LOP NUR，for 10 Players（2022）

op Nur is a lake shrouded in mystery. In former times it used to appear as if wandering through the nigh inaccessible desert, sometimes revealing itself and sometimes disappearing once again in a process repeated over and over again. It was this lake that fostered the now extinct city of Loulan, whose precise whereabouts are still a matter of conjecture. Perhaps this exotic city is wandering beneath the earth of our increasingly dilapidated planet, or perhaps it lurks in the far-away desert present within the spiritual world of its inhabitants.
Lop Nur was once a beautiful and abundant lake although it is not my intention in this work to portray its mysterious beauty. Rather, what I have tried to do is to depict a fervent desire to witness the reappearance of Lop Nur and by extension to express the mentality of those of us living today and of the Earth itself as it undergoes an ongoing process of desertification.
The work as a whole is constructed on the basis of the opening droplet-like flute motif and its proliferation. The mood vacillates extensively with a wide variety of modes being incorporated into the sound structure.
Ensemble Nomad is a group of musicians intent on exploring the soul of music over a wide geographical area. When I set about writing a new work for this unique and outstanding ensemble, it was the lake of Lop Nur, located in Xinxiang province in north-western China, whose image had lain dormant within my mind, that provided me with inspiration. Lop Nur has thus come back to life through its encounter with these musical nomads, who willingly travel into unexplored regions. I composed the work in the summer and autumn of 2022 while preoccupied with such desires and visions.
This work is dedicated in a spirit of respect and celebration to Ensemble Nomad to mark the ensemble’s 25th anniversary and its increasing prominence on the world stage and to the ensemble’s inspirational leader, Norio Sato. (From the program notes for the work’s première)