Mono No Aware

About This Project

“Mono No Aware” is a Japanese concept that refers to a nostalgic understanding of the transient nature of things. In this acousmatic piece, a train traveler in Japan undertakes a mental voyage into fragments of past memories, that inevitably warp and overlap with each other.

Regarding its composition, “Mono No Aware” puts into practice a technique that the composer has denominated as “klangfarbensampling”, or the distribution of a timbral “melodic” line comprised of fragmented recordings juxtaposed with textural layers of sound. The distributed melody is in itself a short summary of the piece nested into the first section, portraying a non-linear approach to time.

The field recordings used in this piece were captured in Japan by the composer in the cities of Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto during November 2019. The slideshow in the background of the video are pictures of some of the recorded places.