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"Kento Masuda"

Charles Eller (Producer)

Kento is an artist as well as an incredible craftsman at writing highly
imaginative music that defies categorization in a good way.
The music has extremely lush textures that work by defining intricate
themes that evolve throughout each spellbinding composition.

"At the Mercy of the Tones"

Kyoko Jimbo (Curator)

Medieval cathedral bells, the course of the stars circling our galaxy
... The cosmic spaces Kento Masuda creates refer nonchalantly back to
times before the beginning of history, to ages carved in the collective
memory, and lightly leap over infinite time-space continua to bring
portents of the future.

Every detail of his dynamic orchestration makes itself heard, from
singing strings to the subtle keyboard melody to the lingering notes of
a soprano's innocent vibrato. While brimming with human modulations, it
all comes together within a unitary time-space dimension, beautifully
integrated. But in point of fact, every voice he has orchestrated was
forged from digital sounds, created a novo by Kento Masuda himself. The
high and low notes, from a cuckoo clock chiming the hour to the sound of
a screw being turned to percussion that makes the earth resonate, fill
the entire musical scale. It is usual for a recording to have forty
tracks; here, they pass through 100 tracks on their oath to perfection.
How can the result not sound inhuman, the hand of the machine all to
evident? That it does not is the result of the Kento Magic. His methods
are unique-and the results astonishing.

Many people have observed that, listening to Kento's work, they find
themselves visualizing images. Yet his music evokes no specific
images-what colors? what shape? where, in what land?-to flit across my
mind. To me, the delicate sounds Kento has created go beyond such
expressionism to manifest themselves as a chain of aural images
perceived abstractly through their awesome overlapping complexity. They
take on the hues of a savior swirling here from the distant reaches of
outer space, wrapped in an aurora-like veil, fluttering, many layered,
distinct within my consciousness. The aurora's outskirts spread, fold,
and spread again towards far corners of the universe. From the intervals
generated between the melody's phrases, the sound of a bell, calling to
mind a tambourine, rung with utmost precision through Kento's
fingertips, delicately shakes the atmosphere. Those tones fall like Zeus
transformed into the golden rain, faintly and then precisely, from a
distant heavenly heights in a delightful mental stimulus I hope will
never cease.

Did image rule the spirit, in the past, I wonder? I am not speaking from
a religious perspective or about the merely inspirational but about
something that can force open the consciousness to gardens beckoning in
the distant future. Kento's music is constrained by no one-and could not
be constrained. It blazes new paths, connecting our cycle of
transmigration to yet newer time-space continua. Kento's world view
opens the microcosm within my head to the infinite. Would that I could
be enfolded within that incomparably dulcet world forever.

(translated by Ruth S. MaCreery)

"Who actually is Kento Masuda?"

Diana Macs
(Author and Senior Member of Union of Artist "CHAIN OF CRYSTALS")

Who actually is Kento Masuda? Artist, Poet, Composer,
ancient thinker or a philosopher coming from the future
to grant us with his inspiration to build the bridges
between the Old and New World? To move to the new realities
of the 21st century and to free our essence to vibrate
at a higher level. To relax in his musical world means
to travel without fear, in time and space. We are free
to find poetry in the sounds and the colours of Love.
We are free to travel within ourselves and to unlock
the heavy long forgotten doors to our world. We do not
even remember what we keep there ... do not realise
that the biggest asset we have is knowledge of Harmony,
which will free Love to dance among the Light of the future!
The message in the incoming colourful and warm musical
waves gently embraces us and lifts us higher to see
the world we belong to.

"Jealous of Sound"

Naoko Haga (Noted Ballet and Dance Archivist and Historian)

Everyone has his or her own personal "forte". Some have strengths in the
visual medium while others rely upon words and phrases. Some are able to
bring their dreams alive through sound and music. Kento Masuda is
definitely one of the latter. He is a "sound" person. He is a man of
"piece".

While there are many people who make their living in the realm of sound,
it is my opinion that most of these people have forgotten the art of
making the "piece" central to their approach. There are many who dissect
the current !Musical zeitgeist" and flow with the variations that spring
from it. This in and of itself is key by me.

However, it occurred to me that if one has a talent that ignores the
"now" and simply exists in and of itself, then it is akin to a
gargantuan boulder sitting in the middle of a large roaring river,
ignoring the flow and existing in spit of its surroundings. This has a
beauty all its own.

In my profession of researching the history of, and invoking images of
dance, especially ballet, through the printed medium, it is standard to
note that there are many variations to any theme. In the world of
Ballet, it is the "boulders" such as "Swan Lake", "Sleeping Beauty" and
"The Nutcracker Suite" that have stood apart from the rest and have
withstood the tide of changing musical archetypes. These are the rocks
that have refused to change shape throughout the ages and have remained
masterful and unique.

The medium of ballet requires strict adherence to the music and the
choreography. In this sense, it is likely that it will remain unchanged
no matter how much time passes.
I admire those who have the drive, talent and desire to create
compositions of this nature and I applaud the created results.

The Japanese word for music is "Ongaku", consisting of "Ohn" (sound) and
"Gaku" (enjoyment). It is this attitude that I sense strongly within the
music of Kento Masuda. He truly understands the "sound" aspect and the
art of enjoying one's creation. His joy in composing is very prevalent
in his music.

Not merely "sound", but "piece". It is my opinion that great music lasts
throughout history because it's sphere of influence is not relegated by
its mere image that you sense on the surface. This is how Kento's
approaches his art.

Whoever listens to Kento Masuda's art can sense a depth of sound and
image that surpasses the Kento of mere music. His music effect on me of
standing in the middle of the composition and sensing new worlds both
within and without. It is the equivalent of having a heart equipped with
many antennas in the world.

