Pianist and Composer Bernard Lhoir from Belgium meets vocalist Yumiko Takaku from Tokyo.
She combines classical western music and the traditional Japanese style of singing and song writing. Working together both musicians create a unique musical language out of the poetic power and natural simplicity of the Haikus. Western musical harmonies become the background for the precise and meaningful gesture of Zen.
Spacious Flemish landscapes, memories of tenderness, a deserted cafe at the beach, a lullaby to dream with pictures that imbibe the melancholy of fleeting time and yet are rooted in a deeper connection to the timeless. A quiet river that soon carries the listener.
Bernard Lhoir uses acoustic instruments to underline the main character of the music: It is a Pastorale, in love with nature. Soft minimalism - a cyclic repetition of musical themes - represent the cycles of nature. It makes you go with the flow and creates a specific music for meditation.
Following a classical education at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels and specializing in composition and electronic music in London, Bernard Lhoir began his career composing for mass media (radio, television, advertising) and produced 2 CDs of his own instrumental music in the early nineties.
