Susumu Yokota – Symbol

Susumu Yokota moved back to the suburbs of Tokyo after living in Europe, where he told one writer that he visited the mountainside a few times a week. ‘The smell of grass and trees, the air in the woods makes my mind clear,” he said, “‘and it gives good effects for making music. Walking amongst the big trees, I can hear my heartbeat and the echoes of the earth.’ For “Symbol,” Yokota didn’t mince words when it came to titles. Exploring philosophical ideas, myth and the natural world, tracks include “Song of the Sleeping Forest,” “Blue Sky and Yellow Sunflower” and “Symbol of Life, Love and Aesthetics.” The album was primarily composed using samples from classical orchestral pieces, such as Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite and Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals, as well as more modern compositions by John Cage and Meredith Monk.

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