Mamoru Fujieda

Mamoru Fujieda is a Japanese post-minimalist composer, and Edition Omega Point releases some of his work from the early '80s. Both "Radiated Falling" (1980) and "The Art Of Fugue" (1981) are tape compositions in which sound materials of a prepared piano are electronically-processed and modulated in various ways. "Radiated Falling" is based on "Falling Scale No. 2" for piano (1975). The series of works entitled "Falling Scale" are composed almost entirely of descending scales as their structural elements. In these works, patterns are automatically produced by the difference in the number of scale tones or through the temporal discrepancy made when the tones descend. In "Falling Scale No. 2," a spiral line is successively transformed. The artist piled up the spiral line in several layers with the uneven timbres of the prepared piano producing sound materials for "Radiated Falling." The sound materials were then transformed to layered sonic textures through the ring modulator, the phase shifter, the harmonizer, and various delay processes. "The Art of Fugue" is based on a simple fugue in four voices from the first piece in The Art Of Fugue by J. S. Bach. The four voices were randomly cut into fragments, which were then reassembled to form four new voices. Each of the voices played by a differently prepared-piano was recorded on a multi-track recorder to produce sound materials for the piece. The sound materials for the prepared piano were then electronically-modulated and spatially processed. The randomly cut fragments of the fugue are interwoven at different tempos to make it "The Art Of Fugue" on the brink of collapse.