Takumi Ikeda

*2023 stock* This CD documents a series of works that I call "Musical Procedure." In composers' usual works, the sounds to be performed are written in a score; but in these pieces the procedures (which could also be called programs, algorithms or specification sheets) for shaping music, such as performance methods and the general ideas of the works, are written as concisely as possible, and the type of sound to be produced is left largely to the performers.

The score is merely an arrangement of tools for creating music, and the musicians are always the subjects who produce the music. They are expected not just to execute what is written down, but to use what is written to create their own music. The result can be likened to an ants' nest or a beehive constructed in a procedural way without a blueprint.

In the works of Musical Procedure, an inevitable result of the composition method is that the influence of specific musical genres is to some extent removed, with the exception of aspects like instrumental playing methods. (Omitting the concept of notes is possible, too, as in the first piece in "Trio.") The idea behind the works is that awareness of patterns precedes sound image. For this reason, the pieces also suggest an approach to music that is independent of context, or neuro-atypical. Since the current world situation calls for constraints on group activity, it seems to me that the possibilities of music like this, which keeps a distance from groups, will further increase the significance of considering this approach.