Okuda Atsuya & Mick Sawaguchi

Oh, sooo beautiful.

It's lovely. Very well done. And so nice to see Okuda again.

Thanks Kiku! It's great to see his beautiful flutes AND the recording set-up.

I was curious and translated the Kanji through Google Translate. Here's what came up:
Forrest Gump collaboration with Masao Sawaguchi, Atsushi Okuda master and surround guru Paozhu 也氏!

Haha... what did you put into google translate??? This:

法竹の第一人者奥田敦也氏とサラウンドの巨匠澤口真生氏による一期一会のコラボレーション

My try but I am up against big forces with google

"Once in a lifetime collaboration between hotchiku master Okuda Atsuya and master Masao Sawaguchi of SOUND"

(I think SOUND must be Sawaguchi's company or the like)

I was watching this video just now and the mix of shakuhachi and nature sounds seemed like something I had heard before...waves, rustling bamboo, batta fiddling. The thought occurred to me that the batta (grasshoppers) sounded very much like the at times deafening sound that emanates from the batta around my house right now. I turned off the video just to check...the batta didn't go away or even diminish. I appreciated the concert.
I'm into the bamboo diffuser concept used in the recording set up seen in this video. I implement it in my studio with great results.

Maybe someone mentioned this before, but there's a new recording by Okuda called So-Zen recorded by Mick & Company at http://www.hqm-store.com/store/item.php?album_no=UNAHQ-2001
"On the Production of "So-Zen" Album by Atsuya Okuda

One finds something essential with Japanese traditional instruments, and it is "sawari".
"Sawari" is the intimacy to the nature as compared to the voices of cicadas in the sense that their tunes are heavily complex almost like a noise but they blend well with variety of natural sounds.

Other tunes of "sawari" are, for example, a clear click of a wind-bell or a profound bell of temples that brings us the sense of beauty and emptiness of life as well.

The fascinating character of "Hocchiku" instrument, Jinashi-nobe Shakuhachi by definition, used in this recording is its deep softness featuring "sawari".
Two-piece, Jiari Shakuhachi that is most commonly popular today is the result of pursuing the sound pitch and volume suited for ensembles at the sacrifice of tones.

The natural form of Hocchiku is rich with "sawari" bringing the tone of distance that we Japanese continued to be particular with.
The slower rise of notes and extremely fine, subtle sounds are interestingly quite audible.
Inverse proportional to the sound volume, the taste and profoundness of its tones are even more vivid.


[1] Koten Suzuru
Being also named "Godan Suzuru", referring to the episode in Sukago Innenkyo about cranes cutting their body for the sake for growing their babies, this piece was said to express the behavior of self-sacrificing parents.

[2]Honte no Shirabe
Tune to practice for long period of time. It reminds the players of the challenging subject of breathing. Other similar equivalents include the traditional piece in Fudaiji Temple of Mt.Rintaku in Hamamatsu and the piece in Meianji Temple of Mt. Kyorei in Kyoto.

[3]Nerisaji
Legendarily this set of tunes was originally composed by Shinhichi Maki who was a samurai of Kuroda domain and belonged to Hakata Icchoken school in Kyushu. Three pieces survived to date that are "Bousaji"."Yurisaji" and "Nerisaji". Saji means the Mercy of Bodhisattva that represents the spirit of Mahayana. Among "Shin","Gyou" and "Sou" in Saji,"Sou" is the most extraordinary and complex composition through repeated tempering and polishing (="neri"), and that is why it is called Nerisaji.

[4]Kyorei
The title means imaginery [=kyo] bell [=rei] and is sometimes referred as imaginery spirit. The most classical piece among the works of Fukeshu budhism sect.

[5]Kudariha-Kaede
Traditionally inherited in Kyushu area with two versions of Honte and Kaede. This recording is the piece for Kaede.

[6]Sokkan
The wind blows toward decaying bamboos in thicket. The sense of this desolateness overlaps to the state of the spirit with this tune. We overview the world through the breath, the wind, and the bamboo.

[7]Sanya
One of theories explains that this term originally meant mendicancy.

[8]Betsuden, Shika no Tone
The tune extends itself as inspired by the sound of deer that reside in distant mountains and by their behavior of running around. A challenging piece of music to play with the register as wide as 4 octaves.

[9]Shinya
Prevailing quietness in the midnight transitions to bright enlightment in the dawn.

Composer and Performer: Atsushi Okuda, Jinashi nobe Shakuhachi
Recording engineer: Mick Masaki Sawaguchi
Recorded: April, 2011 "

Is that the pole setup on the floor? And behind him? Can you explain what it is and how it works?

The poles behind him are definitely scatterers. They take any sound that comes to them and reflects it at varying intervals in time and in this case, because the bamboo is round, in varying directions. The early reflections created by this system create an interesting acoustic ambiance. Rather than deadening the sound of the instrument which absorbers do. The floor units, as far as I can ascertain, are doing the same thing. I've never seen them on the floor before, but they may work well in a larger space which the studio he's in seems to be. Here is a shot of the bamboo scattering racks that I use in my studio.

...and here's a bank of quadratic diffusers on the opposite wall.

...they basically do the same thing as the bamboo racks, but in a much more predictable way.

That is very interesting! Thanks Jeff for enlightening us! And it looks great!
I haven't yet spoken to Okuda directly about the recording session but I will post if he has some more aspects.

Thanks Jeff that's very interesting. I will look into doing that but I'm not sure what kind of bamboo we can get in Tasmania. I play in a room full of gongs, that creates a very nice acoustic.

Gongs have a very specific reverberant quality and if it works with your mix, it's great. But if you're recording say a rock band, I imagine that it could be something of a problem. Bamboo has a less obvious reverberant signature than brass and leaves less of its personal stamp on the sound. Amazing collection though Brian.
As for type of bamboo, I'm not sure, but I would guess that thicker walled is preferable.