Ensemble Nomad - Sound Dreams. Chamber Music by Hebert Vázquez (2023)

Sound Dreams is an album of great relevance to me because it brings together my closest collaborators. For over 17 years I have shared with Ensemble NOMAD a professional career that includes the recording of two monographic CDs: Bestiario (Bestiary) and Pruebas de vida (Proofs of Life), released by Urtext Digital Classics in 2011 and 2015, respectively. My long lasting collaboration with guitarists Norio Sato and Pablo Garibay as well as with shakuhachi player Reison Kuroda, shamisen player Hidejiro Honjoh and koto player Maya Kimura has been equally enriching both personally and professionally. I am convinced that this recording possesses the cohesion and warmth that can only arise from a group of friends that have been playing/ creating music together for a long time.

The idea of composing a piece for three Japanese traditional instruments —shakuhachi, shamisen and koto—, acting as soloists and accompanied by Western instruments, had its origin in one of the several conversations and projects that I have exchanged with my friend Norio Sato. We both found the expressive potential of this instrumental combination attractive. Having Ensemble NOMAD in mind, I decided to employ a chamber group made up of fmute, clarinet in Bb, guitar, piano, 2 violins, viola, cello and double bass, in which the fmute could act as an alter ego of the shakuhachi and the guitar could do the same with the shamisen and koto.

Tracklist
01. Vázquez: Interregno para dos guitarras y grupo de cámara: I. Horizonte de eventos
02. Vázquez: Interregno para dos guitarras y grupo de cámara: II. Crepúsculo
03. Vázquez: Interregno para dos guitarras y grupo de cámara: III. Purgatorio
04. Vázquez: El bosque del tengu para shakuhachi, shamisen, koto y grupo de cámara
05. Vázquez: Three Dreams para violín, violonchelo, shamisen y guitarra: I. Ninth Dream
06. Vázquez: Three Dreams para violín, violonchelo, shamisen y guitarra: II. A Labyrinth Garden in Spring
07. Vázquez: Three Dreams para violín, violonchelo, shamisen y guitarra: III. The Third Night (Soseki´s Dream)