Monday, July 1, 2024 at 7 PM on 88.1 WVPE.
Hiroya Tsukamoto uses his guitar and voice not so much to play and sing songs but to cast spells and tell stories. Each musical composition takes hold of the listener one layer at a time, establishing the rhythm and melody. Hiroya’s voice enters the composition less like a narrator and more like a series of ghosts that parade through each musical scene. Each piece is a musical meditation on a past experience, the strings sometimes sounding bell-like as if a summons to prayer. As Hiroya’s voicings summon these ghosts, the layering of the music creates an evolving story. This is music that you can dream with and disappear into. It is sonically rich and colorful and easily takes us on a journey.
Hiroya presents four different compositions: Coastline Remembrances, Wide Clear Sky, Bonfire, and Hobbamock. In each of these works, Hiroya’s voice plays a key role in setting the timbre of the piece and serves to wash the piece with a unique color. In Wide Clear Sky, the strings shimmer and sizzle, and the voice washes in to follow their pitches, hanging behind the melody as a soothing harmonic background. In Bonfire, Hiroya plucks a simple country melody to convey the bonfire traditions of a small Kyoto town – here, the voice is more straightforward and adds a spark. In Hobbamock or Sleeping Giant – a fitting tribute to the Quinnipiac people and their story of a mountain’s origin – Hiroya’s voice arises as a tribal chant and later supplies a bamboo shaker-like rhythm, “shhhhhhhhuck,” then a sweeping “woosh” to suggest waves of wind. Subsiding winds give way to a chorus of voices and soundings -- chanting and evolving to invite an entire parade of ghosts–all those spirits gone before. As these sonic veils unfold, they lead us into the ancient memory/story of naming a mountain. During the break, this episode of the radio hour also features Doug Harsch, a well-known South Bend songwriter who sweetly renders his song The Streets of South Bend – a love-lost song that tips its hat to the many “Streets of,” songs that have gone before. Following Doug, Ken Chambers, a software developer from South Bend, and Scott Compton, a cabinet maker from Bremen, compete against each other in the “Shoot the Moon” game show. During the show, they successfully answer questions tied to Hiroya’s curriculum vitae and manage to come away -- each a winner. In addition, the whole Wild Rose Moon Radio Hour Crew – Announcer Derek Jensen, Voice of Rosie, Pam Gunterman, Host George Schricker, Music Director John Bahler, and bassist Nathan Waddill contribute to the fun.