It is not about the movements and changes in the current physical world,
but about the fact that music has the power to break down barriers that
mere words cannot. It is when I think of things of this nature that a
very small flame of jealousy, something that is rare to my nature, rears
its countenance in my heart.

Sometimes I wonder if this is international. If it is, then it
definitely is a bit frightening.

"GlobeSounds"

Haunting landscapes, distant vistas, multiple and parallel worlds, the
ancient and the modern, emotions familiar and mysterious, all so
beautifully conjured by Kento Masuda's "songs of innocence and
experience!" Here is a musical universe with dimensions at once
transitory and eternal. Listening we are transported to a realm whose
origin is sleep and dream. Here is a fantasy and drama; of his method
Fouren- looking into the interstices of sounds, for the end of the
numbers between three and four. Think of the sounds of elemental things
(forces), of fire, water, wind, and earth. Like virtual travel through
the internet, the music of "Externalnet" transports us on a fantastic,
strangely anxious intergalactic journey. We are reminded of Kenji
Miyazawa's marvelous Night of the Milky Way Railroad. Will the vastness
of outer space find a LINUX link sometime soon?

"There are hidden messages in Water which, unlike fire, is so easily
shaped by the nature of its container." Thus Kento's own thoughts about
the partly autobiographical "Falling Water" wherein messages of Love,
Anger and Joy are translated by an orchestra of piccolo, strings,
keyboards, percussion and synthesizers. Visiting the traditional garden
in his house, with its pond and moving water, Kento feels united with
traditional images and linked to the spirit of his part of ancestors-
"Suikin-kutsu."

The music of "Tree", a memorial to his friend and mentor Jerry Smith, is
spun to the sounds of a shakuhachi and a wonderfully heterogeneous
ensemble of voices and Western instruments. Composed "as an owl flies at
dusk, "Air Knows" recalls creative and destructive desires uncovered
during a period of extended sleeplessness. "Halo" is a meditation on
"Justice, truth and the devil" and also a kind of musical self-portrait.
How to reconcile evil, Eros and war? Can we preserve our innocence
through the trials of experience? Thinking about "distant memories of
illness and jubilation, recalled while gliding peacefully in deep space"
led to the creation of one of Kento's most harmonious and unitary works.
A glass harp and Chinese cymbal are woven together in a complicated
rhythmic cycle; eternity is expressed with persistent, oscillating
chordal formations. "Fire" presents a still greater synthesis! Brazen
orchestral effects coexist with delicate eighteenth Century flute riffs,
euphoric Irish fiddling, Old World harmony and hard rock. Almost out of
control natural forces, chafing at boundaries yet strangely united and
focusing their universal energies..." shades of destruction and love... the
fading of one hundred roses and the ignition of my dreams."

"The Tsunami" is dedicated to the survivors of the devastating quakes
that struck Western Asia in December, 2004. Addressing the concept of
Ocean in "A Graceful Deception", Kento draws on the literature of
Atlantis, the lost kingdom under the waves:

There is a beautiful ocean in the night I draw a continent and the sky
Looked at from inside the sea. In "The Eye Of Chaos", Wandering like a
sleepwalker I seemed to fall into a dragon's nest. "Resurrection" I am
the last Samurai!.

"Calling You" begins as a simple affecting ballad. "Conscious of
nothing, yet calling for the ineffable. Calling for a lost presence, a
lost ancestor." Beautiful in its first innocence, the ballad is
developed into a multi-movement miniature symphony. The closing
peroration, reinvoking initial innocence is extraordinarily moving.
"Jane" closes the disc and is played by the composer entirely on the
piano. A vision of springtime and of Japanese cherry trees in bloom.
Beauty flows through the heart, inside the listener."

Notes complied after an interview with Kento Masuda by T.L. Read

"It's All About Perception..."

Robert Dyer (Author)

Let's face it, folks; today's technology has damn near taken the drive
out of music nowadays. I've known Kento Masuda for a while and we were
friends for quite a bit before I heard his music. It didn't really
change my image of him, but it did explain a lot of inconsistencies that
I sensed.

It turned out that the inconsistencies were in my perception, and not in
him. My take on this genre was that it was a bit sterile. It's all
automatic, right? All it takes is a little ingenuity, a bit of talent
and a few choice inspirations, right? Well, yes, to a certain degree. I
realized that it(s merely a tool. In the hands of a genius, a tool can
do wonders.

Kento opened my eyes, including the third one. His orchestrations are
simply not to be believed.

Now having been a writer, a magician, a lyricist, a poet, and quite a
few other things I'd rather not mention here, I have been, first and
foremost a music addict: from thrash metal to Danish baroque and back
again to German Trip-hop.
Having said that, I'd like to impress upon you the impact that this
man's music has made on me.

It's not simply composed; it's textured, kneaded, molded and then ignited.
The layers of meaning that this man puts into his compositions are as
poignant to me as the layers of paint in Picasson's Guernica.

I am quite proud to be included in his circle of friends. It's all
symbiosis. Inspiration needs feeding and Kento will always be the
satellite standard of excellence off which we draw our dreams.
I urge you to get into his music.

It's all about perception, and this alone will tell you why we are so
eager to get together and create.
Just open your mind and let it speak to you. We would all be ennobled if
all of us would think more of art for art's sake.

Anyway, enjoy.

It might help to place yourself in a comfortable position somewhere in
your room...dim the lights a bit...think about someplace nice...press
that key on your remote and...

Tell me all about your trip when you get back!

Bon Voyage.