Santur studies #1

Santur studies #2

Santur studies #3

hi /ᐠ｡ꞈ｡ᐟ\ ✿°

this is our third improvisation, recorded on the eve (29 may 2025) of our first concert together!
it's me (@lu-ci-ol) on guitar and @astra-octarine on her DIY live sampling patch.

ty 4 listening <3

Her vibrissae tickling my lips

Santur studies #4

20250705

20250707

20270708

another ambient prelude on a bach chorale.

for live electronics; performed with ableton live & max for live.


chorale_prelude no. 3

My residency at Künstler*dorf Schöppingen has been full of discoveries—both internal and external—and I truly feel I have met people and encountered ideas that will carry me for years to come. It began with artist presentations by Imane Zoubai and Sohorab Rabbey, both of which struck me like lightning. One of Imane’s slides featured her drawings. On a piece of weaving-pattern grid paper, she had meticulously drawn dots, and the way these dots formed grouping patterns created a sense of rhythm. Indeed, as Imane explained, her work is inextricably tied to the notion of music—a connection I, as a musician, deeply resonate with.

Imane also served us tea on several occasions, in the traditional Moroccan way. Sweetened green tea with mint, poured from a metal pot into glasses from a distance—creating foam on the surface of the tea—was always refreshing and calming. She explained that the foam helps protect the tea from desert sand.

My piece Tea Ceremony with Grains is a synthesis of these experiences. I studied Imane’s drawing closely and reinterpreted the patterns to create a score—something akin to the piano rolls used in player pianos. The information in the score triggers various aspects of a water-like soundscape. Part of it is a recording of Imane pouring tea from a distance into a glass; another part is digitally and artificially generated. To imitate the sound of tea being poured, the piece gradually transitions from one chord to another—a process that at times manifests as a change in brightness, and at other times as a perceivable harmonic shift.

I dedicate this electronic work to Imane Zoubai and to all the fellows and staff members I have come to know during my time at Künstler*dorf Schöppingen. I look forward to creating many more pieces like this in collaboration with the wonderful people I have met—even if we are far apart.


Tea Ceremony with Grains (Homage to Imane Zoubai)

Yoshiaki Onishi is a Japanese-American composer, conductor, and clarinetist. As a composer, he is interested in exploring a wide range of instrumental timbres and finding ways to incorporate them in musical syntaxes and forms that disrupt the sense of expectation. He has worked on commissions that have come from such festivals and organizations as Klangwerkstatt Berlin, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Takefu International Music Festival, and Gaudeamus Muziekweek, and his music has been performed by ensembles worldwide, including New Japan Philharmonic, Asko|Schönberg Ensemble, Klangforum Wien, Nieuw Ensemble, Distractfold Ensemble, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Quatuor Diotima and JACK Quartet. He is the recipient of the 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship, the 2018 Fromm Commission, and the Gaudeamus Prize 2011. Edition Gravis in Berlin, Germany publishes his music. As a conductor deeply engaged in promoting the music of today, he is Co-Director for the Mizzou New Music Ensemble and was one of the founding members of Ensemble Exophonie Tokyo. Other ensembles he has worked with as a conductor include Nieuw Ensemble of Amsterdam, ECCE Ensemble, Wet Ink Ensemble, Columbia University Orchestra and the University Philharmonic Orchestra of the University of Missouri. Increasingly active as a clarinetist and improviser, he has collaborated with composers George Lewis, Carolina Heredia, Oswald Huỳnh, Bret Bohman, and Andrew Crossley. Together with Santiago Beis, he plays in the Onishi-Beis Duo, an electroacoustic improvisation duo. Onishi received his doctorate in music composition from Columbia University in 2015. He is currently Assistant Professor of Music Composition at the University of Delaware School of Music. 

Profile Photo © 2015 by Stefaren.

🇨🇭🏳️‍⚧️𓆤
I compose soundscapes at the frontier of the visible. A cinematic, organic, and spectral music — like a lucid dream that disintegrates upon waking.

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