Colors in the Diary
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley June 11, 2016
Artist – Marika Takeuchi
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When Takuchi plays she sees the notes as colours in her mind. Similarly when she sees a beautiful scene this also transposes into notes of music. As she has been diagnosed with ‘synesthesia, a neurological condition, she uses this phenomenon to be able to create music which blends all the aspects of the magnificence of colour and life together in a drifting, slowly enhancing journey to peace and joyfulness.
As a composer she has managed to capture the essence of whatever has motivated her to create the music. In Green Fields, her inspiration comes from the green fields of spring after a long cold winter. You immediately feel your spirit lift with the delicate notes played with joy and a sense of open space, rebirth and light all around.
By contrast and yet with that delicacy of touch, Blue Falls relates to the times in between the seasons when the grey skies are slowly moving into the landscape, leaves are changing colours, letting all know change is coming.
Sparkling notes dance out of the piano with White Mountain when you can easily imagine the white and mysterious nature of snow covered mountains after a fresh snow fall; the sheer majesty and glory seen over the snow-scape as perhaps, a ray of sunshine dances across the pristine whiteness.
Nostalgia is written as she remembers time and place in her home country of Japan, a place of her culture, family roots and childhood; structured, precises, with a lovely depth of colour, you can sense and feel the many layers of Japanese culture tucked subtly amongst the notes.
In this her fourth album, she works with Eugene Friesen, world-renown as one of the top new-age cellists, Si-Jing Huang , an acclaimed violist and member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra as well as the much lauded Will Ackerman as producer of this beautiful, evocative album.
As the music is based in passion, seen and sensed in colou, transcribed into sound with a precise, elegant and emotive touch, the alchemy created as it is all drawn together in a wondrous pot-pourrie of colour and sound, cannot fail to reach out, to touch, to heal and most importantly, simply to be enjoyed.