On track: Zen and the art of 'gardener of music'

By WILLIAM DART

Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996) was one of the great figures of 20th-century music, and one of the first composers to make us aware of new voices coming from the East.

The philosophies of this man, best known for his scores to such Kurosawa films as Ran and Dodeskadan, were perfectly in tune with the likes of American John Cage.

"Music is either sound or silence," the Japanese composer once wrote. "As long as I live I shall choose sound as something to confront a silence."

There are 72 minutes of exquisite sound (and silence) on the new Naxos recording of Takemitsu's chamber music - you will fall under their spell in the first few seconds of the opening track, And Then I Knew 'Twas Wind, with its harp notes pinging and then floating away to nothingness.

Written as a companion piece for Debussy's Sonata for flute, viola and harp, its heady rushes of colour and lyrical episodes are exquisitely balanced by flautist Robert Aitken and his colleagues from Toronto New Music Ensemble.

Debussy was a major influence on Takemitsu, who would go on to create his own world of Zen Impressionism, but the here and now is also important, the natural world that lay around the composer.

Titles like Rain Tree, Toward the Sea and Rain Spell are typical of a man who gained so much inspiration from nature that he would happily call himself a "gardener of music".

Water is a prime element in Takemitsu's soundworld and present in many forms on this CD.

Rain Tree uses vibraphone and two marimbas to portray it in an almost minimalistic fashion.

The three pieces of Toward the Sea, given a stirring performance by Aitken on alto flute and Norbert Kraft on guitar, find their inspiration in Melville's Moby Dick and the sea off Cape Cod.

While this music tends towards the contemplative, there are particularly intriguing colours to be found in Bryce, a work with personal connections for the group (it was written for percussionist Robin Engelmann's son).

Its tangy blend of tremolo marimba, two harps and shakuhachi-styled flute is simply irresistible.

* Toru Takemitsu: Chamber Music (Naxos 8.555859)