37 haikus transformed into sonic form by composer Tim Hodgkinson (Henry Cow) and vocalist Atsuko Kamura (Frank Chickens).

In the spring of 2023, experimental music composer Tim Hodgkinson began receiving a sequence of daily translations of Japanese haikus from poet Harry Gilonis. Spanning the 17th to 20th centuries, the haikus presented a series of contrasting images and juxtapositions that invited fluid interpretations of the changing seasons and the wide world through their suspended analogies. Inspired by these poems, Hodgkinson set out to present the classic haikus in a contemporary musical context.

Out tomorrow on legendary Osaka-based label em records, Haiku In The Wide World is a collection of 37 song poems featuring vocalist Atsuko Kamura of the legendary Japanese punk pop performance group Frank Chickens. Spoken and sung in both English and Japanese by Hodgkinson and Kamura, the compositions expand the celebrated Japanese literary form into gorgeous musical fragments.

Tim Hodginkson writes in the liner notes:

“It was the self-contradicting aspect of these poems that gradually sank in. There was a change, but the old situation was still there. Some signs pointed one way, but other signs pointed the opposite way. Something still was in fact moving and something moving turned out to be still. It was difficult to see something. Two things were going on at the same time but without fitting together. An act of observation irremediably disturbed its object. There was a lack of a hoped-for connection. Something symbolic turned out not to symbolise anything. A single thing had two quite different effects. Aspects of the same object looked at one another with displeasure. And so on.”

Sonically, these 37 short pieces draw from more free improvisation than a direct setting of the texts, often using space and texture as compositional tools to create tension, release, and counterpoint. Hodkinson’s clarinet, piano, and other sound sources are joined by french horn, viola, violin, cello, acoustic guitar, and, of course, Atsuko Kamura’s shape-shifting vocals. Purposely not tied to any particular genre, technique, or sound world, the compositions present “a whole world of musical thought, both global and contemporary, counterposing it to a tradition deeply marked by the exact phases of Japanese cultural history.”

Reading through the haikus, these two reflections on the end of winter and the coming of spring feel particularly relevant to our current times…

• spring is beginning
• unhurriedly as a crane’s
• one step at a time

Kuroyanagi Shōha (1727-72)

• loving the wide world
• yet in dread of humankind
• winter cold lingers

Murakami Kijō (1865-1938)

Pre-order the album via our online shop: https://insheepsclothinghifi.com/product/tim-hodgkinson-atsuko-kamura-haiku-in-the-wide-world-2lp/

Join us Thursday, April 17th from 4-6pm at Estuario in Highland Park for a listening party where we’ll play Haiku In The Wide World in its entirety. We’ll have copies of the album available for sale!