Captivating, haunting, energetic, mysterious, and above all, resourceful, these are the words that come to mind to describe the unique talent of composer Yujiro Fujii.

Who is Yujiro Fujii? Affable and forthcoming, yet hidden from view. I encountered Yujiro on Twitter and his music mesmerized me. I had a ton of questions and his breezy generosity blew through the language barrier between us. I speak no Japanese, and he made a generous effort to communicate with me in English. Yet, while Yujiro is forthcoming, he also remains enigmatically hidden. My request for a photo yielded a mere logo, pictured at the left. I only want to know him all the more.

Who is Yujiro Fuji? Here are his own words.

"YUJIROFUJII [Japanese; born March 1, 1985] is a math minimal musician. He composes by only his voice recorded by $10 USB microphone. His compositions are mostly used odd meter and polyrhythm. Then, he is very very poor."

Yet resourceful. The moment I began to play his album, 1-10, I connected with how groovy and imaginative his music is. The first track begins to reveal the story with its title, "AAAAA." The album continues with, "EEEOEEEO," and so on. Yujiro records his own voice, turning vowel combinations into threads that he weaves into a colorful, dance electronica inspired fabric.

Boundaries engender freedom. This is a general rule in art. Stravinsky wrote in his Poetics of Music that creation begins, not with inspiration, but with speculation. As the artist responds with answers to his speculation, he connects with the good answers, and that experience of emotional engagement with the good answers is the experience of inspiration. Inspiration is essential in the creative process, but it is step number two. The blank notebook is daunting because it in fact has no possibilities. Possibilities emerge the moment you draw a box on a page. That moment you create a boundary; that moment is when you unleash the power to create.

You can hear this in about 5 seconds listening to Yujiro. The production is lo-fi, yet abounds in inspiration.

I interviewed Yujiro, and I share his own words because they are charming, and his artistic devotion reads loud and clear.

TS: Describe your working method. Is it graphical editing with sequencing software? Or do you notate your music? I am most interested in the way you use limited resources to create something new within technical boundaries. 

YF: I can't read or write the score, so I humming the melody or rhythm, and I record it to MIDI using sequencing software. Next, I pile up other melody and rhythm on this as possible as complexity, but as possible as minimal. Last, I replace my voice audio data with that MIDI's sound.

TS: Do you sing other than for creating your sequenced source material?

YF: No, every part is fragmentary recording data of my voice, and I use it shifted the pitch. I play guitar, bass guitar and drum a little.

TS: What is your musical training?

YF: Listening music:)

TS: Do you work as a DJ? Other musical employment? What is your gig?

YF: I haven't my gig, only sales of bandcamp. I'm very grateful for every buyer! Of course, I'm encouraged by free downloader too :) I'm working as a web administrator of the company. I make and update the website, etc.

TS: Who are your musical inspirations?

YF: Mainly, I inspired by progressive metal and dance music. Progressive metal has complex rhythms. Dance music has elation by repetition. I like both, and I'd like to realize both feelings in my composition. Recently, I listen nu-jazz like Avishai Cohen and post-classical like Florent Ghys. They are so creative!

TS: Where do you want to go with your music?

YF: It is okay without going anywhere, because music take me everywhere. If I had to choose, Cuba. I'm interested in socialism.

TS: What are you passionate about besides music?

YF: I'm interested in alternative lifestyle. In Japan, some people are live in the tiny house builded themselves.

1-10​ is available on Bandcamp.

Teaser on Soundcloud.

Yujiro Fujii on the web: yujirofujii.net.

Following up on my review of Non-Tonal Technical Studies for Piano (found here), I interviewed author Tonino Miano. Tonino talks about his ground breaking book and demonstrates his studies.

Visit Tonino and purchase the book at www.nontonalpiano.com or Amazon.

Imagine you take a vacation to a familiar, secluded destination. You've been here many times before. You know the sights, the sounds. Your old stomping grounds soothe you. One day you go on a hike.

This time you notice a trail you have never taken. You wonder where it leads, and you explore it. After a while, you break out of the brush and discover a beautiful valley you never even knew about. New trees and vegetation, critters you didn't see on your other hikes. Creeks, rocks, and in the distance, mountains that must be riddled with caves. How deep are they? Where do they go? Your well trod vacation refuge acquires a fresh dimension, and you are surprised to experience wonder again.

This is the gift author Tonino Miano has given you, the pianist, in his rich and expansive Non-Tonal Technical Studies.

