The Wind Gave Me This Story「風がくれた物語」SE00-1

 1. 空と風のうた – A Song of Wind and Sky
 2. 白い風 – White Wind
 3. とんび – The Kite
 4. 藍色の子守唄 – Persian Blue Lullaby
 5. スーホの白い馬 – A White Horse in Suho
6. 最後の鷹 – The Last Eagle
 7. ウジムチンの空 – The Sky of Ujumchin

1. 空と風のうた – A Song of Wind and Sky (Music by Miho)

It’s April of 2008, a time when the plants are getting greener and the breeze and sunshine makes you feel really good. Beside my porch, there is a wide canyon, sloping downwards. It used be a rice field – now it’s a field of silver grass. Right in the center a small creek flows, with trees growing beside it. When I listen carefully, I can hear the sound of water flowing. When it’s foggy in the morning, it is just like sea of clouds. “Can this be Ozahara? I murmur in a low voice. “Is this really Yachimata? The town famous for peanuts and sandstorms in spring?” To reach the front of my house, there is a dirt road that you must walk. It makes me feel like it is an entrance to a different dimension. Even the huge peanut fields make me ask myself “Am I in Hokkaido?” It must be, because I, who live, there, say so. On this day, too, I was just looking at the view. Trees moved by the wind and silver grasses moved by the wind, and when the wind came through me, I had an urge to make a song. This some came to me almost at a breath.

2. 白い風 – White Wind (Music by Miho)

In 2007 I was sleeping one night and a melody came to me, along with a scene from my days in high school.
A winter morning. 3 meters of snow. When the weather is fine, the snow’s reflection is too bright. A light is coming down from the skylight high up in a hall. The sound of a pipe organ in the morning gathering itself. The smell of snow. The air that’s cooled. Singing a hymn there. It’s just an ordinary everyday morning scene. It’s more a part of my body than a nostalgic feeling. Yes, that’s right. There is a me who is happy.

3. とんび – The Kite (Music by Miho)

A kite is at the seaside snatching fried bean-curd from people. It is a bad bird. This is one typical image of them. But I like them when they spread their wings and circle as they fly. I can watch them forever. And also I also like the “Peeee Hyoro Hyro” sound that they make. At around the time I made this song, early in the morning at Suwa Lake, I saw a kite flying around the lake. The surface of water was endless and reflective as mirror. I was thinking that the sound would spread straightforward right on the surface of the lake and I felt I wanted to play right then in this transparent time. But I was staying in a ryokan (small hotel) and everyone was still sleeping – surely the sound would reverberate loud, I thought. I decided to control myself. The kite looked like a being that has been protecting the locale for a very long time.

4. 藍色の子守唄 – Persian Blue Lullaby (Music by Chi Borag)

There are many works of Chi Borag that are famous but I always love to play this one. Lullaby of the ocean. I love the ocean. I love swimming too. I imagine it would be fantastic if I could go underwater. The stars must be full of sky and they must be reflected on the surface of the ocean.

5. スーホの白い馬 – A White Horse in Suho (Music by Chi Borag)

Inmorin huur (batohkin) songs, there’s often a rhythm that sounds like a running horse. And it is often said that you can’t play morin huur unless you can ride a horse well. I can ride horses well. Therefore I’m a good morin huur player too…? The story of A White Horse in Suho is a story I read when I was little and the horse is so pitiful that it is a story I don’t want to read again. I thought the morin huur only existed in the story, that it wasn’t real. I was just a kid. That was why, the first time I was invited to a morin huur concert, I said ‘What’s that? Is it some kind of koto? I won’t go!’ And it would be another few years until I met the morin huur again. When I first saw it I wondered, “Is it an instrument made of horse, or an instrument that has a horse on it?” I should have had met the morin huur much earlier!

6. 最後の鷹 – Last Eagle (Music by Miho)

The morin huur has 2 strings. When those 2 strings are played at the same time, it sounds as if there are more than just two. That is perhaps because each string is bundled with more than 100 thin strings together. I wanted to make a song that utilizes this wide sound of 2 strings played together. I feel that this song has the mood of native people dancing.

7. ウジムチンの空 – The Sky of Ujumchin (Music by Miho)

In the Xilingol region of Mongol there is a place called Ujumchin that is famous for the beautiful grassland that I love. I spend every summer there riding horses, practicing morin huur and picking mushroom and flowers. In the summer of 2008, I rode a horse from this Barojumchin grassland all the way to Beijing’s Great Wall. 900 Km. For 9 days. When I was preparing for the trip, I happened to look up at the sky. It was the beginning of sunset – the sky became a golden color. And being wrapped around with that light, I felt a sense of comfort and reassurance: ‘I am just fine!’. I started to feel really happy. And this is the melody that came at that moment. As I was riding my horse, this melody was flowed within me many times and every time it happened, I felt relaxed.

You can Download the CD Booklet in English: (PDF).
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