Speaking of presents, I gave my wife the James Galway CD entitled The Enchanted Forest: Melodies of Japan. I didn’t know much about Mr. Galway before and only really bought the album because it had a bunch of original compositions by Hiroyuki Fujikake (藤掛廣幸). Mr. Fujikake is a really wonderful composer who blends traditional Japanese stylings with traditional Western classical music. I’m not overly familiar with all his works, but pieces such as Pastoral Fantasy are most excellent. When shopping in Japan, I was surprised to find that his music is not readily available in stores. I guess after hearing his work, I just assumed that he must be pretty popular. Taking another approach, English-language Internet searches generally find him in cahoots with Galway, which led me to this particular CD. Although it seems tricky to find comprehensive resources on Fujikake, its well worth it if you do. On to The Enchanted Forest, though. Galway proves to present some enjoyable, and very relaxing flute-playing, and Fujikake’s music does not disappoint. In addition, there’s some non-Fujikake pieces on the album, which I like, such as “Sakura.” I loaded the CD up on the old X-Box 360, and its been played frequently since Christmas. I might add that my wife seems to like the CD, too; it is her present after all, though I am happy to listen in as well.
Either I didn’t notice this site before, or its just been recently updated, but Muse Factory seems to be the place to go to buy more of Fujikake’s stuff. You can hear a sample of his work, “Wings of Eternity” on the page as it loads. It seems to give a good indication of his style of music with strong Japanese and Western influences.
