曲方法の根底に一貫して変わらない興味がある。それは「音が消えゆく瞬間」への興味だ。この瞬間を捉えるために、あえて違う方法で様々な角度からアプローチしていくことが、ピアノ曲を作曲する時の私の約束事になっている。音が生まれる瞬間よりも音が消えゆく瞬間を聴く。音が消えゆく瞬間に立ち現れる一瞬がある。言葉通りはかなく消えゆくときもあれば、一瞬のうちにとてつもなく長い時間を感じることもある。時間の流れさえをも感じないこともある。各作品はそれらの瞬間による蓄積が作品固有の時間となって、ある種非常に閉じた世界になっている。４つの閉じた時間がこの１枚のCD に収められ並べられることで、閉じた世界と世界のあいだからひろがっていく景色があったなら嬉しい。(渋谷由香)
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Ftarri has launched the sublabel Ftarri Classical, specializing in composed works in the contemporary classical genre. The label's first release is Works for Piano, by composer Yuka Shibuya and pianist Satoko Inoue. Yuka Shibuya was born in Kyoto in 1981. She graduated from the composition department of Tokyo University of the Arts and went on to receive a doctorate from that university's graduate school. Shibuya has participated in festivals and events inside and outside Japan--including the Takefu International Music Festival (Echizen, Fukui Prefecture), Thin Edge New Music Collective Presents: Ongaku [2019] (Toronto), and Music from Japan [2020] (New York)--through which her works have been performed by musicians from Japan and other countries. Kobe native Satoko Inoue is one of Japan's leading contemporary classical pianists. She was a member of Jo Kondo's Musica Practica Ensemble, and started her solo career in 1991. Inoue appears in festivals and performs solo recitals in Japan and countries throughout the world.

On March 4, 2018, Satoko Inoue held her annual piano recital in Tokyo and performed four pieces by Yuka Shibuya--"Cosmetic Dance" (2007), "Clouds Merging into the Sea, Islands Floating in the Sky 2" (2015), "Containing Time" (2016), and "View from the Round Window 2" (2018). This album documents those performances. The three tracks other than "Containing Time" were written by Shibuya for Inoue. "Containing Time," a piece for two pianos, was performed with guest artist Masanobu Shinoda (piano).

While it contains four pieces, the CD is made up of eight tracks, as "Cosmetic Dance" is divided into four parts and "Containing Time" into two parts. Liner notes by Yuka Shibuya (in Japanese and English) are included.

Ftarri が現代音楽の作曲作品に特化したサブレーベル Ftarri Classical をスタート。その第一弾としてリリースされるのが、渋谷由香 / 井上郷子『Works for Piano』。渋谷由香は1981年京都生まれの作曲家。東京藝術大学卒業、同大学院博士後期過程修了、博士号取得。武生国際音楽祭 (福井県越前)、Thin Edge New Music Collective Presents: Ongaku [2019] (カナダ、トロント)、Music from Japan [2020] (米国、ニューヨーク) をはじめ国内外のフェスティヴァルやイヴェントに参加。これらを通して、彼女の作品は日本および海外の演奏家に取り上げられてきた。井上郷子は神戸出身、日本を代表する現代音楽ピアニスト。作曲家、近藤譲主宰のアンサンブル「ムジカ・プラクティカ・アンサンブル」のメンバーを経て、1991年よりソロ活動を開始。日本はもとより世界各地でフェスティヴァルに出演し、ソロ・リサイタルをおこなっている。

2018年３月４日に井上郷子は毎年恒例の東京でのピアノ・リサイタルを開催し、渋谷由香のピアノ曲を４曲演奏した。「コスメティック・ダンス」(2007)、「海にとける雲、空にうかぶ島２」(2015)、「時の箱」(2016)、「円窓からの眺め２」(2018) がその４曲で、本アルバムには、そのリサイタルでのライヴ演奏を収録。「時の箱」以外の3曲は、渋谷が井上のために書いた作品である。２台のピアノのための作品である「時の箱」では、篠田昌伸 (ピアノ) が客演している。

「コスメティック・ダンス」 が４パート、「時の箱」が２パートにそれぞれ分かれているため、CDは４曲収録だが、８トラックで構成される。