The Japanese word “furusato” is only loosely translatable to English, meaning “home” or “native place,” but imbued with deep nostalgia. For this work, Kotoka Suzuki was inspired by an old Japanese woman she met while volunteering as a hospital musician. This woman had left Japan to marry an American, never returning to her family, and now had lost her husband and all her friends. The thing that comforted her, both as an immigrant and in her lonely old age, was singing traditional Japanese children’s songs.

In this work Suzuki explores the peace experienced when sounds resonate with our core sense of home. She quotes three different Japanese folk songs: “Amefuri” (Rainfall), which is lighthearted and rhythmic; “Hamabeno Uta” (Song of the Seashore), which is tinged with melancholy; and “Akatombo” (Red Dragonfly), a nostalgic tune about the longing for an absent relative.

In addition to using nostalgic folksongs, Suzuki employs mixed electronics to reinforce the piece’s atmosphere of wistful recollection. The electronics feature nature sounds stimulate to memory recall, such as the sound of insects buzzing in summer grass, alongside synthetic sounds, and the motives of the live instruments.

October 2021