Miano's Studies map a vast terrain of uncharted keyboard territory. The composers of the 20th century forged these trails. Miano's Studies now catalog them systematically across two volumes. This is Hanon and Coker for the 21st century. The exercises drill non-tonal structures in myriad permutations of seemingly endless fascination. The piano keyboard looks now both familiar and wondrously new. Miano's Studies are much more than finger drills. They excite your mind and stimulate your vision of what it means to master the piano keyboard.

The relevance and scale of Tonino Miano's Non-Tonal Technical Studies assure a place for it on the music racks of you and your students, on the shelf of the piano reference library, and in the history of piano pedagogy.

Non-Tonal Technical Studies website

Last year I finally picked up Thayer's Life of Beethoven, which had been sitting on my shelf daring me to read it since way back in college. It was very interesting. I loved reading about Beethoven's style of playing and conducting and his opinions about other composers and musicians. It was also instructive to see just how mundane the life of even a great artist could become when reduced to receipts and family bickering.

What I dwelled on the most, though, was speculation about what it would have been like to have played for him. What would he have told me about how I play his Op. 109 or Op. 110 piano sonatas? How inspiring that would have been!

Then it hit me. If it would be so cool to play for a composer, what's stopping me? Go find some composers to play for right now. That was the provocation for Tangent Shores. I did find composers and I'm producing my first release of new music, Amethyst, right now.

I just demoed Joseph Prestamo's Ballade for him. Joey's music is ravishing and he was very encouraging. How satisfying it is to connect with the creator of the music I'm presenting. So far, I have demonstrated for the composers 80% of the music I'm recording for my next CD; in addition to Joey's Ballade, music of Garrett Shatzer, Richard Cionco, Ryan Suleiman and Waddy Thompson. More to come soon...

I was a big fan of the band, Chicago, when I was kid. I loved their box set release, Chicago at Carnegie Hall. The box included a huge poster of the musicians that I glued to my bedroom wall. After their debut release, Chicago Transit Authority, the name for each of their studio albums was simply a sequential number, like a software release. I was interested up until Chicago 6. Then my enthusiasm waned. The music changed, and the novelty of the numbered releases wore off. Who could possibly identify and distinguish the contents of Chicago 15 vs. Chicago 21?

I wanted a distinctive name for the next CD I'm preparing, a program of piano music never before recorded. I ran a call for scores last year to find piano music not yet commercially released on CD that I could program and record myself. The submissions poured in! I realized I wasn't looking at just one potential CD, but rather a new life's calling. I have music for many compelling and distinctive CDs, and I have continued to cultivate friendships with composers whose work is really interesting. I wanted to unify this recording work as an ongoing artistic enterprise, so I came up with a name for the project, Tangent Shores. I like the image, it suggests far-flung, beautiful locations coming together and touching.

How to name the releases? Ten years from now, I don't want to release Tangent Shores 15. I wanted an image that is distinctive and evocative. I chose to use names of stones. Consistent with the image of Tangent Shores, stones are scattered about and plentiful. Yet they are distinctive and precious, too. I intend the imagery to be metaphorical, so I don't expect to use images of stones in my CD graphics, but rather I will employ color designs that suggest particular stones.

I'm kicking off Tangent Shores by producing Amethyst, since Amethyst starts with A. I have lots of ideas for future releases. With so much music related to the night, I could one day produce Tangent Shores - Obsidian. With so much music from women composers, I could one day produce Tangent Shores - Moonstone. Ruby, Garnet, Sand. All would make great titles for a CD and I have music to fit.

I don't think I'm going to run out of rocks, and I don't think I'm going to run out of music. I expect to keep recording this rock music until I drop.

I recommend to composers this blog post from John Mackey about music publishing. He has a pragmatic and practical take on it all.

http://ostimusic.com/blog/music-publishing/

Here are the results for my 2014 Call for Scores. I selected the compositions of nine composers to record and release on CD.

Here are the selections in alphabetical order by composer's last name.

• Talia Amar: Phantasmagoria
• Richard Cionco: Four Postcards
  
• Devin Farney: The Road Less Traveled
• Sara Graef: Nottanosti
• Joseph Prestamo: Ballade
  
• Garrett Shatzer: Three Preludes
• Ryan Suleiman: Under Moonlight
  
• Waddy Thompson: Seasons of New York
• Mark Zuckerman: Coming in Thirds
  

 
Congratulations! And thank you; I'm having a ball learning this music.