Music in the Realm of Fireflies: Improvisations for Peace and Healing

This is meditative music, created by a group of Japanese and Japan-based musicians playing Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Korean and Mongolian instruments. At the album’s mid-point, one track, ‘Morning Bell’, is devoted to Buddhist temple bells, their sonorous ringing hanging in the air and pausing time. A cello, a camel bell and a Tibetan singing bowl complete Music in the Realm of Fireflies’ line-up. Those who like shakuhachi improvisations will appreciate opener ‘Zen’ and others will head for the intriguing blends in ‘The Vast Wilderness’ and ‘To the Other Shore’ of Mongolian morinkhuur lute, Korean gayageum, Chinese guzheng and Indian sitar lutes, and the Japanese hichiriki court flute. Other musicians have ploughed much the same territory as the artists here, but in this record all is pleasant and tranquil, never taxing. The evocations of each track description in the liner notes match the improvisations well: ‘ancient [echoes] sung by someone unknown’; ‘the sinuous pose of a lush bodhi tree in the wilderness’; ‘deer wandering on the green grass, chasing the breeze’; and ‘the lotus, bathed in light, blooms serenely.’