Rikuto Fujimoto
Biography Rikuto Fujimoto
Rikuto Fujimoto
Kyoto-raised, Tokyo-based pianist / composer Rikuto Fujimoto, while still only in his final year at TUA (Tokyo University of Arts), has racked up an impressive list of commissions for fashion shows, galleries, museums, and shopping malls (1), plus the odd experimental film score. Extending this already impressive CV, FatCat Records have now signed his debut long-player, Distant Landscapes.
It was a trip to his grandparents’ birthplace that sparked the concept behind the LP. During the visit Fujimoto felt overwhelmed with nostalgia, even though he’d never been there before. This started him wondering about the idea of inherited memory. To illustrate this, in the press release Fujimoto explains the set’s central piece, Framed Memories: “I used an old Steinway on the album. This song came to me the first time I played the instrument”, as if the melody were lying dormant in either the piano or himself.
A Bearing Tree and Afternoon At The Hidden Courtyard are directly inspired by his grandparents’ house. Northern Meadow flashes back to summers Fujimoto would spend with his brother in Ireland. Seashell features “found sounds” sourced at Maizuru Beach and reflects his urban childhood’s fasciation with the ocean, and kids’ dreams of wide open spaces. Similarly, Michikake (Circle Sketch) samples the rustle of autumnal leaves to further colour a number written for a departed pet dog. Fujimoto’s first experience with the cycle of life.
A Table We Used To Gather fondly recalls family dinners. Intersection 1 is interspersed the bustle of busy Tokyo traffic, a snapshot of where Fujimoto finds himself now. Musically, the one-sheet cites Virginia Astley, Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru, Glenn Gould, Grouper, Keith Jarrett, and Yumiko Morioka all as good points of reference, and I wouldn’t, couldn’t disagree.
