Ayuo Takahashi

Ayuo Takahashi (born October 19, 1960) is a Japanese-born American composer, poet, lyricist, singer, and performer of plucked string instruments including guitar, bouzouki, Irish harp, Chinese zheng, Japanese koto, and medieval European psaltery. He is adept at adapting the ancient music of Japan, China, Persia, Greece, and medieval Europe to create a new and original music without abandoning their strict forms while simultaneously making them relevant to contemporary music styles. He has composed for classical ensembles including string quartets, piano, various chamber ensembles, and orchestra, as well as composed, produced and performed with rock, jazz and musicians of various traditional music from around the world. He has also composed many music theater pieces, some of which has been released on CD in the United States and Japan.

Biography

Much of the biography here is a summary from Ayuo's autobiography first published in Japanese on his homepage (ayuo.net) and later expanded in his autobiographical book, "Outside Society" published by Getsuyosha in Japan. This book will be published in English in 2025. Most profiles of Ayuo as seen on websites such as All Music and Tzadik are based on these writings by Ayuo.

Ayuo Takahashi was born in Tokyo and spent his early childhood traveling in Germany, Sweden, and France with his parents. His father, Yuji Takahashi, is a composer of contemporary classical music and a pianist known for premiering works by Iannis Xenakis and John Cage. Ayuo and his parents settled in New York City in 1966. Ayuo grew up listening to both the new avant-garde experimental and contemporary music and the psychedelic rock music of the 1960s. He often went to museums, art galleries, and cinemas to see exhibitions of contemporary art and the new cinema. At the same time, he also saw Japanese traditional Noh plays and heard ancient and medieval music from Japan and Europe. All these were to become important influences in Ayuo's music and music-theater pieces. Ayuo's parents divorced in 1969, and Ayuo's mother married an American of Iranian descent, Mansour Malekpour, who came from a family that performed traditional Persian music. This gave Ayuo the opportunity to hear Persian traditional music, which was also to have a lasting influence on his music.

Ayuo has composed music for films, ballet, contemporary dance, and theater. Border Line, directed by the Japanese film director Lee Sang-il in 2002, features music mostly performed alone by Ayuo.

His first book, "Outside Society, was released in 2018.

In 2020, the compilation album Kankyō Ongaku, which includes Ayuo's composition "Nagareru," was nominated for a Grammy Award.

In recent years, Ayuo's work has increasingly included music theater and chamber music mixed with dance and theatrical elements.

Recent works have been published at ayuo.bandcamp.com.

Music

Ayuo has made unique arrangements of compositions by Erik Satie, Claude Debussy, Richard Wagner, Maurice Ravel, Toru Takemitsu and other classical composers.

Ayuo's music "Eurasian Tango", was choreographed by Martin Lawrance of the Richard Alston Dance Company in England.

Lyrics

Ayuo's lyrics are often about difficulties in human relationships, especially between different cultures and between men and women. His lyrics often include scientific, literary, or historical references. He often uses texts by philosophers from Japan, the Middle East, and Europe, such as Dogen, Rumi, Kazantzakis, and others. Two of his music-theater compositions are based on a medieval Japanese Noh play by Zeami. Another music-theater composition is based on the story "Blue Eyes, Black Hair" by Marguerite Duras. There are also compositions based on mythic themes, such as the stories of Pele and Hi'iaka from Hawaii and the story of the Sun god from ancient India. Ayuo often writes on the liner notes of his CDs that he was influenced by the scholars of world myths and comparative religion, Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung.

Discography

Albums released in Japan

Carmina (1984) Silent Film (1985) Shizukani Okitegoran (1985) Memory Theatre (1985) Nova Carmina (1986) Blue Eyes, Black Hair (1995) Heavenly Garden Orchestra (1995) Songs from a Eurasian Journey (1997) Earth Guitar (2000) Stoned (2002) E No Naka No Sugata (What We Look Like In The Picture) (2006) dna (2009) Outside Society (2019) ayuo.bandcamp.com (2024)

Albums released in the US

Izutsu (2000) Red Moon (2004) AOI (2005)

Albums released in South Korea

Songs from a Eurasian Journey (1998)

Albums produced by Ayuo

Kazue Sawai/ Me to Me (Eye to Eye)(1988)

Albums released on ayuo.bandcamp.com Since 2020, there have been over 23 releases on the website ayuo.bandcamp.com. The list is growing each year.