Sarah Peebles composition, improvisation, shō & electroacoustics
With guest artists:

Takashi Harada - Ondes Martenot improvisation
Kazue Mizushima - music installation & improvised performance
Kō Ishikawa - shō
Yoshida Hiromi - shō & ū
Ikuo Kakehashi - percussion

Innova Recordings (innova 506, 1996).
Download booklet here for album & performances photos, music notes and biographies or see: www.sarahpeebles.net/amber.htm or www.innova.mu

Suspended in Amber is a collection recordings from collaborations developed in 1992-1993 by Sarah Peebles with a wide range of Tokyo-based audio, visual and dance artists. The works here are from studio recordings and live performances involving written composition, "comprovisation", performance-art and free improvisation.

1. Blue Moon Spirit
Sarah Peebles - composition; Kō Ishikawa - shō

2-7. Tomoé (Revolving Life, version 4)
An improvisational tableau for three musicians, calligrapher, temple, and Autumn evening soundscape in six parts.

Sarah Peebles - composition & performance: MIDI keyboard, sampled sounds, electronics, shō, noisemakers
Yoshida Hiromi - shō & ū (revived ancient mouth-organ)
Ikuo Kakehashi - percussion; MIDI Katcontroller, noisemakers
Harumi Kaieda - calligraphy performance (sumi art)

8. Phoenix Calling (Dance version)

Sarah Peebles - composer & shō
Yoshida Hiromi - shō
Ikuo Kakehashi - tuned percussion.
Bugaku percussion ensemble: Haruo Suzuki - o-daiko; Yasuo Yamamura - kakko; Norifumi Shimazu - tsuri-daiko; Aya Motohashi - shōko and keiseki
Andy Morris - claves (taped)
Mie Morimoto - bugaku-inspired choreography & dance

Tracks 2-8 recorded live at “Transforming Temple” concert at Shukohji Temple, Kawasaki, Sept 25, 1993. The “Transforming Temple” concert experience, sequenced to take the audience on a journey from outdoors to indoors and back out again, highlighted the soundscape of Shukohji’s ringing Autumn insects intermingled with acoustic instruments and amplified sound, where shifting placement of the temples’ traditional sliding doors and moving performance locations accentuate the relationships of sound sources.

See the concert poster by Saegusa Yasuyuki / Lunacy at www.sarahpeebles.net/amber.htm. Download booklet here for photos, programme notes & details.

9. Aqua Babble Free Improvisation
Takashi Harada - Ondes Martenot
Kazue Mizushima - music installation
Sarah Peebles - electroacoustics, shô, toys
Recorded live at Studio Kinshicho, Tokyo, June 11 1993.
Concert details in booklet (free download).