Music from the conversation with nature.
The newest Marginalia with early summer moments.
Masakatsu Takagi, an artist / musician living in a satoyama. His series of works, Marginalia, has been ongoing since 2016. It documents improvisational sessions between the piano and the chirpings of birds and insects coming from the windows of his house. The newest of the series, Marginalia VI, includes songs recorded from 2023 to 2024. They are titled with the recording date, which tells us that many of them were recorded in early summer. It was a new experience for him that, though the materials are selected from daily recordings of these years, the album wears a certain seasonal color by chance.
“I have never sorted recorded materials in terms of the season, so I thought it was interesting. Living in the mountains, you see petals of cherry blossoms flying to the mountaintop in the wind in spring. Watching it, I feel that spring seems to relay life to new. Then, it is the early summer with the fresh green of new leaves that makes me feel like the beginning of a new life.”
As the session responds to the sounds of nature, naturally, climate change these years has influenced the performance. Marginalia also functions as the fixed-point observation toward the environment.
“Yes, I have sensed some change in climate through 7, 8 years of sessions. The chirpings of birds and insects change accordingly. For instance, this year, I did not hear cicadas chirping that much. And the scenery around here is resembling that of South East Asia. So, I feel I play more songs that I think I’d like to have heard in the soundtracks of my favorite naive Asian movies.”
When he started Marginalia, he just didn’t feel right to step in the sounds resonating from mountains with the piano. What kinds of touch or melody enable the piano to blend into them? There could be chances for “the messy sounds” by people to make the mountain fall silent. But now, you hear the harmony between the piano of Takagi and the symphony of mountains. Listening to this album, you will find that the chirping of birds and insects sounds like an instrument, and the piano by Takagi or his occasional vocals sounds like a chirping of new species of birds or insects.
“Sounds from outside are so loud that to record in a good balance, it is better to get the piano touch to sound less or almost none. Then, singing along with this touch, my voice is rarely to be heard. Accordingly, getting the right sound from my voice requires tightening my vocal cords. As a result, you get that vocal sound.”
The uniqueness of Marginalia depends not only on the field recording of nature but also on documenting the interrelations with people living there. Among the songs of this album, “#138 July 21, 2023 (18:40)” is impressive in particular. The chirping of Higurashi cicadas and piano. And there come in Takagi’s humming and his young son’s voice. Soon after, his son started touching keys to accompany his father. Its documentation in the song, of beautiful scenery and a fruitful time seems like a film.
“Throughout the day, there are certain enjoyable moments for both grown-ups and kids. One moment is the evening. For example, when you go to the beach in the daytime, everybody feels free to play. But at the end of the day, everybody is watching the sunset all together. Everybody gets fulfilled with the feeling of sharing something with all. It was also an evening to record this song, and playing the piano in the room tinged with red sky made my son play along with my piano. Usually, he plays it just for fun. Higurashi chirps at the right moment. It is a moment for everything to mingle naturally, and it is a happy moment for all. I think this song well documented such a good moment.”
Probably, Marginalia is music like a red sky. It does not only document sounds of nature but also translates the sound fulfilled in nature into music by adding performances of a person. And thus, Takagi shares the resulting richness with listeners.
“I am very happy for you to feel that way. When I listen to the studio recordings, including mine, I can see the creator’s intention to “get this or that sound.” It is quite a natural consequence of the studio recordings. But because the mountains are crowded with sounds, I do not feel that need. I think such a diversity of sounds in the mountains should be represented in my work. So I erase my longing, my self. That might be my current goal.”
