SAKURA by Roderick Shoolbraid

One starts with no real intentions sometimes, and after awhile the idea formulates and direction emerges. Such was the case with ’SAKURA’. Written during April and May of this year, 2023, the materials gathered from improvised sessions were interludes between the walks along the seaside, where the blossoms fell from the trees.

All of this reminded me of the visit I had to Japan for 6 months in 1998-1999. I had been listening to a lot of city pop over the winter, and thinking about my good late friend Peter Stufano. I decided to use all of this as a starting point.

I had a small library of samples of my friends playing several instruments: tabla, dumbek, kalimba, and flute; and these became the sources in sampler instruments for the melodies. I used location recordings of the walks along the sea and record skips from the end of the city pop & Japanese jazz records I was listening to as a backdrop. The piano samples are from public outdoor instrument recorded a couple years ago, and the guitar work was completed this month.

These are the materials used to create the sonic paintings of my memories, please enjoy & thank you for listening.

-Roderick

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